Whew. The General Assembly is back in town and working at warp speed. As expected, the House elected Thom Tillis as Speaker and the Senate elected Phil Berger as President Pro Tempore. While Senate Republicans hold a veto proof majority the House is four votes shy. Of note, Speaker Tillis received the support of five House Democrats in his election as Speaker which gives him five opportunities to find those four votes should the Republicans want to override a gubernatorial veto.
After electing the leadership each chamber got to work adopting their rules. One interesting new rule in the House limits each member to introducing only ten bills (not counting study bills or local bills). By way of comparison last year there were 2084 bills introduced in the House. The House’s rules are only temporary, so that may change, but until it does expect House members to be judicious in what they agree to sponsor.
Under the category of important dates to write down, pay special attention here. In the Senate, local bills will need to be filed with the clerk by March 9, public bills by March 23. In the House, local bills will need to be filed by March 30, public bills by April 6 Study bills and agency bills have deadlines of March 9 and 16, respectively.
Crossover deadline has been set for May 12th and Speaker Tillis expressed a goal of adjourning session by July 4th. Yes, July! There are indications the leadership is very serious about moving the business of the General Assembly along swiftly. Committees were announced already this week and can be found here. In fact one bill, House Bill 2 Protect Health Care Freedom, was heard Thursday in Committee and voted on. The last time the legislature faced redistricting and a significant budget shortfall was in 2001 when I worked for the House Majority Leader and was very pregnant and still working in December!
The top issue remains the State budget and its $3.7 billion (or 20% of the current budget) hole. Rumor is the Governor will send her budget to the General Assembly somewhere around the third week in February. The House and Senate are already hard at work on their budgets. The budget starts in the House this year and they have set a deadline of May 4 for appropriations bills. Legislative leadership continues to say they will not raise taxes nor extend the temporary taxes set to expire.
Talk of capping the gas tax continues to percolate. NCDOT estimates a cap will cost the State $1.1 billion in lost revenues over the next ten years. Remember, the 10 year work plan you have seen from the Department includes that $1.1 billion. If the legislature caps the gas tax they will have to cut $1.1 billion of projects from that list. NCDOT is working on a county by county scenario of what those cuts could be and as soon as I get it I will send it on to you with talking points of why this would be devastating to our already underfunded transportation network.
We also hear talk of NCDOT agency reductions, ferry tolling increases, and expanding the cut zone in front of billboards. There are lots of questions about the Gaston Parkway and Mid-Currituck bridge projects and the order in which the loops are scheduled to be built. There are many on Jones Street with long held desires to influence transportation issues in this State and they are wasting no time in getting started.
Governor Perdue and the NCDOT were thrilled to announce this week that the Yadkin River Bridge/I-85 project bids came in at half of the amount expected meaning that Mobility Fund dollars will now be available for other projects in 2013. The NCDOT is working on the project submission process, so start thinking about what projects in your area might score well in the prioritization process.
I am thrilled to be up and running on Skype so I can now offer updates on the General Assembly to your city staff, MPO, city council, or county mayor/manager meetings via video chat. Give me a call if you have an interest.
Things are happening fast and furious at the General Assembly, so the best way to keep up is to follow me on Twitter (see button at top of email) or look for these weekly email updates. Additionally, if you are not already receiving the League’s weekly legislative bulletin which covers a larger array of local government issues please email LeagueLINC@nclm.org to get on the list. The League also offers a weekly update via a conference call and you can email the same email to get more information on those.
As always, call or email me if you have any questions.
