The 2006 short session of the North Carolina General Assembly has ended, and I’m proud to report that numerous newspapers, Governor Mike Easley, and various advocacy groups from across the state have all said that it was one of the most successful and productive sessions in recent memory.
My colleagues and I remained focused from the first day of session until the last on our priorities of improving education, making health care more affordable, strengthening our economy and creating new jobs, reducing crime in our neighborhoods, and protecting our environment.
As I’ve told you before, the House Democratic Caucus announced a far-reaching agenda on opening day — May 9 — and as we said on the final day of session, we accomplished every item on our agenda and passed many other bills during our 2 and ½ months in Raleigh.
The Legislature will reconvene on Wednesday, January 24, 2007 at noon. During the interim, you can contact me via email at michaelw@ncleg.net or by calling my Raleigh office at (919) 733-5662 or in Gaston at (252) 536-8013. My legislative office in Raleigh will be staffed on a part-time basis by Mary Capps, my Legislative Assistant. You can also find additional information on the General Assembly at www.ncleg.net.
Below is a short recap of some of the most important legislative accomplishments of the 2006 session. Feel free to contact me if you would like additional information on these issues or any others that were debated by the General Assembly during this year’s session.
EDUCATION
Education remained my #1 priority throughout this year’s session. I’m extremely proud of our many accomplishments, which will improve education from early childhood through adulthood. Due to this year’s budget surplus and the lottery, we were able to dedicate more funding to our children’s education than ever before. (The budget included $10.8 billion in resources dedicated to improving education and increasing teachers’ salaries. This total represents more than $943 million above last year’s budget and is in addition to $425 million in expected revenues from the new North Carolina Education Lottery.) We gave teachers the substantial pay raise they deserve (8%), which will bring them closer to the national average and will help us reduce our teacher shortage. We dedicated over $75 million to address the on-going Leandro school funding lawsuit, which will help our low-wealth schools and disadvantaged students and provide additional funds for literacy coaches and high school reforms. We also eliminated a $44.3 million recurring reduction in public school budgets ordered annually since the 2003 budget shortfall.
We continued our investment in our outstanding universities and community colleges, which educate our people at all stages throughout their life. UNC campuses across the state will receive $185.7 million to help build new classrooms and buildings. The budget also substantially increases financial aid available for students attending our state’s universities and community colleges, and we gave parents a new tax deduction when they save for a child’s college education.
We also established a new lottery oversight committee, which will ensure that all lottery proceeds go to early childhood education, reducing class size, school construction and college scholarships. And, schools will now be required to set aside time each day for students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.
HEALTH CARE
Improving health care in North Carolina by making it more affordable and accessible for all of our citizens was another top priority during this year’s session. As the House Democratic Caucus stated on opening day, we believe that health care should be a part of the job — if you work, you should have health insurance. It is wrong that half of the 1.3 million uninsured North Carolinians work full-time jobs. To help address this problem, we passed numerous bills this session that will improve and expand health care and services in communities across our state.
The House Select Committee on Health Care, which was created during the interim by Speaker Black, and its six subcommittees held numerous meetings prior to May and made recommendations for legislation on issues including access to health care, ways to decrease the number of uninsured North Carolinians, and the state’s increasing costs associated with Medicaid.
After three years of work and passage by the House several times in recent years, we were finally successful in approving a new tax credit for small businesses that offer health insurance to employees. The new $250 tax credit will go to small businesses that offer health coverage to employees making less than $40,000, which will help our valuable businesses with one of their fastest growing expenses, plus allow more North Carolinians to get or keep health insurance.
The House also passed legislation that would create a new high-risk insurance pool, which would cover people who can’t afford health insurance or can’t qualify under traditional plans. Supporters of the bill said this was a first step toward providing affordable health care to our state’s 1.3 million uninsured. The House overwhelmingly approved the bill, but unfortunately the Senate did not take it up prior to adjournment.
This year’s budget provides more than $4.2 billion for health and human services. As part of an on-going reform effort that began in 2001, we dedicated $95 million in new funds for mental health, developmental disabilities and substance abuse programs, including $14.4 million for the Mental Health Trust Fund. We provided $27.4 million in relief to all 100 counties to freeze the counties’ portion of Medicaid expenses at the 2005-06 year’s level. (Note: The House budget included a total of $53 million to cap the rate and provide additional assistance to counties with high numbers of Medicaid recipients; the Senate did not provide any assistance in its budget.) More than $30 million is provided for child care services and subsidies, which will maintain the current 2,650 child care slots, remove 3,096 children from the waiting list and create 3,100 new slots.
IMPROVING OUR ECONOMY & CREATING NEW, GOOD PAYING JOBS
North Carolina’s economy has steadily improved during the last few years; however, some communities continue to experience job losses and unemployment rates higher than the state or national rate.
In an effort to strengthen our economy and create new jobs, my colleagues and I were successful on numerous fronts. We approved a $1 increase in the state’s minimum wage, which will increase the salaries of approximately 140,000 North Carolinians from $5.15 to $6.15 per hour starting January 1. We provided substantial pay raises for our valuable teachers and state employees — teachers received an average 8% increase and state employees received a 5.5% increase.
We approved legislation to expand successful job creation programs, like the One North Carolina Fund and Job Development Investment Grants (JDIG), which have created over 33,000 new jobs across our state since 2001 and are helping our economy prosper. The budget provided $15 million for the One North Carolina Fund and $5 million for the One North Carolina Small Business Fund. Legislators also approved changes to the William S. Lee Act, which was created 10 years ago and has created more than 130,000 new jobs across the state during the past decade. Under this program, companies receive tax credits based on the location of the new jobs — companies receive higher credits if jobs are located in more economically distressed or impoverished counties of the state.
We provided close to $200 million in tax cuts for all North Carolinians, including a reduction in the state’s sales tax, effective December 1 — just in time for the holidays, and a reduction in the personal income tax rate, which will help approximately 30,000 small businesses. We also capped the state’s gas tax to ensure it does not increase further even if oil and gas companies continue to raise prices at the pump for consumers.
PROTECTING OUR FAMILIES & REDUCING CRIME
Legislators took numerous important steps during this year’s session, which will reduce crime and better protect our families and communities. We strengthened our laws regarding sex offenders, DWIs, identity theft, and the production of meth, which is a dangerous drug impacting many of our rural communities. Legislators also approved vital funding in the budget for our courts, new judicial and law enforcement positions (1 new Assistant DA in District 6B-Bertie, Hertford, Northampton), and our state’s emergency preparedness efforts.
Following work by the House Select Committee on Sex Offender Registration Laws, the General Assembly passed numerous measures that crack down on sex offenders, which will better protect our children. Sex offenders will now be prohibited from living within 1,000 feet of a school or daycare center and will not be able to work or volunteer in a position where they would interact with minors. Some of the worst predators face lifetime satellite monitoring under a new global positioning system (GPS), and all offenders must comply with tougher registration requirements, which will give authorities more chances to update addresses and photographs. DMV is also instructed to search the national database of sex offenders prior to issuing a new driver’s license, which will help ensure criminals from other states also register and are monitored in our state. Legislators also took aim at human trafficking and sexual servitude by increasing penalties, especially for those individuals who harbor children. We included $1.5 million in the budget to upgrade the state’s sex offender registry, implement the global positioning system (GPS), and establish an email notification program so citizens can be notified when a registered sex offender moves into their neighborhood.
Lawmakers approved legislation to create a first-in-the-nation Actual Innocence Commission, which will help ensure the guilty are in prison and the wrongfully convicted are not. The commission will be focused on examining questions of innocence, while the current criminal appeals process is geared toward ensuring fair trials.
After three years of work, the state has overhauled and toughened our DWI laws. The new laws will impose tougher penalties for those who cause fatal accidents and limit the discretion of judges, which in the past has resulted in many DWI charges being reduced or completely tossed out of court. The DWI changes create three new felonies — and stiffer penalties — for automobile accidents that involve impaired driving and result in serious injury or death. The measure will also require merchants to keep records on keg sales and make it a misdemeanor for anyone younger than 21 to drink an alcoholic beverage.
The General Assembly also passed legislation to ban video poker. The new law, which was supported by the North Carolina Sheriffs’ Association, requires current machine owners or businesses to downsize from the current maximum of three machines to two machines by October 1, 2006, and from two machines to one machine by March 1, 2007. A complete ban of the machines will take effect on July 1, 2007. The phase out of video poker will allow the more than 1,700 current employees in the industry to find new jobs while ridding the state of the controversial games.
CAMPAIGN FINANCE, LOBBYING AND ETHICS REFORMS
House members spent close to 8 months drafting various ethics, campaign finance and lobbying reform proposals. At the end of last year, House Speaker Jim Black established the House Select Committee on Ethics and Governmental Reform, which looked at numerous issues and ultimately recommended 10 pieces of legislation.
Prior to adjourning, legislators approved some of the toughest and most far-reaching campaign finance, lobbying and ethics reforms and regulations in the nation. We strengthened ethics regulations for the executive, judicial and legislative branches of government along with boards and commissions. We established an independent, eight-member State Ethics Commission, which will conduct inquiries on complaints filed against all three branches of government. Following last year’s passage of tougher lobbying regulations, lawmakers went further this year by enacting additional reforms including a gift-giving ban and a ban on lobbyists contributing to political campaigns.
Legislators also approved bills that provide more control over the use of campaign funds and prohibit the use of funds for personal expenses, improves required training for campaign treasurers, bans the use of “blank payee” contribution checks, and requires stronger reporting requirements on campaign finance reports as well as efforts by lobbyists and politically active “527” groups.
CRACKING DOWN ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION
Legislators approved several measures intended to combat illegal immigration in North Carolina. Driver’s license applicants will now have to produce a Social Security card or valid visa when applying for a North Carolina license. In recent years, illegal immigrants had used an Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITIN) as identification to obtain a driver’s license. Another measure would require state government, including the UNC system, community colleges and school systems, to use a federal database to ensure new hires are legal residents. The House also passed a resolution calling on the U.S. Congress to enact meaningful immigration reform, including locating a new immigration court in Charlotte and allowing local authorities to be able to work with federal agencies to deport illegal immigrants who are caught driving while impaired or for other serious crimes.
As I’ve said many times before, I hope you will continue to let me know how you feel about the issues that were 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.