Legislative Update from Rep. Frank Iler – Feb. 21, 2011

Each week at the General Assembly in February seems to be busier than the previous week.  More bills are coming out of committee and to the House and Senate floor each day.  Committees are meeting more frequently to get their work done.

Last week began with Governor Perdue’s State of the State address on Monday night.  She announced that her budget would include a reduction in the corporate tax rate from 6.9% to 4.9%.  She also announced a Career-College Scholarship that would give a two year scholarship to NC high school graduates that met certain criteria.  There was no indication how it would be paid for in the budget.  We support the reduction in the corporate tax rate, which takes North Carolina from the highest rate in the Southeast to the lowest.  This makes NC more competitive in attracting new businesses and in retaining the businesses that we have.

We actually received the budget on Thursday.   It retains 3/4 cents of the temporary 1 cent sales tax that was scheduled to expire on June 30 of this year.  It also appears to be a billion dollars short of balancing, if the tax is allowed to expire.  The House will begin to examine the budget and work on different areas this week to craft our own budget that balances without the sales tax.  All six of the joint appropriations sub-committees will be meeting every morning to work on the budget.

Several bills of interest came to the floor last week:

House Bill 48 – No Standardized Testing Unless Required by Feds discontinues four separate end-of-grade tests in high school that teachers deem unnecessary.  There are still tests that conform to the federal requirements.

House Bill 2 – Protect Health Care Freedom passed the Senate this week.  It had already passed the House and now goes to the Governor for her signature or veto.  This bill protects North Carolina citizens from being forced to purchase health insurance they don’t want.  I have heard from a few constituents that this is no different from buying car insurance.  We have a choice whether to drive a car and incur the liability that goes with that responsibility.  We would have to buy this product (health insurance) just because we’re alive and would have no choice and this bill prevents that action.

Senate Bill 27 – Involuntary Annexation Moratorium passed the Senate and should be back in the House this week.  The House also has a version of this bill.