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Mon. Late: Outta Here
posted at 2009-08-10 23:55 | Last modified 2009-08-11 09:33
The House wrapped up its substantive work tonight with votes on a slew of controversial bills. Rep Marvin Lucas wrapped it up with a poem mentioning the names of (almost) all 120 House members. Greensboro's Mark Binker has the audio here.
Both the House and Senate will meet Tuesday afternoon, but only as a formality. They’re back May 12, 2010 – though they could return as soon as this fall to talk about tax reform.
What passed
- H884, Son of JMAC – okays incentives for a paper mill to convert to a fluff mill. Supporters said it’ll save hundreds, maybe thousands of jobs in an economically distressed area of the state. Opponents call it “Goodyear Jr.”
- H709, “Address Erosion Control Issues,” would limit the Coastal Resource Commission’s rulemaking powers over terminal groins and other temporary erosion measures.
- H104, “Clarifying Legislative Confidentiality,” confirms bill-drafting requests as confidential documents not covered by public records requests, as well as third-party affidavits and requests for bills. Want to know who put your lawmaker up to that suspicious bill? Sorry.
- H191 would, among other things, allow an NC replica of the car in “Ghostbusters” to sport blue lights without breaking the law. Your tax dollars at work.
- S488, "Proportionate Sentence Lengths," would lower some sentence lengths for prior offenders for many low-level crimes and some higher-level offenses, too. Dems say it would help maximize jail space for serious criminals, but the GOP points out it would put murderers, child molesters, and rapists back on the street more quickly, too. It passed the House on a party-line vote that’s bound to show up in next year’s campaign materials.
- H836, Technical Corrections, restores 62 positions in Juvenile Justice, delays the closure of the Samarkand juvenile facility 9 months to July 2010, requires the DMV to contract its call-center services in-state, moves $500K into the Small Biz Assistance Fund, and allows the state Board of Education to use up to $200K in reversions for professional development for superintendents. On the floor, Michaux said the bill doesn’t change the budget’s bottom line -- it just moves money around. But from where to where?
What didn’t make it
- H530, the Life Sciences Corp Investment Act, was pulled off the calendar after Anson Dem Pryor Gibson sensed its chances were slim. It’s a complex bill, but in a nutshell, it would use state money to insure venture capital investments in biotech startups in NC. You’ll see it again in May.
- S460, the Puppy Mill Bill, was postponed due to a procedural problem. Freshman Senator Don Davis allowed the bill to be amended in House Commerce Friday. That means it would have to go back to the Senate for concurrence. But the Senate went home Friday, so the measure can’t move on till they come back.
- H1445, Sentencing Reform, was pulled from the calendar by sponsor Phil Haire, who cited the contentious tenor of the night's debate on crime and punishment issues.
Okay, that’s embarrassing…
A new poll due out from Public Policy Polling Tuesday won’t do much for North Carolina’s reputation. Just over the half the 750 residents surveyed said they were “sure” President Barack Obama is a US citizen. The rest were either unsure or convinced he isn’t – and 47% of GOP respondents fell into that last category.
Even worse: 10% of respondents don’t think Hawaii is part of the United States. Full crosstabs are due out Tuesday. Maybe the next poll should ask whether the Earth is round. Then again, maybe we don't want to know.
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