• • Week 10 Update
• • Nanny Tracker
• • Quote of the Week

Week 10 Update

Please note:  Due to the Easter holiday, Legislative Update will only cover bills introduced on Monday through Wednesday.  We’ll include the Thursday bills (since we still don’t know exactly how many there are) with next week’s report.

Week 10 proved to be very busy for the General Assembly, as we saw the budget debated and passed in the Senate and the deadline for bill introduction pass in the House.  As of Wednesday, over 2,600 bills have been introduced.  NCHBA is tracking roughly 20 percent of those!

The Senate budget included 208 pages and was released, discussed and approved by the Democrat-controlled Appropriations Committee on Tuesday with few amendments.  It subsequently passed second and third reading in the full Senate on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.  In its first year, which begins July 1, the state would spend $20.05 billion and close a projected $3.4 billion budget gap by cutting expenses, spending $1.7 billion in federal stimulus money and increasing taxes by $500 million.  What we don’t know is which taxes will be raised.  There are substantiated rumors that there will be some restructuring of state taxes generally and that this restructuring will include a tax on services.  The extent to which that happens will not be known until the revenue package is released by the Senate.  That could happen as early as next week.  The Senate had good reason to rush the budget bill through – even without the revenue piece.  The state’s April revenue numbers come out next week and things are looking grim.  Now, it will be the House’s turn to make the deep cuts.  Watch as the fireworks between the chambers fly!

Bills introduced this week include:
• (Section 25.6(a) of S 202, the budget bill) Allows DOT to require facilities constructed within rights-of-way to be constructed from permeable pavement.
• Apprenticeship program was retained in the N.C. Department of Labor, but will include a $25 fee for participants.
• H 1125 Require Photoelectric Smoke Detectors would require the building code to be amended to require the installation of photoelectric smoke detectors in new dwellings and when homes are renovated or sold.
• H 1127 Allow Greater Local Energy Efficiency Standards would allow adoption of more stringent local government building code provisions related to energy conservation (OPPOSE!).
• H 1130 Senior Prop 13 Property Tax Relief would freeze the appraised value of the permanent residence of certain seniors and to amend the constitution to permit a limitation on the increase in the appraised value of certain residences.  (Major problem with bills like this is that tax deficit would have to be recovered from some other source.)
• H 1139 Regulate Irrigation Systems/Cities would authorize cities with a population in excess of 90,000 to regulate or prohibit new irrigation systems for residential developments if they are connected to the public potable water supply.
• H 1173 DOT Maintain Roads for School Buses/Emg Vehicles authorizes and requires DOT to maintain any private road upon which five or more families live to provide access for school buses and emergency vehicles.
• H 1216 Exempt Office Equipment from Property Tax would exempt office equipment from property tax for companies with fewer than 25 employees.
• H 1217 Real Estate Disclosure/Environmental Concerns would require that residential property disclosure statements include conditions of the property related to toxic water and other environmental concerns.
• H 1226 Statute of Repose/Products Liability would reform the statutes of limitation and repose in product liability actions.  NCHBA is always alert to any alterations in ANY statute of repose legislation!
• H 1246 Well Grouting Inspection/Bond Requirements would allow water well contractors to grout water wells without a prior inspection if they certify that the well was grouted in compliance with the appropriate rules and regulations.  We think we like this, but will need to research it further.
• H 1268 Eminent Domain constitutional amendment.  Long way to go!

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Nanny Tracker

Please let us clarify exactly what the Nanny Tracker is intended to do. The Nanny Tracker is simply a tool (and hopefully a fun one) to show the range of ideas that make their way into bill form at the General Assembly. All bills that make the Nanny Tracker have a back story, but often we don’t know what it is. So we make up our own. We don’t mean to offend anyone, but only wish to point out how things that should be common sense, for some reason, must be legislated!

• H 1117 Sex Offender Can’t Drive a Bus With Children. We need a law for this? Duh!
• H 1122 North Carolina Colon Hydrotherapy Licensure. Should be a lot of puckering going on during that discussion!
• H 1348 Study Regulation/Beauty Pageants/Under 13 Years. Obviously, someone watches “Toddlers and Tiaras” on TLC!
• H 1359 No Skateboards on Highways. Should be under the Darwin category.

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Quote of the Week

"We're buying a pig in a poke if we don't know where these revenues are coming from."

Sen. Bob Rucho, R-Mecklenburg, criticizing plans by Senate leaders to pass a budget bill without identifying $500 million in tax hikes spent under the proposal.

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