Legislative Update from Rep. Frank Iler – July 1, 2013
We had a few surprises last week in the General Assembly. Monday afternoon started fairly calmly. I was working on a revision of a Senate bill that I thought would help it pass the House. That didn’t turn out as well as I had hoped, but there were some other interesting developments during the week.
Wednesday was possibly the most exciting day of the week. I was invited to a bill signing by Governor McCrory. House Bill 817 – Strategic Transportation Investments, which passed its final vote in the House last week, was signed into law at 11:30 Wednesday. This is the biggest change in highway construction funding since 1989. This law should result in more projects and more jobs than the former method. The other bill sponsors and I were recognized by the Governor during his remarks, and received souvenir pens that were used to sign the bill.
Also on Wednesday, I was very pleasantly surprised by a visit from Brunswick Community College’s own president, Dr. Susanne Adams, and her husband Tom. The community college presidents were visiting the legislature to advocate for their budget funding, and it was a real pleasure to see them.
As I reported last week, a Senate bill to allow the Department of Transportation to raise the speed limit on interstate highways had passed the Senate almost unanimously but was very controversial in the House. Senate Bill 709 – Allow DOT to set Max. Speed of 75 MPH was removed from the House floor on the previous Thursday, and sent back to the House Transportation Committee. So, on Monday I was working on a revision to make it a study. At Tuesday’s meeting of the Transportation Committee we passed a committee substitute and it became Senate Bill 709 – DOT Study 75 mph Speed/ Develop Pilot Proposal. It passed the committee and came to the House floor Thursday. There we discussed it for about 30 minutes and it was still defeated 44 – 64. Although I didn’t author the original bill, it was a rare occasion where a bill I presented became controversial and was defeated.
Tuesday on the House floor we had a local bill and a statewide bill that have direct effects on Brunswick County. The local bill was House Bill 294 – Authority to Remove Abandoned Vessels. It had left the House in April, and sat in a Senate committee until last week. Since the Senate made some changes, the House had to vote to concur on Tuesday, which we did, and it became law on Wednesday. This will allow Brunswick County and Dare County to remove abandoned vessels from the navigable waters within their jurisdictions after a certain time period. The bill was sponsored by Rep. Paul Tine of Dare County and co-sponsored by me, among others, and passed 111 – 0 on the final vote. Our town of Holden Beach has had such a vessel near its high-rise bridge for many months.
The statewide bill that will impact our entire state beginning July 1st is House Bill 336 – Continuing Budget Authority. Since the state budget is still being negotiated in conference committees, we had to pass a continuing resolution to keep the state government running past the beginning of the fiscal year, which is July 1st. This bill covers the month of July. It allows spending on most budget items at the current rate in the budget, Senate Bill 402. By July 31st we expect to have the budget done, as well as the new tax reform plan, which is one issue that has held up the budget.
Thursday we were surprised again to learn that we would have a double calendar, and then be off the following week for July 4th celebrations. The conference committees will continue to meet, but many of us will be at home in our districts most of the week. We were in session from noon until 7:00 p.m., but it was a small price for a pleasant surprise. Please don’t hesitate to follow us on the General Assembly website at www.ncleg.net.