Legislative Update from Rep. Frank Iler – June 22, 2015
Last week in the North Carolina General Assembly the House passed a gun rights bill after much debate, we passed a bill improving the Voter ID system for 2016, we passed a bill benefiting our local government’s health plans, and the Senate passed their version of the state budget.
The weather in Raleigh last week continued to be very hot outside with record temperatures and humidity. The debate on such issues as the gun rights bill and the budget kept temperatures inside at a high level, also.
House Bill 562 – Amend Firearm Laws came to us with provisions with which our sheriffs and others disagreed, so there was much debate on Tuesday and Wednesday on this bill. There was a provision to eliminate the pistol permits which are issued by sheriffs. This was due to some sheriffs denying them for minor reasons. The Sheriffs’ Association and our sheriff were against this, so I sided with the vote to take this part out. A provision to allow legislators to carry concealed weapons on the floor of the House and Senate was also amended out. I voted for the final bill, which passed 78 – 37, and will now go to the Senate.
House Bill 836 – Election Modifications was a bill that had passed the House and Senate before. It came back as a conference report and had to be adopted again due to changes by one or both houses. A controversial provision was included that allows someone who has their Voter ID lost or stolen to fill out a form and a provisional ballot, which will not be counted until it is confirmed that they were eligible to vote. This is also for someone who says that DMV would not issue a free ID to them. Some are coming forward with this claim, which we believe in many cases may be false, and an attempt to undermine the Voter ID law in court. We believe this provision in which a form must be filled out and a provisional ballot sealed until the Board of Elections verifies that they are eligible to vote will improve the system. It is a felony to lie on this form. The ballots will be determined to be valid or not by the canvass date, which is normally ten days after Election Day. The bill passed the House and Senate by large margins, 104 – 3 and 44 – 2 respectively.
A local bill to add Southport town employees to the state health plan turned into a statewide bill, which passed Thursday. I introduced House Bill 154 – Local Governments in State Health Plan in March for Southport. After that three other similar bills were introduced for other towns and others wanted to add their towns to our bills. So, the Senate, in its wisdom, amended our bill to include any town that wants to join, up to a cap of 10,000 employees. The towns have to pay the premiums, but save money by getting a better rate. The towns that have joined in the past have not cost the state any more money. It passed 97 – 16. The Senate finished their version of the budget on Thursday. We expect to begin negotiations with them this week.
It was a real pleasure to have a page from South Brunswick High School last week. Mandee Schaub did an outstanding job as a House page. It was great to see her parents, Michael and Fauna Schaub, also. We have attended church together since Mandee was one year old.