Legislative Update from Rep. Iler — June 24, 2024
The last two weeks at the North Carolina General Assembly have been historical in some ways, while we have been trying to finalize the state budget adjustments for 2024-2025 and end the short session. We passed a good budget in the House, after the original budget bill appeared to be stalled in negotiations. We also had visitors from home come by our office on legislative business.
After passing many local bills the previous week, the House last week unveiled a budget bill that makes adjustments to the second fiscal year of the biennium, 2024-2025, which begins July 1st. House Bill 263 – 2024 Appropriations Act adds to the base budget in certain critical areas, while continuing to restrain spending within growth and inflation limits. In Education it increases the 3% planned raise for teachers to 4.4%, restores the master’s raise for teachers, and raises starting teacher pay to $44,000. It fully funds opportunity scholarships to relieve the backlog of applications. It supports Justice and Public Safety, including a 9% raise for correctional officers. It helps childcare with stopgap funding of $135 million. State employees get across the board raises and a 2% bonus for retirees. House Bill 263 passed the House 68 – 36 on Thursday with 3 Democrats joining all Republicans in attendance.
One of my bills was changed in the Senate and sent back to the House after being merged into another bill. House Bill 309 – Inspection of Low-Speed Vehicles was included in House Bill 155 when it came back from the Senate. It addresses the issue of licensed inspectors of street-legal golf carts having to haul them back to their shop for the inspection but being able to inspect them remotely on the island, for example. House Bill 155 passed the concurrence vote 92 – 12 and should be on the Governor’s desk this week.
We had several visitors from back home. One in particular, Ocean Isle Beach Town Administrator Justin Whiteside came to Raleigh to discuss a critical dune restoration project on their beach. It will require a temporary statutory change and is time sensitive. We were able to meet with a couple key members of the House and Senate to assist in getting this passed.
This week we expect to have more budget activity between the House and Senate and try to get a lot done before July 4th week.