Although this week was shortened due to the long July 4th holiday weekend, my colleagues and I were extremely busy during lengthy sessions on Wednesday and Thursday.
We gave final approval to an $18.9 billion state budget, which now must be signed by the Governor, and passed numerous bills on topics such as establishing a new lottery oversight committee, lobbying reform, requiring passengers to wear seat belts in the back seat, protections for school children, eye exams for kindergarteners, mental health reforms, sex offender registrations, and economic development programs.
On Wednesday, House Speaker Jim Black said he’s hopeful the General Assembly can adjourn by the end of next week if legislators can complete work on numerous remaining bills. Adjournment likely will depend on how quickly the Senate finishes its work on a minimum wage increase, numerous campaign finance, lobbying and ethics reforms, eminent domain restrictions and several other bills that have already passed the House. The House worked late on Thursday to wrap up several remaining bills and plans to start back early on Monday. The Senate is holding another rare Friday session and will have much more work to complete next week.
Please remember that you can listen to each day’s session, committee meetings and press conferences on the General Assembly’s website at www.ncleg.net.
In Other News from the Legislature…
Protecting School Children
Children are about to gain stronger protections from pesticides, mercury, diesel fumes, arsenic-treated wood, mold and mildew at North Carolina’s public schools. The “School Children’s Health Act” has passed the House and Senate and has been sent to the Governor for his signature. The bill (HB 1502) uses common-sense, low-cost, and even cost-savings measures to reduce student and staff exposure to hazardous contaminants in school buildings. The bill was sponsored by Representatives Grier Martin (D-Wake), Marian McLawhorn (D-Pitt) and Marvin Lucas (D-Cumberland). The measure, which was originally approved last year by the House, was strongly endorsed by the NC Pediatric Society, Agricultural Resources Center, Conservation Council of NC, Action for Children NC, the Covenant with North Carolina’s Children, and Chairman of the State Board of Education Howard Lee.
Eye Exams for Children
On Thursday, the House passed a bill sponsored by Rep. Linda Coleman, D-Wake, that would revise a controversial law from last year that sought to require all kindergarteners to get a comprehensive eye exam before starting school. The law passed last year by the General Assembly has been halted by the courts amid a lawsuit brought by the NC School Boards Association, which claims that such a requirement would violate the North Carolina Constitution. Critics of the law say that requiring eye exams for all children would be unnecessary since children must already undergo a vision screening. But proponents of the law argue that these vision screenings can miss serious eye problems that can only be detected by instruments used by an optometrist or ophthalmologist. Nationwide studies have shown that even the best vision screenings can miss as much as 30% of treatable eye problems and these eye problems are often misdiagnosed as a learning disability or attention deficit disorder in children.
The proposed revision of the law (HB 2699), which was approved Thursday by a vote of 90-12, would create uniform standards for vision screenings already done as part of a child’s pre-kindergarten heath assessment. If a child then fails a vision screening, the child would be referred for a comprehensive eye exam performed by an optometrist or an ophthalmologist. For parents who don’t follow through on the process, schools will send out information, including material explaining that funding is available to pay for the exams if needed. Further, if a teacher thinks that a child should get an eye exam, funding will also be made available for those exams. Those opposed to last year’s law — the NC School Boards Association, North Carolina Prevent Blindness, and the NC Medical Society — are in support of the bill, which now heads to the Senate for approval.
New Lottery Oversight Committee Approved
The House overwhelmingly approved legislation on Thursday that would establish an oversight committee to keep an eye on the new North Carolina lottery and ensure all proceeds go to education. “We want to ensure the citizens from this state that the proceeds from the lottery will be used exactly for what we said it would be used for,” said Rep. Bernard Allen, D-Wake, one of the bill’s co-sponsors “There will be no supplanting of funds.” The new North Carolina Education Lottery is projected to raise over $400 million for education programs this year, including early childhood education, reducing class size, school construction and college scholarships. The House approved HB 2212 by a vote of 102-1 and sent it to the Senate for consideration.
Getting Tough on Sex Offenders
The House has passed additional legislation that toughens our laws on sex offenders. On Thursday, legislators approved HB 1871, which requires a person convicted in another state to also register as a sex offender in North Carolina. The bill also requires DMV to provide notice of sex offender registration requirements to applicants for a driver’s license, learner’s permit, instruction permit, or identification card and DMV workers must also search the national sex offender public registry for an applicant’s name before issuing either a driver’s license or special identification card.
The legislation, which now goes to the Senate for consideration, is one of several sex offender enforcement bills that were recommended by the House Select Committee on Sex Offender Registration Laws, which met prior to the start of the short session. The House has already passed a bill (HB 1896) that prohibits a sex offender from living within 1,000 feet of a school, daycare center or public pool and strengthens registration requirements. The budget also included $1.5 million to upgrade the state’s sex offender registry, implement a global positioning system to monitor the most serious convicted sex offenders, and to establish an email notification program so citizens can be notified when a registered sex offender moves into their neighborhood.
Seat Belt Restrictions
All vehicle passengers, even those in the back seat, would have to buckle up in North Carolina under legislation that the House approved on Thursday. The bill (SB 774) mandates seat belt use for all riders in a passenger vehicle, but House members reduced the fine for violating the measure from $75 to $10 during final debate before sending it back to the Senate for concurrence. The legislation would alter current law, which says only those in the front seat — as well as children under 16 in the back — are required to wear seat belts. The bill would also bring North Carolina into accordance with federal law by requiring truck and bus drivers to buckle up. However, legislators made the seat belt measure a secondary violation, meaning law enforcement cannot stop a vehicle solely for a seat belt infraction.
The measure, which passed the Senate last year, survived an amendment on Wednesday that would have maintained state law as it is now – only requiring seat belt use in the front seats. Supporters of the amendment argued that the measure was unenforceable, took away an adult’s right to choose and wrongly hit taxpayers with additional fines. The amendment failed in a 50-66 vote.
Bill sponsor Rep. Jennifer Weiss, D-Wake, noted that 70 percent of back-seat passengers who died in North Carolina accidents in recent years were not wearing a seat belt. She said the use of seat belts in the back seat was just 36 percent, compared with 86 percent in the front. Of the more than 1,100 deadly crashes in 2004, seat belts are credited with saving more than 600 lives. Almost 20 other states, including South Carolina, have passed back-seat belt use laws, which was also a major recommendation of the North Carolina’s Child Fatality Task Force.
Improving Economic Development Programs in NC
The Commerce Department will receive $30 million for its Job Development Investment Grants (JDIG) program this year instead of the usual $15 million in an economic development bill (HB 2744) that passed the House on Thursday. The department says the extra money is needed to help them recruit an extraordinary number of potential job-creation projects during the rest of 2006. The program gives back to companies cash grants equal to a portion of state withholding taxes generated by jobs they have created. Other parts of the bill would extend the program through 2009 and allow motor sports manufacturing facilities to qualify for the grants. The bill passed 97-15 and went to the Senate despite complaints from critics that the incentives are highly discriminatory toward only a few fortunate companies. Since the first grant was awarded in 2003, the JDIG program has helped create more than 14,700 jobs and $2 billion in investment in North Carolina.
The budget also provides $3,750,000 to the Advanced Vehicle Research Center Reserve.
Mental Health Reform Passed
The House gave final approval to changes designed to define the responsibilities of community mental health managers and give power to the Health and Human Services secretary to take over functions that aren’t currently being performed. The measure is part of a series of changes designed to jump start mental health reforms that place more patient treatment in local communities. The measure (HB 2077) now goes to Gov. Mike Easley’s desk after the House agreed on Thursday to changes made by the Senate.
DWI Measure Finally Approved
On Wednesday, the Senate gave final approval to legislation that would make changes to North Carolina’s drunk driving laws, with the intent of improving enforcement and increasing conviction rates. The measure (HB 1048) will now go back to the House, which approved the proposal last year, for concurrence. Many changes are designed to ensure that judges, prosecutors and law enforcement statewide follow the same procedures in handling the cases. The legislation also creates three new offenses – felony serious injury by vehicle, aggravated felony death by vehicle and aggravated felony serious injury by vehicle. All the changes were recommended by Gov. Mike Easley’s DWI task force, which offered more than 40 proposals in early 2005 to crack down on drunk driving.
The House will be back in session on Monday night at 6 pm — a little earlier than usual in order to finish up numerous bills.
As I’ve said many times before, I hope you will continue to let me know how you feel about the issues that are being debated by the North Carolina Legislature and the challenges you and your family are facing each day.
By working together, we can make Northampton, Vance and Warren Counties and all regions of North Carolina a better place to live, work and raise a family.