Representative Frank Iler – Frank Iler for NC House – Frank Iler Campaign – Elect Frank Iler – Brunswick County – NC – North Carolina

Last week, bills that had been piling up in committees began to be heard and moved to the House floor. Our sessions got longer and longer.  Floor sessions averaged three or four hours.  Some of our committee meetings lasted two hours and handled up to ten bills.  In the House Transportation Committee, we planned on hearing 14 bills on Tuesday, handled 4 of them, and had to call a second meeting to handle the other 10.

House Bill 817 – Strategic Transportation Investments, the Governor’s transportation plan to spend our highway construction funds more efficiently, passed the House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday morning, and went to the floor of the full House on Wednesday.  After some debate, it passed by a bipartisan vote of 96 – 22 on Wednesday and 102 – 15 on Thursday, and it now goes to the Senate.  This was a good example of the committee system.  By the time this bill had been heard in three committees and had been amended or changed several times, it had already been seen by every House member before it got to the floor.  This made passage more certain and thorough than if it had been a surprise bill.

Several more major bills were heard and passed last week.  House Bill 930 – Dog Breeding Standards/Law Enforcement Tools is the “puppy mill” bill for this session.  However, this year a thorough hearing was given to the sporting dog and agricultural interests in the state.  The result was a bill that most in the House could support.  Also, First Lady Ann McCrory took a personal interest in the passage of HB 930, and it passed the House by a vote of 101 – 14.

A very controversial bill on gun laws, House Bill 937 – Amend Various Firearms Laws, passed the House after many attempts at amendments.  The vote was 83 – 36.  This bill reduces the number and requirements on “gun-free zones.”  It lifts some bans on law-abiding citizens, and should make it tougher on criminals intent on harming our citizens.

Two other bills based on fairness passed the House last week.  House Bill 609 – NC Cancer Treatment makes patients’ insurance costs for oral cancer treatments equal to treatments by injection or chemotherapy.  The oral care had been either not covered or had much higher co-pays and other costs. House Bill 101 – Repeal state Tax was very controversial.  It was portrayed as only for the rich, but the intent is to protect family farms from having to be sold off to pay the estate taxes.  It passed by a margin of 83 – 36.

This week the crossover deadline of midnight on Thursday, the 16th, will keep us working late into the night beginning Monday evening.  I expect multiple committee meetings, long agendas, and long floor sessions.  There are still many important bills to be acted upon.  We also expect the budget to come over from the Senate this week, so we can begin our work on it.  To follow us on line go to www.ncleg.net.

As the clouds gathered over Raleigh last week, we were inside in dozens of committee meetings.  Many of our major bills are moving through committees in anticipation of the dreaded crossover deadline.

Crossover means a bill must pass the House or Senate, and be received by the other chamber.  The deadline for this to happen is May 16^th.  Bills that do not make the crossover deadline will not be heard this session.  Finance and Appropriations bills, such as the budget bill, are not subject to this deadline.

One of the main bills heard in committees last week was House Bill 817 Strategic Transportation Investments.  This is the new funding strategy, which began with Governor McCrory and Transportation Secretary Tata.  The bill was first presented in the House Transportation committee on Tuesday and passed unanimously.  I chaired the meeting and Representative Bill Brawley, a primary sponsor, presented it.  On Thursday we were in the House Finance committee where I assisted Representative Brawley in presenting HB 817.  It now goes to the House Appropriations committee on Tuesday of this week, and we hope it is passed by the full House by the end of the week.

House Bill 817 Divides Funds in Highway Trust Fund into three categories:  Statewide projects, regional projects and divisional projects.  Statewide projects will be data-driven and regional and division projects will be driven by a combination of data and local input.  It should be a more efficient way of spending our shrinking transportation dollars.

The 10-year projection of population and available funds shows an increase of 1.3 million people, but a decrease of $1.7 billion in Highway Trust Fund construction money.  Changing to this method of funds allocation should produce an increase in the number of projects from 174 to over 260, as well as push the projected number of jobs from 174,000 to over 240,000.

On other major bills:  The Voter Photo ID bill is currently in the Senate Rules committee.  The Budget and Tax Reform bills are in the Senate awaiting final action before coming to the House.  Several Regulatory Reform bills are being acted upon prior to the cross-over deadline next week.  For more information, please visit the General Assembly website at www.ncleg.net.

It seems as if the days and weeks are flying by faster in Raleigh as we take up more bills in committee and on the House floor.  Committees are often back-to-back, and appointments with constituents and lobbyists squeezed in between.  Frequently, we have to excuse ourselves from one committee meeting to present one of our bills before another committee.  It makes for an exhilarating schedule, and one has to pace oneself to avoid exhaustion.

A particularly welcome meeting last week was the visit by the Brunswick County Association of REALTORS®.  About thirty of our Brunswick REALTORS® met with me at noon on Wednesday for almost an hour.  BCAR Executive Director Steve Candler arranges these meetings with Senator Rabon and me each year during the week that the N.C. Association of REALTORS® has their meeting in Raleigh.  We are able to discuss topics ranging from taxes to tourism, and dozens of other topics impacted by the legislation before us this session.  It is always a great time to communicate and renew friendships.

The biggest topic in the news last week was once again the voter photo ID bill, House Bill 589 – Voter Information Verification Act (VIVA).  After previous votes in the Elections Committee and Finance Committee, it came to the Appropriations Committee on Tuesday morning.  About eight more amendments were attempted and mostly voted down before it passed this committee 58 – 29, and was sent to the House floor.  Finally, on Wednesday, we had an extended floor debate, acted on 10 more amendments which were mostly defeated, and passed HB 589 by a vote of 81 – 36.  All Republicans present voted for it, as well as five Democrats.  This bill has been a work in progress for at least three years, and it was rewarding to finally have a photo ID bill that over two-thirds of the people and their representatives can agree on.  HB 589 went to the Senate on Thursday, where it was sent to the Senate Rules committee.

The Coastal Caucus, made up of coastal members of the House and Senate of both parties, is now meeting early Thursday mornings each week to coordinate our efforts on bills concerning dredging, beach nourishment, insurance rates, and other issues important to the coast.  A key bill on inter-basin transfer of water could affect our county water and sewer systems in the future and save millions of dollars for coastal counties.  This deals with transferring water from one river basin to another.  It is very controversial across the state, but of course, there is no one downstream from our coastal counties.

This week we expect to have very full committee agendas and long floor sessions.  I will be chairing the House Transportation Committee on Tuesday, and we have six bills on the agenda.  We will be discussing the new transportation financing plan announced by Governor McCrory last week.  We will have to pass a bill soon to give DOT the authority to implement the plan.  It should be a spirited and thorough process and debate.

For more information on any of these bills, committee information, or information on House and Senate members, go to the General Assembly website at www.ncleg.net.

The first real week of Spring in Raleigh was very warm, with highs in the 80’s and activity at the General Assembly continuing to heat up.  The Voter ID bill was debated for three and one half hours in the House Elections committee, the Governor announced a dramatic new transportation plan, and bills that had been filed were introduced in the House at a dizzying pace and sent to committees.  Our committee agendas got longer as we planned how to bills heard, voted on, and back to the House floor.

Governor Pat McCrory has been inviting small groups of legislators to the Governor’s Mansion.  Tuesday morning was my turn to join a round table discussion with him, two other Representatives, a Senator, and two high-ranking members of the Governor’s staff.  We heard some of the challenges and opportunities of his first hundred days in office.  Halfway through our time together he turned to us and asked each of us to tell him about our issues “back home”.  We talked about education, transportation, and environmental issues, which are similar in most of the state.  However, I brought up concerns about inlet dredging, beach renourishment, coastal insurance rates, and other issues important to our area.  Another coastal legislator there agreed on most of the points I raised.  It was a unique opportunity to share our concerns with the Governor.  He has been extremely open with the legislature, and makes sure to include us in policy discussions with him, his staff, and his cabinet members.

Wednesday is usually filled with committee meetings, and last week was more active than usual.  However, the highlight of a busy day was a visit by 37 students from Civics and Government classes at South Brunswick High School.  Teachers Jennie Bryan and Greg Bland brought them for tours of the legislature and museums, as well as a chance for me to speak with them and have them introduced as visitors in the gallery of the House by Speaker Tillis.  It was a great joy to see them in Raleigh.

The voter ID bill consumed most of Wednesday afternoon.  After the nine hours of public hearings that we had during the past few weeks, we finally came to the House Election Law Committee Wednesday to debate and vote on House Bill 589 – VIVA (Voter Information Verification Act).  After two hours of debate and the offering of many amendments, we had to break to go to the House session.  Then we returned to continue for another hour and a half.  We heard about fifteen amendments, defeated most of them, and finally passed it out on a roll-call partisan vote of 23 – 11.  It was heard in the House Finance Committee early Thursday morning, voted out on a partisan vote of 18 – 10, and now goes to the House Appropriations Committee early Tuesday morning this week.  As a member of that committee, I will be again debating and voting for it, and it should be in the full House for a vote by mid-week.

Thursday morning several of us were invited to attend a major announcement by the Governor on transportation policy.  Senator Rabon and I joined other House and Senate Transportation Committee chairs at the announcement.  Governor McCrory and Transportation Secretary Tony Tata announced a major plan to spend our transportation dollars more efficiently.  It is called the “Strategic Mobility Fund”, and bases the statewide projects on data to increase mobility and spur economic growth.  Our funds are not projected to keep up with our needs in transportation, so this is an effort to stretch the dollars and achieve more “connectivity.”  We will be modifying some of our bills to help accomplish these goals.  The regional and district projects will still have much local input.

Almost all of my committees met last week, including House Transportation, which I chaired on Tuesday, Education, Environment, Elections, and Regulatory Reform subcommittee on Environment. I was appointed by the Speaker to Co-Chair the Joint Oversight Committee on Transportation which meets mainly in the interim between sessions to review transportation policy and DOT.

As I left Raleigh last Thursday afternoon so many bills had been filed in the House and Senate that there was a backlog in the clerk’s office, and the deadlines for filing had been extended.  However, the deadlines have now passed for all bills except Appropriations and Finance bills, which of course, includes the budget bill to come later.  The total number of bills filed is almost 2000, equally divided between the House and Senate.

The voter photo ID bill was finally filed April 4th and read onto the House floor last Monday.  It is House Bill 589 – Voter Information Verification Act or the shorter title of VIVA.  The public hearing on the bill was held on Wednesday from 4:00 p.m. until after 8:00 p.m.  This hearing was somewhat different from the first one held several weeks ago.  Previously, most of the speakers who signed up were against the expected bill, while this time the speakers were mostly for the bill.  A group called the Voter Integrity Project spoke of many instances of observed voter fraud and suspicious activity that were never investigated or prosecuted.  We expect a vote this week on House Bill 589 in the House Elections Committee, of which I am a member.  It has over 60 sponsors and should pass the House easily.

A more controversial bill was filed last Wednesday and sent to the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday.  House Bill 786 – RECLAIM NC Act is the immigration bill that the House has been working on since last year.  RECLAIM stands for Reasonable Enactment of Comprehensive Legislation Addressing Immigration Matters.  There are provisions in this bill that many people will like and many will dislike.  It offers restricted driving permits to some illegal residents with clear markings they are not citizens.  It will require them to have insurance and increases penalties for false documents.  Law enforcement officers could now verify citizenship status of persons stopped for other infractions. This is the Arizona-style provision that many wanted and many others didn’t.  It increases the use of E-verify by employers, but allows exemptions for seasonal work.  It will make the use of the Matricula Consular card or other consular-issued documents unacceptable.  There are many other provisions in the bill.  We expect a lot of debate and amendments on this bill before passage.

While these two bills are getting most of the attention in Raleigh, there are so many other key bills that I can’t list but a sample.  There was a long debate on House Bill 392 – Share Arrest Warrant Status/Public Assistance.  This bill requires that the DSS offices check to see if someone who is applying for benefits is a fleeing felon with an outstanding arrest warrant.  It passed 96 – 22 on Tuesday, was amended, and passed 106 – 6 on Thursday.  It now goes to the Senate.

House Bill 156 – Honest Lottery Act requires the lottery commission to advertise the odds of winning in their advertising and eliminates advertising to college students.  It passed 99 – 12 and now goes to the Senate.  Senate Bill 709 – Allow DOT to set Max. Speed of 75 MPH passed the Senate Thursday on a vote of 45 – 1, and now comes over to the House this week.

We expect long committee meetings this week to deal with all the bills that have been filed.  In the House Transportation Committee, which I will be chairing, we will hear the “Moped Bill” for the second time and expect to vote on it.  The committee has a full agenda of other bills for Tuesday, as well as many others waiting to be heard.  All the other committees on which I sit will have long meetings this week.  For a full list of my committees and their agendas visit the General Assembly website at www.ncleg.net.

The big news last week in Raleigh was the long-awaited presentation of the Voter ID bill, which requires a photo ID to vote.  We also had a large number of bills filed as deadlines for local and state- wide bills come and go.

The House Elections Committee heard from two experts on photo ID voting on Wednesday.  As a member of that committee, I got to ask several questions.  The Georgia Secretary of State presented his state’s experience with photo IDs since 2006.  Georgia is similar in population and voter registration to North Carolina.  In spite of the dire predictions of up to 600,000 people who may not have a photo ID, Georgia has issued only 29,600 since 2006 to persons without a photo ID previously.  One of the arguments we have heard for three years is that it will unduly impact minorities, elderly, etc.  Minority voting has gone up dramatically in both presidential election years and in non-presidential years in his state.  I asked a question about whether they have same-day registration.  The answer was “No, we must register 30 days before Election Day.”

Another expert that followed was the Leon County, Florida, election director (think Tallahassee).  In his very large county and state, they have a digital data base of voters, so that poll workers can instantly spot people trying to vote in more than one precinct anywhere in the state.  I also asked him about same-day voting and got a “No, we have to register 29 days before Election Day.”  The reason I asked this question was our questionable practice of allowing registration the same day as early voting.

This week we will have another public hearing on voter photo ID, which is scheduled for 4:00 p.m. Wednesday.  At least 50 people have already signed up to speak, so we may be in committee for four hours, like the last public hearing.  Note: 30 states already have a form of ID when one goes to vote. Many of those require a photo ID.  Many people in our area have moved from states with a photo ID to vote, and are surprised and disappointed that we don’t yet have it.

Thursday there was a press conference on the voter ID bill called by the House Speaker and Election Committee members.  The proposed bill is being filed, and has three major parts.  First, if you have an acceptable photo ID when you go to vote, you present it and walk in and vote.  Second, if you don’t have one, you vote a provisional ballot, which is checked out prior to canvass day, ten days after Election Day.  If you are eligible to vote, then your vote is counted at that time, before the election is certified.  Provisional ballots are used now if the voter is in the wrong precinct or if his/her registration is in question.  The third part of the bill deals with absentee ballots, makes the process less confusing and at the same time makes it more secure.

We have had about 600 bills filed in the House and slightly more than 600 in the Senate.  A major tax reform bill was filed in the Senate that lowers state income taxes.  Others deal with streamlining regulation, education policies, transportation policies including ferries, and many other areas in which laws are being changed, repealed, or streamlined to better serve the public.  I have co-sponsored many of these bills on the House side.  One bill of local interest which we passed in the House last week was House Bill 294 – Authority to Remove Abandoned Vessels.  This gives Brunswick and Dare Counties the right to remove boats that have been abandoned, sunk at the dock, or pose a threat to navigation.  For more information you can go to the General Assembly website at www.ncleg.net .

Due to deadlines coming up in early April, the General Assembly last week saw a flurry of bills being filed.  Our committees began meeting on a more regular basis to consider many more bills.  We also had many groups from back home visiting with us.

On Tuesday the House Finance Committee heard a local bill I sponsored for Holden Beach and Ocean Isle Beach.  It was House Bill 229 – Holden Beach/Canal Dredging District Fee which did not increase any fees, but allowed Holden Beach and Ocean Isle Beach to accumulate the existing fees for ten years instead of five years.  Their canal dredging is done as needed, which is approximately every three years.  This helps the towns to plan and to better contract for the dredging services.  The bill was approved and went to the House floor on Wednesday, where it passed on a unanimous voice vote and was sent to the Senate.

Several interesting bills passed the House on Tuesday:

• House Bill 250:  Charter School Enrollment expanded the enrollment to include siblings and keep families together.
• House Bill 17:  Gun Permits/Confidentiality prevents the publication of Sheriff department information on gun permit holders, which includes concealed carry permit holders.
• House Bill 181:  Physician Supervision Required/Nurse Anesthetist put into statute the practice of a nurse anesthetist being under physician supervision during surgery.

These bills all passed on bipartisan votes of 90 or more votes out of 120.

Again, on Thursday, two interesting bills passed the House unanimously:

• House Bill 223:  Electric Membership Corporations/Member Control exempts the electric cooperatives like Brunswick Electric from some of the Utilities Commissions reporting requirements and puts them under member control.
• House Bill 297:  Matching Funds Repeal is part of our election reform, but actually brings our laws in line with court rulings on matching rescue funds for judicial races and others.

Wednesday was Town Hall Day, and it was great to see officials from back home, including Southport, Boiling Spring Lakes, and from my former district, Belville and Navassa.  Board of Education members, Shirley Babson, Catherine Cooke, and John Thompson were welcome visitors, in addition to Superintendent Dr. Ed Pruden.

We were happy on Thursday to see the officials from the Azalea Festival visiting us, along with the queen’s court.  They are always gracious and do a great job promoting the Azalea Festival across North Carolina.

This week you may look forward to more bills being filed to beat our deadlines.  Bills on election reform and immigration may be filed in the House.  The Senate is working on the budget, and you may see a bill on tax modernization soon from our Senators.  For additional information on what we are doing you can go online to http://www.ncleg.net.

Last Monday, the legislature, both the House and Senate, met in the old Capitol building, two blocks from the legislative building.  The occasion was the tenth anniversary of the recovery of North Carolina’s copy of the original Bill of Rights.  Most people don’t know that North Carolina refused to ratify the U.S. Constitution until the Bill of Rights was included.  George Washington sent a copy of the proposed Bill of Rights to each of the thirteen colonies for their ratification, or approval.  North Carolina’s copy was housed in the old Capitol building until the civil war, when one of Sherman’s Union soldiers, camped on the Capitol grounds, stole it and took it home.  After being hidden, there were several attempts to sell it over the years.  On March 18, 2003, as it was being offered for sale in Philadelphia, North Carolina’s Bill of Rights was seized by federal authorities in a joint federal and state operation.  So, Monday night was the tenth anniversary of the recovery of our copy of the Bill of Rights. It is now housed in the NC Museum of History and is valued at around $30 million.

Our other House sessions were taken up with bills concerning habitual DWI penalties, tanning bed regulations, local zoning issues, home schooling definitions, charter school enrollment policies, substitute teacher pay, and many others.  They were not highly controversial, and most passed the House with over 100 votes of the 120 members.  The zoning bill had the most debate, but passed by 98 – 18 with a bi-partisan vote.

Wednesday we voted for the UNC Board of Governors.  There was much debate about the process, but the vote to select 8 from a group of 14 candidates went smoothly.  However, it was discovered when the journal was reviewed for accuracy that a miscount had occurred.  On Thursday it was necessary to reconsider the vote, recount, and confirm the new totals, which changed the eighth position.  It was an unfortunate error, but the process allowed for it to be corrected in a timely manner.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were filled with committee meetings. In my case this included Education, Transportation, Environment, and several Appropriations meetings.  In the Transportation Committee, which I chair, we have considered two very controversial bills.  One deals with motorcycle helmets, and the other with school bus speed limits.  We have discussed them thoroughly, but have not yet passed them out of committee.

Early Thursday we were called to a Joint Appropriations Committee meeting with the House and Senate members meeting together to hear a presentation of Governor McCrory’s budget.  For two hours we heard an outline of what he is proposing.  It contains expenditures of approximately $20.6 billion per year for the next two years, July 1, 2013 – June 30, 2015.  It has no new taxes, raises teacher pay, state employee pay, and retiree cost of living adjustment (COLA) by 1%, and requires all departments to seek efficiencies in cost of 3 to 5%.

The budget is a work in progress.  It will be analyzed, changed, and rewritten by the Senate first, and then the House.  The process could take up to two months, so there may be many adjustments before the final budget bill is agreed to by the House and Senate and sent to the Governor for his signature.

Everyone who read the newspapers and other media outlets last week saw that the biggest topic in Raleigh was Voter ID.  We had public hearings in the House Elections Committee for over four hours on Tuesday.  We also had hearings on Wednesday featuring a panel of experts.  The committee members, including myself, got to ask questions of the five panel members for almost two hours.

We went through a similar process in the 2011-2012 session, when we passed a bill, only to have the Governor veto it.  The process this session is to let everyone have his/her say, pass a bill, and then finally have a law requiring a photo ID to vote.  This bill is expected to have a process using the provisional ballot for anyone who does not have his/her photo ID on Election Day.  The provisional ballot is already used when someone is in the wrong voting place or may not be properly registered in the county.  It gives the Board of Elections time to check out the voter’s right to vote in the county before their vote is actually counted on canvass day, 10 days after Election Day.

As anxious as I am to have a photo ID voting law, I am supportive of this deliberate process. The citizens of North Carolina in poll after poll have supported a photo ID to vote, from 60% in the liberal-leaning polls to 80% in the more conservative-leaning polls.  Of over 90 speakers at Tuesday’s public hearing about 80% were opposed to a photo ID to vote.  Almost all of them were from the Raleigh-Durham area and most represented groups that raise money to oppose our agenda.  Of those in favor of a photo ID, most had worked at the polls and observed what actually goes on.  I am aware that a large majority of our citizens back home, in my case that’s Brunswick County, support a photo ID to vote.  Many come from one of the more than 30 states that have it, and are shocked that we do not.

Besides our House floor sessions and committee meetings last week, we had the electric cooperative representatives in town.  I was happy to see the board members and CEO of Brunswick Electric (BEMC) on Tuesday and Wednesday, as we reviewed the legislation in which they are interested, as well as renewed our friendships.  These folks truly represent the members of their organization and want to constantly improve the service offered through BEMC.  Other visitors last week included representatives of the county-wide and state-wide homeowners associations.  Some of the most active people in HOA legislative advocacy across the state are from right here in Brunswick County.  I had multiple meetings with them on Monday and Wednesday.

Several people have asked me to make a statement about an issue that has become very negative in Brunswick County in the past two weeks.  The Insurance Commissioner announced a settlement on homeowners’ insurance rates that, once again, unfairly targets the coast with ridiculously high rates.  This is based on a rate filing last year by the Rate Bureau, which represents the industry.  The Commissioner stated in a speech to realtors here in the county that this would “Not happen on my watch.”, and then scheduled hearings in June, 2013.  This settlement cut that short. This was totally between the Rate Bureau and the Commissioner, and does not involve the Legislature.  The Commissioner is elected by the people and answers to no one, not even the Governor.

Last session, I served on a joint committee to address these issues.  We finalized our report in early May, 2012, and Sen. Harry Brown of Onslow County introduced a bill that covered some of our recommendations.  However, the one that we wanted that was not in the bill is to require the Rate Bureau in their filings to use loss history instead of fictitious models of coastal catastrophes.  This would show that losses in the Piedmont and Western NC are greater, and that the coast is being unfairly treated.  This had no support except among coastal legislators.  Until the people rise up against this treatment by the Commissioner and Piedmont/Western NC legislators, we are hostage to this system.

The weather is supposed to warm up in Raleigh, as well as here in Brunswick County.  The political activity in Raleigh is definitely heating up.  Over 150 new bills were filed last week in the House and Senate, and several issues that seemed to be lukewarm started to boil.

The week began Monday night with the final House vote on Senate Bill 10 – Government Reorganization and Efficiency Act.  This is the bill that shortens the terms for many members of state commissions and boards and eliminates some overlapping commissions.  It went back to the Senate the next day and they did not agree to the changes the House made.  A conference committee has been appointed to work out the differences.  This has been a very controversial bill.

Tuesday morning was highlighted by a news conference by the House Speaker and the Elections Committee Chairman on “Photo ID for Voters.”  This subject has been around for several years, a large majority of North Carolinians are for it, but we failed to override Governor Perdue’s veto last session.  The process to craft a new bill for introduction was discussed at the news conference.  Hearings will be held once again to receive public and expert input, a bill will be filed around April 1st, and we could have a voter photo ID system in place by November.

Tuesday and Wednesday were full of meetings with many citizens and groups on dozens of subjects.  Hospitals, home schoolers, automobile dealers, wildlife and farming interests, were busy in scheduled and unscheduled meetings, as well as many others.  I was involved in informal called conferences on two hot topics: proposed drivers licenses for the alien DACA applicants and proposed solutions to the ferry toll issue.

Many local bills are being filed and others are being researched.  I filed a bill for Holden Beach, House Bill 229 – Holden Beach/Canal Dredging District Fee, which is not a new fee, but allows them to accumulate their canal dredging funds for a longer period of time.

People are surprised when they observe how often we vote unanimously on an issue.  We had a bill on the House floor Thursday which has received national attention, and has passed in many states.  House Bill 149 – Caylee’s Law/Report Missing Children is named after Caylee Anthony and requires that anyone with knowledge of a missing or deceased child who does not report it faces serious felony charges.  This was in response to the Florida case in which Caylee was missing for months before being reported.  The vote on this bill, which I co-sponsored, was 113 – 0.

This week we expect the public debate over voter photo ID to heat up in hearings before the House Elections Committee, on which I serve, as well as in the media.  Other important issues, which are being worked out in House/Senate conference committees, should be coming back to us for votes and then on to Governor McCrory’s desk.