Legislative Update from Rep. Frank Iler – December 17, 2016
December 19, 2016
From the Legislature:
Last week in the General Assembly we held two special sessions in four days, we passed a $200 million disaster recovery bill, and we passed election and bureaucratic reform.
Last Tuesday, we were called into session by the Governor to deal with Hurricane Matthew and wildfire disaster relief and recovery. By Wednesday afternoon, we had passed House Bill 2 – Disaster Recovery Act of 2016, a $200 million bill to be distributed through existing agencies to the local counties, municipalities, farmers, and other citizens. Much of it will be used as matching funds for federal FEMA relief funds. We then adjourned the 3rd extra session of 2016.
Also by Wednesday, 73 members of the N.C. House had requested a special session to deal with other timely matters. 31 members of the Senate had also requested a session. Article II, Section 11 (2) of the N.C. Constitution requires the Lieutenant Governor and the Speaker to call us into session if three fifths of the members request it, so they did so on Wednesday afternoon. This was the 4th extra session of 2016.
By Friday, we had passed two major bills and attempted several others. House Bill 17 – Modify Certain Appts/Employment clarifies the authority of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, puts the authority to appoint university trustees back with the General Assembly, establishes 425 exempt positions for the Governor to appoint, puts cabinet appointments back under the advice and consent of the Senate, and establishes a Safer Schools Task Force. The trustees authority is in Article IX, Section 8 of the N.C. Constitution, and the advice and consent of the Senate is in Article III, Section 5 (8). Also, 425 exempt positions is 20 more than the 405 that Gov. McCrory started with 4 years ago. Gov. Cooper can come back and ask for more, as Gov. McCrory had to.
Senate Bill 4 – Bi-Partisan Ethics, Elections, and Court Reform combines several divided agencies, including the State Board of Elections and the State Ethics Commission into an 8 member board split evenly between the two major parties, with four appointed by the Governor and four by the General Assembly. It also requires each county Board of Elections to be 4 members, 2 of each party. The bill also makes the election of Supreme Court justices partisan, the same as the Court of Appeals, and makes tweaks to the procedures of the Court of Appeals and the Industrial Commission.
Some folks are asking why we should make these reforms now. This divided government of a Democrat Governor and Republican supermajorities in the NC House and Senate has never happened before. We thought it important to clarify the constitutional functions and authorities of these two branches, as well as the Judicial branch before the start of our new terms.
Two other bills were passed by the House to assist our schools, but did not pass the Senate. House Bill 10 would have required the Dept. of Transportation to pay for road improvements which may be required outside our schools. This would have relieved our counties from paying for these. House Bill 13 would have given more flexibility to local school districts on Kindergarten – 3rd Grade class sizes when dealing with state requirements. Both of these were sent to the Senate after we passed them. However, we adjourned Friday afternoon before they took them up. They should be introduced again next month when we convene the 2017 General Assembly.
The plan now is for us to convene on January 11th to be sworn in, elect the Speaker, and other organizational formalities. Then, we are scheduled to re-convene on January 25th to start the work of the 2017 session.