Legislative Update from Rep. Frank Iler – July 27, 2015

Last week in the North Carolina House of Representatives we passed a bill to protect historic monuments, we handled two bills dealing with coastal issues, we took up a major regulatory reform bill and we continued to work on the budget.

While the weather in Raleigh last week was very hot, sticky, and unsettled, the debate inside the legislative building was hot, unsettled, and sometimes sticky. Monday night the House took up Senate Bill 22 – Historic Artifact Management and Patriotism Act, which prescribes the proper treatment of the flags of United States and North Carolina, as well as protects state monuments from local action designed to remove them. A simple bill to protect the monuments to honor all veterans and heroes, and that passed the Senate 48 – 0, became a political football in the House. The recent incident in Charleston was brought into the debate and many of my colleagues had to make their points, even though the bill had nothing to do with the confederate flag or specifically confederate monuments. The bill passed 67 – 41 on Monday night, went through much more debate on Tuesday, and then passed a final vote 70 – 39.

Also on Monday, I was able to present House Bill 478 – Brunswick Cty/Navigable Waters to a Senate committee. Having already passed the House, it gives the county the authority to manage the activity of boats on waters inside the county limits when state and federal authorities refuse to do so. For example, boats that anchor for free and use county park facilities or boats that sink at their mooring can be required to move or can be removed by county authorities. It passed the local government committee unanimously Monday and is now in the Senate Transportation Committee.

The other coastal bill was Senate Bill 374 – Modify For-Hire License Logbook Requirement which actually repealed the requirement that recreational and commercial fishermen keep a logbook of every fish caught. This was deemed to be an overly burdensome requirement and the bill passed 78 – 24 to do away with it.

House Bill 765 – Regulatory Reform Act of 2015 had previously passed the House as a short simple bill, but was sent back from the Senate as a 58 page complex bill. The House voted 99 – 0 on Wednesday to not concur with it, which means it will to a conference committee to work out the differences.

Work continued on the budget last week with meetings among the House appropriations chairs and a review of revenue projections and public input on Wednesday. The revenue review and public input took place on Wednesday during a meeting of the full House Appropriations Committee. Our staff economist, Dr. Barry Boardman showed charts indicating that our revenue and spending (since they have to balance) is approximately $3 billion below what population growth and inflation would indicate. This means that instead of raising an extra $3 billion in taxes for a $25 billion budget that we have held the line at $22 billion. This is $3 billion a year that our citizens have kept to spend on their families and their small businesses, instead of sending it to Raleigh.

Public input at this meeting came from local mayors from Huntersville, Greensboro, and Morrisville, as well as two school superintendents. The mayors were concerned about the proposed sales tax redistribution plan in the Senate budget. The superintendents spoke in favor of the House budget position to retain the Teacher Assistants, veteran teacher pay, and enhancing principal advancement. We expect more public input this Wednesday in front of this committee, perhaps from teachers, principals, and other concerned citizens.