The General Assembly is scheduled to wrap up its 2003 session soon. The session provided some notable action, although legislators avoided several controversial issues.
For the first time in state history, the House elected cospeakers after Rep. Michael Decker switched parties and cost Republicans a majority in the chamber. Toward the end of June, a showdown with Gov. Mike Easley over differences in the $14.8 billion budget was avoided with a compromise on the last day of the fiscal year.
The budget includes a 3 percent increase in General Fund expenditures for the upcoming fiscal year, and the rate of spending will increase to 5 percent by 2005. Higher sales and income taxes, by $427 million and $124 million respectively, are also on the horizon. The “temporary” half-cent sales-tax increase enacted in 2001 was extended, and for the third year in a row the overall tax burden will increase in North Carolina.
Lawmakers will soon head home after a busy year, but a number of notable issues remain on the agenda for the 2004 session next spring or a possible special session this fall. Among them are a $600 million package to promote travel and tourism, an overhaul of the public health infrastructure, efforts to spur economic development through biotechnology, a possible moratorium on the death penalty, and medical malpractice reform.
Enactment of a statewide ban on video poker, as South Carolina did in 2001 and Georgia in 2002, is stalled in the House. A ban, however, could come to a vote in the next session. Perhaps most controversial, a state lottery, strongly backed by Easley, has yet to be debated in this session.
Following is a review of the 2003 session:
– A North Carolina “do not call registry” for telemarketers will likely be in place by the fall. It is designed to complement legislation to be implemented by the Federal Trade Commission.
– Non-North Carolina residents may carry a concealed handgun if they already own a permit and their home state extends the same option to North Carolinians.
– State school systems would be forced to ban smoking within campus buildings if Easley signs a bill that recently passed the Assembly.
– After the death of a Durham woman in 2002, the form of therapy know as “rebirthing” is now banned.
– Counties with geographical place names that may be considered “offensive,” most of which are located in the Western part of the state, must remove them.
– Prompted by a fire at West Pharmaceuticals in Kinston, legislation was passed that allows employees where a major industrial disaster has occurred to become immediately eligible for unemployment benefits.
– The Carolina Lily is now the state wildflower. The dogwood is the state flower.
– Lawmakers passed a measure that limits liability of local governments that operate skateboard parks.
– The House approved legislation that allows ex-spouses to sue “home-wreckers.” The Senate has yet to vote.
– In November 2002, Easley used the veto for the first time in state history. He vetoed S283, which would have appointed 134 people to fill various state boards and public commissions.
– Easley also vetoed S931 in the spring, which would have eliminated a portfolio requirement for teachers seeking to renew their certification. The move enraged some legislators who believed it to be a political move for education bureaucrats at the expense of teachers.
– Price gouging during natural disasters in North Carolina is now considered an unfair and deceptive trade practice. The Senate agreed unanimously to the House version of a bill to make it unlawful for someone to deliberately sell or rent emergency-related merchandise or services at “a price that is unreasonably excessive under the circumstances.”
Jones is an editorial intern at Carolina Journal.