Legislative Update from Rep. Frank Iler – Aug. 24, 2015
Last week in the North Carolina House of Representatives we sent a Medicaid reform bill to a conference committee to be renegotiated, we also sent a sales tax and economic incentives bill to conference, we finally approved the unemployment insurance reform bill, and continued to wait on budget target amounts.
While the hot weather turned to rain last week in Raleigh, we rained on a couple of bills sent from the Senate, as we sent them to conference committees. The first, House Bill 372 – Medicaid Transformation/Health Information/Exchange/Primary Care/Funds, is a reform bill for Medicaid. We voted 115 – 0 to NOT concur, which means that it will go to a conference committee of Senators and Representatives to be renegotiated. The House is more in favor of a provider-controlled system, and the Senate leans toward a commercially controlled system. I believe that a hybrid system may come out of the negotiations. We have been making progress getting costs under control, but have a way to go.
The other bill on which we voted to NOT concur was House Bill 117 – NC Competes Act. The bill as sent to the Senate was an economic incentives package that would enable the Governor and Secretary of Commerce to use various funds to attract new businesses to the state. When it came back for our concurrence it also contained a sales tax redistribution plan that would hurt Brunswick County and other sales tax producing counties. The House rejected it 111 – 2 and it goes to a conference committee to be renegotiated.
The unemployment insurance bill, Senate Bill 15 – Unemployment Insurance Law Changes, was back up last week for its final vote, known as third reading. It not only requires 5 visits to employers per week instead of 2, it also shores up the reserve fund to prevent the kind of debt that was incurred in the past. This should reduce the unemployment insurance rates paid by businesses for their employees. It passed 83 – 27. Speaker Tim Moore praised the move in a press release. He said, “Reforming the Unemployment Insurance Law allows us to both prepare for tough times and suspend a burdensome surcharge on businesses.”
Again last week we thought that we may have to work over the weekend on our section of the budget. Again we were told the leaders of the appropriations committees had not arrived at target spending numbers. So we will find out Monday if we can proceed to hastily finalize our budget. In my case, it is the transportation section, which we have reviewed several times in order to be ready to finish. Once each section is done, the total budget can be assembled and voted up or down.
Two other items that involved me personally were a transportation bill and a letter concerning our marine fisheries. House Bill 268 – Amend Transportation Laws came back from our conference committee, and as the primary sponsor I had to present it on the floor. It is fairly technical and contained requests from the department. I presented it Tuesday on the House floor and it passed 104 – 5.
A group of coastal Senators and Representatives, including me, sent a letter to the Secretary of the Dept. of Environment and Natural concerning a move by the Marine Fisheries Commission to reduce the taking of flounder by commercial fishermen. We believe there is insufficient data that the flounder stocks are in trouble to warrant this move. Flounder seem plentiful, and I enjoy having them in restaurants for $10. I wouldn’t want to pay $50 or not get them at all. I am sure this doesn’t make everyone happy, but what we do rarely does.