REPRESENTATIVE GARLAND E. PIERCE
House of Representatives
July
3, 2008
Greetings from Raleigh,
This week, budget negotiators continued their work and
moved closer to a
final deal. State government continues to operate under the two-year
plan approved last year. This
year's document only makes adjustments.
The intention remains for the General Assembly to finish its work on the
budget
soon and to adjourn session shortly after that.
We continue to move important legislation during this time.
This week,
the House approved a nine-month moratorium on involuntary annexation and
made changes to improve our education
system. We also took time to
remember a war hero and some of our former colleagues.
MUNICIPALITIES
The House approved a nine-month ban on involuntary annexation to allow
lawmakers time to study the nearly
50-year-old law and propose changes.
Original language in the bill (HB 2367) would have banned annexation for
a year,
but the time period was trimmed to allow some municipalities
with pending annexation proceedings to proceed. The moratorium
will run
from the end of August through May 2009. The moratorium is partially
the result of lobbying by people who say
some municipalities don't
follow existing law and that they have no way to stop involuntary
annexations. Cities and
town officials say the laws allow them a way to
better manage growth. The bill now goes to the Senate.
EDUCATION
School buses would no longer be subject to duplicate inspections under a
House bill approved this week. Current
law requires school buses to
receive inspections required by the State Board of Education and the
Division of Motor
Vehicles. The proposal (HB 2265) would eliminate the
requirement for the DMV inspection. The bill now goes to the Senate.
The House Education Committee has approved a bill (HB 15) that would
allow teachers to use personal leave
during teacher workdays without
having to pay for a substitute. Current law requires teachers who use
personal days
to pay a fee that is used to pay for substitute teachers.
They must also pay the fee if they use personal leave on a teacher
workday,
when students aren't present.
The General Assembly has appointed two members to the board that
oversees
the state's 58 community colleges. The House of
Representatives appointed Wallace attorney Anita Powers to a slot that
expires
next June. The Senate gave former community college instructor
Naomi Daggs a term that ends 2011. Daggs was the English
department
chair at Richmond Community College before retiring last year.
ELECTIONS
The
House Committee on Election Law and Campaign Finance Reform agreed
this week to extend an instant runoff voting pilot program
through 2011.
Instant runoff voting requires voters to rank candidates by preference,
allowing vote counters to name
a winner without holding a second
election. Runoff elections are expensive and often have low turnout.
The proposal
(SB 1263) allows for instant runoff voting in partisan
primaries and nonpartisan general elections in as many as 10 counties
and
10 municipalities. The bill now goes to the House Judiciary I
committee.
JUSTICE
People
who are wrongfully convicted would receive $50,000 for every year
they spent in jail if they were exonerated. Existing
law allows only
$20,000 a year and caps the total award at $500,000. The bill (HB 2105)
would increase the cap to $750,000
and allow free job training and
tuition for community colleges and public universities.
ENVIRONMENT
The House agreed this week to a measure that will require the state to
purchase fuel-efficient vehicles.
The proposal (HB 2720) requires new
state vehicles to be in the top 15 percent of their class in fuel
efficiency. Law
enforcement, emergency medical response and firefighting
vehicles are exempt. The state purchased about 1,050 vehicles
in the
last fiscal year that would not be exempt from the requirements.
NOTES
Legislators
this week honored the life of Army National Guard Pfc. Adam
Lee Marion, a Surry County native killed in combat in Iraq
in April.
Marion's parents, family members and friends were in the gallery as
lawmakers praised Marion for his service
to our nation.
Former Reps. Louise Smith Brennan, Jo Graham Foster and James "Jim"
Speed were remembered
in the House of Representatives this week as role
models and outstanding legislators. Foster left the House in 1992 after
representing
Mecklenburg County for 20 years. She died in December 2006
at the age of 91. Brennan represented Mecklenburg in the House
for six
terms, the last ending in 1984. She died in December 2007 at the age of
85. Speed was a member of the House
from 1961-1972 and a member of the
Senate from 1977-1996. He was from Franklin County and died in June
2006 at the age
of 91.
Miss North Carolina Amanda Watson visited the General Assembly this week
and shared that she planned
to work during the next year to raise
awareness of ALS, or Lou Gehrig's Disease. Watson, who was Miss Garner,
is a rising
senior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
She will represent North Carolina in the Miss America pageant.
Please remember that you can listen to each day's committee meetings and
press conferences on the General
Assembly's website at
http://www.ncleg.net. Once on the site, select "audio," and then make
your selection - Appropriations Committee Room or Press Conference Room.
You
can also use the website to look up bills, view lawmaker biographies
and access other information.
If
you have any questions about the work of the General Assembly or if I
may assist in any way, please feel free to contact
me. Thank you for
your interest in state government and have an enjoyable Fourth of July.
Contact Information:
House of Representatives
North Carolina General Assembly
1313 Legislative Building
16 W.
Jones Street
Raleigh, NC 27601-1096
Phone: 919-733-5803
Fax: 919-754-3164
E-mail:
garlandp@ncleg.net <mailto:garlandp@ncleg.net>