The Raleigh Report

From the Office of Representative Larry D. Hall

My fellow Democrats and I joined together early Friday May 11, 2007 to give final approval to a $20.3 billion budget that we are very proud of. This budget sends a powerful, unmistakable message that education remains the top priority of this state's Democrats. It addresses the needs of our students at all levels by increasing education spending an additional $1.3 billion, a considerable investment in the future of this state and our young people. House Democrats take particular care in this plan to ensure that we provide resources in public schools to those who need it most-poor people and those at risk of dropping out of high school. We also propose spending that would help our universities and community college remain the envy of the nation and recommend increasing access to these institutions by providing more need-based financial aid.

At the same time, this proposal is fiscally responsible. After the natural disasters in 1999, the state had no remaining money in reserve. This budget adds $315 million to the state's savings, bringing the total to more than $900 million.

The budget also provides nearly $290 million in balanced tax relief and doesn't raise or create any taxes. It is mindful of people's pocketbooks and small business.

It increases child-care subsidies and hires an additional 80 school nurses, a critical piece in assuring that some students get the supervision, care and medical attention they may not otherwise receive.

We also provide $100 million for Medicaid relief to the counties -- a substantial investment in lowering their burden. Half of that money is targeted to those counties with the greatest need so they can better afford to provide other critical services. The other half would be spread among all counties. I'm very proud of the plan we put together and what it does for everyone across the state. Some of the highlights of it follow below.

After finishing up our initial work on the budget, my colleagues and I in the House of Representatives turned our focus toward hearing the hundreds of bills that need to clear our chamber by May 24th if they're to be considered during this two-year session. The approaching deadline means busy days and long floor sessions, but the work we are doing will mean better schools and healthier and safer communities.

As Vice Chair of the Ways and Means Committee I have had the chance to help guide the discussions on ways to streamline our schools construction process, ensure the viability of the amateur radio operators who are critical during natural disasters and craft legislation to review the performance of departments of government.

As always, please feel free to call or write me if I can be of any help. Thank you for allowing me to share this information with you.

Military

The House passed a bill this week that will better protect the parental rights of military members called to active duty or deployed away from their homes. The bill I, as an attorney, former Marine and Marine Reservist helped craft along with by Rep. Melanie Wade Goodwin, another family lawyer, and Rep. Grier Martin, an Army reservist who has served in the Middle East, allows service members who are called to duty to have expedited custody hearings. It also allows for them to speak with a judge by phone during a hearing if they were deployed on short notice. Any custody order issued as a result of a deployment expires within 10 days of the soldier's return, under the new law. It also forbids one parent from mentioning the deployment as a reason to modify or change custody arrangements. The bill is yet another away the House is trying to make our state friendly to those military members who protect us. It now goes to the Senate.

Education

Our budget proposes a 5 percent pay raise for teachers and a $250 bonus for first-year teachers that would raise their salaries to $30,000; $7 million for a dropout prevention program; $20 million more in school funding for at-risk students; $3.2 million more for Gov. Easley's Learn & Earn program and $6.4 million extra to expand Learn & Earn online. It also includes $2.85 million to hire 60 tutors to help with school literacy programs for struggling eighth-graders.

Both community colleges and the university system would get all the money they requested for enrollment growth at their campuses, while community colleges would also get $12.4 million for a facilities and equipment grant program. The community college system received a total of $34 million in additional money, a 3.8 percent increase. This money includes $10 million for equipment and $5 million for advanced planning. This investment will ensure that these critical centers for local education and job training have the money and facilities they need to complete their missions. This will mean added support for Durham Technical Community College at a time of great need.

Need-based financial aid at the universities would increase by nearly $28 million under the plan. In addition, the governor's EARN Scholars program would get $75 million over the next two years. The program would provide $4,000 a year scholarships to 12,500 community college and UNC system students with the greatest financial need. But it is up to us to make sure we take advantage of these added opportunities and incentives.

I was involved in the House Education Committee's passed of a bill designed to combat bullying in schools. It would require school administrators to impose new policies forbidding harassment and bullying. The bill includes ways to report bullies and guidelines for investigating such acts and punishment for them. The bill describes bullying as an act of discrimination and alerts teachers and administrators about people at risk of bullying because of their race, gender, disability and sexual orientation. We must provide an environment for learning in our schools for all of our citizens and this is another tool to ensure that the emphasis is on education of all of our children.

The House Education Subcommittee on Pre-School, Elementary and Secondary Education held its second public hearing recently on May 8th as part of an initiative to improve high school graduation rates. As you may recall the first meeting was in our own District Twenty-Nine at Shepard Middle School on May 1, 2007. The audience for the Shepard Middle School hearing included about half a dozen members of the North Carolina House of Representatives, including its chief supporter, Speaker Joe Hackney. Local school administrators, teachers, parents, students, local leaders and concerned citizens also attended. Several shared insights about how to reduce the number of dropouts. The group may hold additional hearings and will then develop guidelines for how to award grants to pilot programs that may reduce the dropout rate. The budget proposed by the House includes $7 million for dropout prevention programs.

Health

Our proposal would give counties $100 million toward their estimated $517 million Medicaid costs-nearly 20 percent of the total cost. Half of that money would be set aside for counties with the highest percentages of people receiving Medicaid coverage. It is a responsible, thoughtful way to help those counties most weighed down by the cost of Medicaid. This proposal allows Durham to keep approximately 1.4 Million additional dollars for expenditure by the county commissioners on issues important to you.   This was one of the top priorities of Democrats this session. We're glad to have alleviated some of the burden of increasing health care costs for the people back home.

Mental health reform remains one of the priorities of this state. In this budget, we increase spending for mental health by about $20 million with a focus on housing, substance abuse treatment, crisis services and employment.

Budget writers also found $8.4 million to subsidize child care costs for an additional 2,000 children and $4 million to hire 80 more school nurses.

A bill banning smoking in long term healthcare facilities passed the House unanimously. It was introduced following a deadly fire in March at an adult-care facility in Mocksville. The fire, caused by a resident smoking in her room, resulted in one death and 21 injuries. The bill will affect tens of thousands of North Carolina citizens either living or receiving medical care in the 635 adult care homes, 644 family car homes and 392 nursing homes licensed by the state. The bill is expected to improve the safety and health of residents and workers in the facilities.

A driver's license does not currently serve as a valid indication of a person's wish to be an organ donor. A new bill would change that, making the notice on driver's licenses adequate legal notice of a person's intentions regarding organ donation. The bill passed the House 117-1. It now goes to the Senate.

Environment

This budget fully funds the Clean Water Management Trust Fund at $100 million, helping to protect the state's greatest natural resource. It also spends $8 million for farmland preservation and adds money for the top issue for environmentalists this session-additional inspectors for sedimentation and erosion control. Sediment is the biggest water quality problem in the state. The House proposal also sets aside $10 million so that state buildings can adopt energy efficient measures, which are expected to help save money in the future. The budget also sets aside $2 million so that the state can continue working on ways to improve treatment of hog waste in conjunction with the continuation of the moratorium on the construction of new lagoons.


Finance

Our finance package proposes nearly $290 million in tax relief over the next two years. The package is balanced and offers breaks to low wage earners, small businesses, emerging industries, those planning for retirement, environmentally friendly industries and farmers. As you know I have continually stressed the need to support small business as they are our greatest generator of  new jobs and economic development.

The chief feature is an earned-income tax credit expected to benefit 825,000 taxpayers in North Carolina who earn about $40,000 or less. The change would help offset the costs of other taxes paid by these workers and the estimated tax savings will be $69 million in 2008-09, its first year. The credit is refundable, meaning that in some cases it will not only eliminate the tax burden for low wage earners, but it could put money in their pockets in the form of tax refunds they otherwise may not have received.

Another tax credit would phase out of sales tax on electricity and the excise tax on piped natural gas for manufacturers and farmers. Estimated savings are $14 million in the first year increasing to $42 million by third year.

A change in the tax code allows small businesses to immediately claim tax credits on property and equipment rather than spreading it out over several years. Estimated yearly savings are $36 million for these small companies essential to our economy. Other changes in the tax code are expected to provide $21 million in savings-a total of $57 million. Here again is proof of our effort to support the growth and development of small businesses.

As you can see, this plan, crafted and approved by the Democratic majority in the House, is balanced, offering tax breaks to the poor and those small business people who help drive our economy. We also took care to look out for the people in our state who need help. Education remains our main focus, though, and our plan gives our students, schools and colleges tremendous resources to succeed.

The bill now goes to the Senate and then to the governor. The goal is to have the new spending plan in place before the end of the fiscal year on June 30.

Justice

A bill approved by the House on this week would require North Carolina law enforcement agencies to record all homicide interrogations, either by audio or video devices. The bill, unopposed by both the N.C. Conference of District Attorneys and the N.C. Sheriff's Association, is designed to reduce contestation of cases because of the interrogations process. The recording must be uninterrupted and also may be refused. If it is, that refusal must be recorded. A survey of 500 law enforcement agencies using the tactic found lower litigation costs, decreased number of issues raised in appeals and an increase of cases ending in plea agreements rather than trial. The bill now goes to the Senate.

Criminals who steal or obtain weapons illegally were the target of a bi-partisan bill I sponsored in cooperation with Rep. Joe Kizer a retired Sheriff from Lincoln County North Carolina and former Republican Minority Leader as well as representatives from Mecklenburg, Wake, Forsyth and Guilford Counties. North Carolina had approximately 2,221 criminals who were caught with or who had used stolen or lost guns in the commission of crimes. Additionally, North Carolina ranks 5th among the states for where such stolen or lost guns originate. With the support of the NC Chiefs of Police Association, the Police chiefs of Charlotte, Raleigh and Durham and the Police Benevolent Association this bill was passed out of the Judiciary One Committee. You may have heard negative commercials attacking me about the bill. The police agencies need the help this bill provides to track the source of lost and stolen guns. I stood with law enforcement and our officers on the street who have to face these weapons every day in their efforts to reduce and prevent crimes against all of our citizens.

Mortgage Brokers will now have to provide a more comprehensive record of the financial analysis conducted in the writing of home mortgage loans as a result of the recent bill that we passed out of the Financial Institutions Committee, where I am a vice-chair. In spite of the efforts of some opposition I was able to help the bill sponsor get the bill a favorable report out of the Financial Institutions Committee. This is one of the many steps we need to take to address the predatory lending practices that have so damaged many of the families in our community.

Election Laws

North Carolinians currently vote in the presidential primaries in May of the election year. State legislators, saying the primary elections are essentially decided at that point in the year, want that to change. A new measure being considered in the Legislature would change the primaries to February, effective for the 2008 elections.

A new bill would change the way North Carolina casts its electoral votes in national elections. The current method gives all the state's 15 electoral votes to the candidate with the most votes within the state. Some say this causes federal candidates to ignore North Carolina and focus intensive media campaigns on a few swing states. The bill proposes giving the electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote. The bill passed the Senate this week, and it will likely go before the House next week.

Notes

Wednesday was "Brims and Bows" day in the Legislature. Legislators and General Assembly staffers don bowties and hats as part of the annual tradition. Both men and women participated and posed for pictures on the grand central staircase of the Legislative Building in their finery.

Congratulations to retiring president of Durham Technical Community College, Phail Wynne for his many years of outstanding leadership at that institution that has grown to be one of the real jewels in the community college system thanks to his leadership and vision. Our county is so much the better for the many programs and educational partnerships that have taken flight there in the recent years.

Special thanks to the North Carolina Central University Alumni Association, Durham Chapter for their invitation to their monthly meeting. They continue to promote and support "Eagle Pride" in Durham County.

Larry D. Hall

Please remember that you can listen to each day's committee meetings and press conferences on the General Assembly's Web site 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.