Legislative Update from Rep. Iler — June 10, 2024

The last three weeks at the North Carolina General Assembly have been unusual with periods of high and low activity.  Many agency bills and local bills came through the process, as well as a few controversial bills that are still being amended.

Local bills annexing or de-annexing parcels for certain individual municipalities came to the floor of the House and Senate for approval.  They had been agreed to by all parties involved in almost every case and passed with little opposition.  Examples include Edenton, Fuquay-Varina, Mount Gilead, Kannapolis, and others.

  Requests by various departments, called agency bills, were also passed in committees and voted on the floor.  The departments included Transportation (House Bill 198), Revenue (House Bill 228), Treasurer/Retirement system (House Bills 988 and 989), among others.  They passed the House almost without opposition, except the Transportation bill, which split on party lines over a billboard provision.  The Governor then vetoed HB 198 and it came back to the House for a possible veto override vote. 

            House Bill 237 – Unmasking Mobs and Criminals has been very controversial.  The current version, which was worked out in a conference committee, specifies who should legally be masked or not to hide their identity, penalties for committing a crime while masked, penalties for blocking traffic involving emergency vehicles, and now includes campaign finance law amendments.  The allegation that it allows another customer in a store to require someone to remove a mask is obviously false in an actual reading of the current bill.  The conference report was approved by the Senate and should be back for a vote in the House soon.

     As summer season is beginning, activities on the Brunswick County coast are heating up.  I was able to attend many events back home to connect with citizens, homeowners, and visitors to the region in which we are fortunate to live.

 The next three weeks are expected to be very busy with bills on many issues of statewide and local interest.