Legislative Update from Rep. Frank Iler – September 8, 2015

Last week in the North Carolina House of Representatives we continued to negotiate the 2015 – 2017 state budget, we passed a bill to prevent stalking by GPS, and we sent a bill to move the 2016 presidential primary date bill to a conference committee.  As the Raleigh weather turned hot again last week, the budget negotiations also heated up.  The appropriations committees in charge of the different parts of the budget were addressing their final provisions, and the finance chairs were still discussing the tax package.

In my case, we were down to just a few items in the transportation piece of the budget.  It appears the transfer from transportation to the general fund will be ended, providing over $200 million dollars in additional funds to spend on roads, bridges, ports, and other transportation priorities.  We are putting more into resurfacing of our roads, repair and renovation of our structurally deficient bridges, and repairs and modernization of our aging ports in Wilmington and Morehead City.  Another feature of the new budget will be a reporting system where citizens can report a road problem, and it can be fixed on a much faster schedule from 48 hours to 2 weeks, depending on the urgency and safety implications.

One of the bills we passed last week, Senate Bill 238 – Stalking By GPS/Criminal Offense, makes it a crime to unknowingly place a tracking device on someone’s vehicle without their permission for the purpose of stalking them.  There are exceptions in the law for law enforcement, licensed private investigators, creditors on the vehicle, and others.  It is hoped that this will cut down on intimidation and domestic abuse in these stalking situations.

Another bill that came to the House floor was House Bill 373 – 2016 Presidential Primary.  This bill would move the North Carolina primary for presidential candidates to March 15, 2016.  This would make the state more important in the candidate selection process, and could provide an economic boost when the candidates campaign more heavily here.  The current primary date in May makes the state irrelevant in the national races.  There were some changes that we wanted to discuss, so the House DID NOT concur to the Senate version by a vote of 104 – 0.  It will come back up after the conference committee makes the changes.  Interestingly, this bill started as a House bill on which I am a primary sponsor that would have extended the deadline for counties to go to paper ballots for two more years.

This week we expect to take up the completed budget on the House floor.  In addition to the transportation issues, I hope to see satisfactory provisions on education issues, tax policies, and other topics before I decide how to vote on it.  I am optimistic that these issues will fall in line so that I can support it.