iNOTE: Both the North Carolina House and Senate are scheduled to be on break during the week of July 3; therefore, the Old North State Report and bill tracking charts will not be transmitted on Friday, July 7. Publication will resume on Friday, July 14.
NORTH CAROLINA’S BUDGET STILL A WORK IN PROGRESS
Republicans in the North Carolina General Assembly continue to work on a compromise budget proposal for the fiscal year 2023–24, but it might not be finished until mid-to-late July.
The General Assembly convened in January, and competing budget bills were passed by the House and Senate in the spring. Although they agreed on the overall spending amounts — $29.8 billion for the upcoming fiscal year and $30.9 billion for the year ending in June 2025 — they disagreed on many specifics.
The shape of a tax-cut package, as well as how billions of dollars in proposed reserves will be distributed for things like capital projects, economic development, and emergency savings, remain major sticking points.
The biggest differences between the two budget proposals, according to Senator Mike Woodard (D-Durham), are the larger raises for state employees in the House budget and the accelerated tax cuts in the Senate budget. He noted that incorporating the priorities of every lawmaker involved in the compromise budget is difficult.
According to Woodard, there is a lot of pressure on lawmakers to pass a budget that includes the Medicaid expansion that was approved by the General Assembly in March. The bill, which Governor Roy Cooper signed, increases Medicaid eligibility to cover most adults who earn less than 133 percent of the federal poverty level. The adoption of a budget, however, is a requirement for the expansion's actual implementation.
Though state law does not specify when the General Assembly must adjourn, legislative leaders had hoped to pass a new budget before the start of the upcoming fiscal year on July 1 and to deliver the remaining bills to Democratic Governor Roy Cooper before July 4. Leading Republicans such as House Speaker Tim Moore and Senator Ralph Hise (R- Mitchell), however, assert that neither is likely to occur due to drawn-out negotiations between the House and Senate over the two-year spending plan.
The current fiscal year ends on June 30, but there is no threat of a government shutdown in the absence of a replacement budget because state law requires agencies to continue operating at their current spending levels.
Even if a compromise on the budget is reached, it would require another vote in each chamber before being sent to Cooper, who would then have 10 days to veto it or sign it into law. Even if Cooper were to veto the budget bill, Republicans would have a strong enough majority this year to override it if all GOP lawmakers were present and working together.
Legislators are not planning to hold votes around July 4 but will return to Raleigh the following week. According to their schedule, they intend to work through July.
Read more by The Daily Tarheel
VETOES AND OVERRIDES
The North Carolina House broke a record on Tuesday by overriding six of Governor Roy Cooper's vetoes — the most ever in one day. In some instances, Democratic lawmakers joined the majority and voted in favor of the override. In every instance, the Senate overrode the vetoes as well, establishing the bills as law. In addition to bills pertaining to abortion restrictions, the farm bill, pro-diversity initiatives, and local government audits, Cooper's vetoes of the following bills were also overridden:
House Bill 750 prohibits state agencies from using "environmental, social, and governance" standards to evaluate potential investments, decide who gets contracts, or choose who is hired and fired. The bill also states that a company's leadership structure, community involvement, and promotion of sustainability cannot be considered by the state. Additionally, the bill asserts that the state treasurer may only take into account elements that are anticipated to materially affect an investment's financial risk or return. This includes investments made by the state, such as pension funds. The override vote in the House was 72-46, and in the Senate was 29-16.
Senate Bill 329 and Senate Bill 331 will allow lenders to charge North Carolina borrowers higher interest rates and fees, which supporters believe is necessary to assist financial institutions in this period of inflationary pressures. Opponents argued that since regular people are also suffering from inflation, they should not be required to pay even more to obtain loans. Senate Bills 329 and 331 were both overridden by the House with identical 76-43 votes, and in the Senate 31-16 and 30-16 respectively.
The last state to give its governor the ability to veto legislation was North Carolina, which did so in 1996. Since taking office in 2017, Cooper has vetoed 83 bills, and the legislature has overridden 31 of them, including all eight this year and 23 during his first two years when the GOP also held supermajorities. No other governor of North Carolina had more than 20 bills overridden.
Read more by The Carolina Journal
MOORE v. HARPER
In a significant decision pertaining to election law, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that state courts may monitor state legislatures' use of the constitutional authority granted to them by the states to regulate federal elections. By a 6-3 margin, the Court dismissed the alleged "independent state legislature theory," concluding that the North Carolina Supreme Court did not violate the Constitution when it overturned a congressional district map approved by the state legislature.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the Court that “state courts retain the authority to apply state constitutional restraints when legislatures act under the power conferred upon them by the Elections Clause. But federal courts must not abandon their own duty to exercise judicial review.”
Currently, there are seven Republicans and seven Democrats on the state's congressional map. New maps are anticipated to be redrawn this summer or fall.
LEGISLATION COULD DELAY BUILDING CODE UPGRADES
House Bill 488, which will now be making its way to the governor for signature, mandates that chapters of the North Carolina Residential Building Code that deal with energy, fuel gas, or mechanical aspects of construction cannot be changed by the North Carolina Building Code Council, whose members were all chosen by Governor Roy Cooper. The legislation was backed by a small number of Democrats in the Senate and House, along with the Republicans
The bill also mandates that the proposed Residential Building Code Council consider changes to the current energy, fuel gas, and mechanical codes in North Carolina as part of its initial revisions. All modifications would have to be approved by 2026.
The bill's chief advocate, Representative Mark Brody (R-Union), a home builder, claimed the current Building Code Council has an excessive number of members who are interested in commercial structures. The Home Builders Association and its affiliates were prominently featured by the council prior to the Cooper administration. “Commercial buildings are built by design professionals, residential are built by craftspeople,” Brody said.
Seven appointments from the governor and six from the General Assembly would make up the 13-member council as proposed by the bill. A representative of the natural gas industry, a code enforcement official, several contractors, a plumber, an electrician, and an engineer with experience in residential construction would all be included on the council.
When asked if he intended to veto the legislation, Cooper replied that he had to wait and see what was passed first, but he had some reservations.
Read more by The News & Observer
MEDICAL MARIJUANA LEGISLATION STALLED
The medical marijuana bill, Senate Bill 3, passed by the North Carolina Senate nearly four months ago is still stalled in the House.
Unrelated to the medical marijuana bill, the House unanimously approved House Bill 75, which would increase the authority of physician assistants to practice independently of a physician. In a novel effort to get Senate Bill 3 moving in the house, one of the bill's leading proponents, Senator Bill Rabon (R-Brunswick), put forth an amendment to House Bill 75 that would delay the effective date of House Bill 75 until Senate Bill 3 was signed into law. Senator Rabon’s amendment conveys a message that is common in the final days of a legislative session: Move on my priorities, or we won't move on yours. The Senate Rules Committee, which is chaired by Rabon, determines when and which bills the state Senate will vote on.
Prior to passing the bill itself, the Senate adopted Rabon's amendment by a 36-8 bipartisan vote.
