Legislative Update from Rep. Frank Iler – March 9, 2015
We returned to a full schedule after two weeks of rough weather, we heard from the Chief Justice on the State of the Judiciary, and we passed two important bills for economic development and transportation infrastructure maintenance.
The week started with an invitation to Chief Justice Mark Martin to address a joint session of the NC House and Senate. He was to deliver a State of the Judiciary address, a tradition which was suspended in 2001. The House also passed Senate Bill 14, which provided funds for the Academic Standards Review Commission and other commissions which we had previously set up and not adequately funded to do their jobs. It also corrected a provision in the “coal ash bill” that will help our farmers and others with small dams that have nothing to do with coal ash. This bill passed the House overwhelmingly 116 – 1. Tuesday, we resumed a full schedule of committees. The Joint Appropriations Committee on Transportation restarted our daily early morning meetings. Senator Rabon and I are two of the co-chairs of this committee. We have our morning coffee together while getting fully up to date on NCDOT. This is very important to us, so that we can help write the transportation budget in a few weeks.
Our full House Transportation Committee had our first meeting on Tuesday. This is the committee that debates, amends, and passes transportation bills before they go back to the House floor for final votes. We had three bills dealing with the definition of new three-wheel enclosed vehicles, making it easier for military veterans to get a special license plate, and legally passing slow moving vehicles. We had good debates, passed the first two, and displaced (put a hold on) the third. As a previous chairman, I chaired this first meeting, and got back into the experience of handling committee debate.
Wednesday’s House session began at two p.m. and lasted until about seven. At four o’clock we were honored to hear the State of the Judiciary address in a joint session with the Senate. Chief Justice Mark Martin reminded us of the cuts the NC justice system has made over the last decade, and that more resources from the budget are needed to bring on the new technologies and personnel to efficiently run the Judiciary branch. It was great to greet our Sheriff and some of our area judges, who were in attendance.
Two major bills were debated on the House floor Wednesday. House Bill 117 – NC Competes Act restores some of the economic development funds that previous budgets had eliminated, so that the Governor and the Commerce Department can better recruit new industries to the state. Senate Bill 20 – IRC Update/Motor Fuels Tax Changes reduces the state gas tax to 36 cents per gallon and flattens it at that rate for the remainder of 2015. This will force us to come up with a better plan to fund road maintenance and construction prior to the end of this year’s session. These bills required two-day votes. House Bill 117 passed 87 – 32 Wednesday and 88 – 29 on Thursday. Senate Bill 20 passed 70 – 47 and 72 – 42. Both these bills were bi-partisan in debate and in the voting.
The Governor’s budget came to us late Thursday, and we will have a full briefing on it Tuesday morning in the full Appropriations Committee.