The General Assembly will return for a fifth special session Wednesday after a Monday morning vote by the Charlotte City Council repealing its bathroom ordinance that led to the adoption of House Bill 2. Republican Gov. Pat McCrory announced the session in a press release and video late Monday afternoon, capping a day in which...
Gov. Pat McCrory has nearly 30 days to decide what to do with House Bill 17, which would remove some appointment powers from Democratic Gov.-elect Roy Cooper. McCrory’s term expires Dec. 31, as do the terms of some members of the General Assembly. But the governor has several options. When the legislature’s in session, a governor...
Gov.-elect Roy Cooper held a news conference Thursday morning in response to a slew of bills from lawmakers filed in a special session of the General Assembly. Lawmakers on Wednesday filed 28 bills, including measures that would require Cabinet officials appointed by the governor to receive approval from the Senate, reconfigure the State Board of...
One of the most far-reaching of the 21 bills filed by House members during the special legislative session that convened today is House Bill 17, sponsored by House Rules Committee Chairman David Lewis, R-Harnett, among others. The bill undertakes a serious reshuffling of state government in several departments, led by the Department of Public Instruction....
The state House on Tuesday unanimously approved a $200.9 million disaster relief package for North Carolinians whose lives were uprooted this fall by Hurricane Matthew in the eastern part of the state and wildfires in the west. “There are still voids left,” House Majority Leader John Bell, R-Wayne, told the House during a special session...
The state’s Medicaid program is not detecting or preventing waste, fraud, and abuse due to lack of staff, bureaucratic cooperation, and proper documentation, and the Medicaid Program Integrity Section is paying outside contractors much more to root out those problems than they return in savings, a state Program Evaluation Division report concluded. Chuck Hefren, principal...
While some Democratic legislators are calling for a special session to deal with recovery efforts for Hurricane Matthew, Republican Gov. Pat McCrory and GOP leaders in the General Assembly say a special session is unnecessary. McCrory, House Speaker Tim Moore, R-Cleveland, and Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, say there’s enough money to handle the state’s...
The Republican-led General Assembly in the just-ended 2016 short session maintained spending restraint, created and enlarged fiscal safeguards in case of an economic downturn, granted more income tax relief, moved toward merit pay raises for state employees, resolved coal ash cleanup disputes, and eliminated some health care regulations. Although the $22.34 billion 2016-17 General Fund...
By a 91-22 margin, the state House early Friday afternoon passed the General Fund budget for the 2016-17 fiscal year, which opened today. The House vote followed the Senate’s approval earlier in the week — largely by party-line vote — of the budget conference report earlier in the week. The budget now heads to Gov. Pat...
The state House on Thursday approved a compromise coal ash cleanup bill, agreeing with a measure passed earlier in the week by the Senate. The coal ash legislation is in response to a 2014 spill into the Dan River near Eden. The General Assembly created a coal ash commission to oversee the cleanup. However, the...
The Senate on Thursday gave its blessing to a bill that would put the state’s Map Act on ice. House Bill 959 would place a one-year moratorium on any new corridor maps being filed under the Map Act. It would also rescind all current corridor maps filed under the 1987 law. Calling the move “the necessary...
