Neighbors on Call's Weekly Policy Update for 7/12/21

Governance

• Under a new policy initiated by NC Legislative Services Officer Paul Coble, emails sent and received by members of the NC General Assembly, including those between legislators and staff, will be routinely deleted after three years except where a lawmaker asks for archiving for a longer period or where otherwise required by law. According to Coble, the policy change will reduce the cost of cloud-based storage space. Lawyers from several organizations have raised questions about both public access and the ability to obtain documents sought in lawsuits.

Education Policy

• Pulitzer-prize winning journalist Nicole Hannah-Jones declined an appointment to the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media. Although her appointment with tenure to the Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism was belatedly approved by the UNC Board of Trustees, the process had been delayed when the UNC Board of Trustees set aside a pro forma vote to grant her tenure, allegedly in response to pressure from conservative Board members and a prominent conservative donor. Hannah-Jones, in a statement to the press detailing her decision, advocated for a de-politicization of the governing boards at the public universities in North Carolina so they would reflect “the demographics of the state and the student body, rather than the whims of political power.” Despite the controversy and the expanded influence of the legislature in appointing members of both the UNC Board of Governors and various university Boards of Trustees, Republican legislative leaders see no need to change the process, claiming that the state legislature does not play a role in faculty hiring.

• Governor Cooper issued an executive order setting standards colleges and universities must follow as they develop policies for how student-athletes can receive compensation for the use of their name, image and likeness (NIL). His order comes in the wake of new NCAA rules allowing student-athletes to monetize NIL opportunities. The governor has indicated he intends to work with the state legislature to pass an NIL law to supplement the executive order.
  

• The NC State Board of Education’s Democratic majority narrowly approved the set of documents middle and high school teachers and school districts will use as guidelines for preparing social studies lesson plans and curriculums in the next academic year. While these “unpacking” documents did not engender much discussion, Republicans on the board focused on a conservative think tank’s recent very low/failing “grades” for North Carolina’s new civics and U.S. history standards State School Superintendent Catherine Truitt suggested the NC Department of Instruction would soon present a “template” to guide teachers about essential facts and knowledge students should learn. Eric Davis, chair of the NCSBE, indicated that a new template would be subject to the board’s approval.
  

• David Routh, vice chancellor for university development and UNC-Chapel Hill’s chief fundraiser, will no longer work as an advisor to a Charlotte investment firm after the News & Observer reported on his outside job. NC Senate leader Phil Berger (R -Rockingham County) and others said that the work has at least the appearance of a conflict of interest.

• A provision in the budget bill passed by the NC Senate would give in-state tuition status to out-of-state UNC system athletes. The change would cost the university system about $16 million in revenue according to a 2019 estimate, but proponents argue it would make it more feasible for smaller and less wealthy state institutions to offer athletic scholarships to out-of-state athletes. Rep. Pricey Harrison, D-Guilford, who opposed the tuition break, said the change would be of disproportionate benefit to wealthy booster clubs and she would prefer to see the tuition break limited to smaller schools.

Economic and Housing Policy

• Governor Cooper vetoed a bill that would have prematurely stopped North Carolina from accepting supplemental unemployment benefits allocated to states by the federal government. The supplement, which provides an extra $300 per week to people receiving state-funded unemployment benefits due to COVID-19, is due to run out in September. The vetoed bill, SB 116, did not include a Senate proposal to use the federal supplements to fund signing bonuses rather than direct unemployment payments. House Republicans refused to support any bill that kept federal unemployment money, insisting the federal unemployment insurance supplement contributes to a labor shortage because it keeps people from looking for work. Democrats point to lack of childcare, concern about contracting COVID, and low minimum wages as more immediate causes of the labor shortages. Republicans do not appear to have the votes to override the veto.
  

• Governor Cooper signed SB 668. The new law amends a 2014 statute governing how the North Carolina retirement system deals with the issue of pension benefits that exceed an employee’s contribution to the system, so-called “pension spiking.”
  

• The NC Council of State declined to extend the state moratorium on evictions that has been in effect for much of the COVID pandemic. The Council, which has a Republican majority, voted along party lines against the extension. Eligible North Carolina renters will still be protected against eviction because the CDC extended its national eviction moratorium through the end of July.

• The budget passed by the NC Senate includes at least $765 million for one-time projects, most of which would be in counties represented by Republicans. Sometimes called “pork-barrel spending,” the earmarks in SB 105 include more than 200 local projects, with only about 20 going to places represented exclusively by Democrats. Top Republican leaders suggested the money meets needs in rural areas, but there are no appropriations for nine rural, high-poverty counties - five with majority Black populations – represented by Democrats.

Environmental Policy

• Governor Cooper signed the North Carolina Farm Act of 2021 into law. The only provision of the new law (SB 605) that received strong Democratic pushback makes it easier for state hog farmers to manage methane gas from waste lagoons by granting a general permit from the state regulatory agency instead of requiring individual permits. Republicans said the creation of a general permit is “a step in the right direction.” Democrats and environmental groups objected to the provision because of the potential harm to the environment from methane and other hog waste leaking into groundwater and the harmful effects for the health and safety of low-income communities, including many communities of color, living near the farms. Rep. Pricey Harrison (D-Guilford) said, “We are establishing a general permit that doesn’t allow for site-specific reviews; it actually doesn’t allow for water quality considerations or air quality considerations… This proposal will concentrate the toxins and contaminants that are in hog waste.” The bill had received the support of a handful of Democrats in both the House and Senate.
  

• The North Carolina Utilities Commission will delay approval of Duke Energy’s long-term energy plan in order to do further review of the energy company’s Integrated Resource Plan (IRP). The IRP lays out a decade or more of proposed construction projects and expenses. State regulators must approve the plan before it can be put into place. Environmental groups have argued that the plan leans too much on natural gas and nuclear power as replacements for coal at the expense of other cheaper renewable resources. The Utilities Commission indicated it would soon issue a new order defining what it wants Duke Energy to provide for further review.
  

• Governor Cooper signed HB 272, a bill that lowers the legal standard for hazardous lead levels in drinking water from 15 to 10 parts per billion.

Health Care Policy

• The NC Senate Judiciary Committee overwhelmingly approved a proposal to allow the use of marijuana for certain medical conditions and to set up a mechanism for handling supply and distribution of the drug. SB 711, the NC Compassionate Care Act, will have hearings in several more Senate committees before going to the Senate for a floor vote. The bill would then go to the state House.

Women’s Rights and LGBTQ Rights

• On July 1, ordinances protecting North Carolina LGBTQ+ residents from discrimination in public accommodations and private employment went into effect in Buncombe County and the cities of Asheville, Durham, and Greensboro. Since the lifting last year of the three-year moratorium preventing local governments from passing non-discrimination ordinances, nine local governments have passed ordinances prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
  

Criminal Justice

• A bill that would make it a low-level felony for elected officials to use their positions for financial gain passed the NC House State Government Committee unanimously and was referred to the House Judiciary Committee. SB 473 has already passed the Senate and will likely move to a vote in the full House soon. The state NAACP released a statement calling the bill, which follows a state audit last year of Rocky Mount’s government, racist.
  

• A bipartisan bill raising the minimum age at which a child can be referred to the criminal justice system as a delinquent from six to ten years old passed the NC House Judiciary Committee. SB 207, which has already passed the full Senate, will be discussed by the House Rules Committee and is expected to reach the House floor soon.
  

• Governor Cooper signed into law a bill (HB 238) that makes it a felony to possess, sell or deliver a device used to steal credit card information from ATMs and gas station credit card readers.
  

• Eric Hooks, who has served as Secretary of the NC Department of Public Safety for the past 4-1/2 years will step down on August 1.

Neighbors on Call's Weekly Policy Update for 6/28/21

COVID-19

• On Wednesday the NC House passed a Republican-sponsored bill that would allow local school boards to choose not to comply with the statewide school mask mandate this fall. SB 173 would take away Governor Cooper’s ability to issue a statewide mask mandate for schools. The bill now returns to the Senate for a final vote.

Voting Rights

• On Friday Governor Cooper allowed a bill to become law that would delay some municipal elections until 2022 due to a delay in the availability of census data for redistricting. Despite agreeing not to prevent SB 722 from becoming law, Governor Cooper chose not to sign it due to concerns over a lack of public input on permanent changes to Raleigh’s city elections. Affected municipal elections will generally take place next March along with state and national primary elections, instead of this November.

Education Policy

• On Thursday the House Education Committee advanced a bipartisan bill that would tighten regulations on student loan companies. HB 707, the “Student Borrower’s Bill of Rights,” would mandate license and regulation of such companies, as well as fielding of borrower complaints, by the state Commissioner of Banks. The bill would also clarify responsibilities and prohibited activities of student loan companies.

Economic and Housing Policy

• On Friday the Senate passed its budget proposal, with four Democrats joining all Republicans in voting to approve SB 105 despite the Republican majority not bringing multiple Democrat-proposed changes to a vote. The proposed budget, which at $25.7 billion leaves over $3.6 billion in state revenue unspent, includes several noteworthy components:

  • $4.9 billion in spending from federal COVID relief money, including additional grants to both small businesses that already received COVID relief and those that did not.

  • Language that would restrict the Governor’s powers, requiring approval of executive orders from the Council of State within 10 days of issuance. Multiple separate bills designed to accomplish similar restrictions on the Governor’s power failed to pass this year.

  • Transfer of election fraud investigations from the State Board of Elections to the State Bureau of Investigation. In addition to losing its investigations division, the State Board of Elections would see its staff cut by a third due to elimination of federal election security funding.

  • Extension of Medicaid from 60 days to a year for new mothers. The budget does not expand Medicaid, however, unlike Governor Cooper’s proposed budget.

  • A cut in personal income tax from 5.25% to 3.99% and a phasing out of the 2.5% corporate tax, both over the next five years. The tax cuts in the budget amount to $5.2 billion more than those included in a recent stand-alone Senate bill.

  • A 3% raise over two years for teachers and state employees, rather than the 10% proposed by Governor Cooper.

  • Provision of air conditioning for every prison bed in the state; 38% of prison beds in the state currently lack air conditioning.

  • Creation of a database to track use-of-force incidents involving law enforcement officers.

  • Close to $1 million to establish a new emerging compounds section of the state Department of Environmental Quality, which would create 10 new positions and address chemicals including PFAS.

• On Wednesday the NC General Assembly passed a bill that would eliminate a weekly $300 federal supplement to unemployment benefits. SB 116 also adds $250 million to child care supplements, but it does not include a provision from an earlier version that provides $1500 signing bonuses for North Carolinians who get off unemployment by starting a job. The bill now goes to Gov. Cooper’s desk.

Environmental Policy

• On Thursday the NC House passed the annual Farm Act. The bill, SB 605, includes a blanket permit process for hog farms wishing to set up methane collection systems. A controversial labor provision that would have made it more difficult for employees to blow the whistle or sue was also eliminated from the bill before its passage in the House. The bill now returns to the Senate for a final vote, and it is anticipated that the two chambers will need to negotiate a compromise version of the bill.

Health Care Policy

• On Wednesday the NC Senate held a hearing to consider legalizing medical marijuana. SB 711, which has bipartisan sponsorship, would allow doctors to prescribe cannabis for multiple medical conditions and would align North Carolina with the majority of states in the country. Advocates for and against the bill, including veterans who have struggled with PTSD, doctors, and religious leaders, spoke at Wednesday’s hearing.

Women’s Rights

• On Friday Governor Cooper vetoed a bill that would bar abortions motivated by race, sex, or prenatal diagnoses of Down syndrome. "This bill is unconstitutional and it damages the doctor-patient relationship with an unprecedented government intrusion," Cooper said in a statement about his veto of HB 453. Pro-choice advocates celebrated the veto.
  

• On Tuesday the House Judiciary Committee advanced a bill that would raise the minimum age of marriage in the state from 14 to 16 years. SB 35 passed the Senate unanimously last month and is expected to pass the full House soon before being returned to the Senate for final approval.

Neighbors on Call's Weekly Policy Update for 6/21/21

Governance

• Under a bill passed by the NC Senate, the reasons for “demotions, transfers, suspensions, separations and dismissals” of government employees would become part of the public record. In response to concerns expressed by Senate Democrats, Republicans modified the language in HB 64 to allow the completion of an appeals process before a record is made public. However, the final vote was largely along party lines. The bill is supported by the NC Press Association but opposed by the State Employees Association of North Carolina, NC Association of Educators and others. It will now go back to the NC House for further review.
  

Fair Representation

• The NC Senate passed legislation that would delay city elections in many NC cities from 2021 to 2022. The bill, SB 722, had previously passed the NC House with unanimous support. While nearly all of the cities affected will delay voting until March 2022, Raleigh will have until November 2022 to hold city elections. Because proposed changes to Raleigh city elections did not allow time for public input, all five Wake County senators opposed the bill, which now goes to Governor Cooper.

Voting Rights

• A bill to remove literacy testing as a prerequisite for voting from the NC Constitution has bipartisan support in the NC House and from both liberal and conservative advocacy groups in the state. While the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 banned literacy testing, effectively making the North Carolina law unenforceable, several past attempts to remove the requirement from the NC Constitution were unsuccessful. Supporters of the current legislation say that while the provision can’t be enforced, removing it would have symbolic importance. HB 337 passed the House Committee on State Government. If it is approved by both the full House and by the Senate, it would be a ballot initiative in 2022.
  

• On Wednesday, three bills that will impact voting and elections law passed the NC Senate without any support from Democrats. Under SB 326 all mail-in ballots must be received by Election Day to be counted. The law currently allows a 3-day grace period. SB 725 would prevent local governments, including election boards, from receiving outside grants - including those from charitable organizations – to help defray the cost of elections. In 2020 nonprofit organizations helped to pay for things like single-use pens, PPE equipment, and direct mailers with information about absentee and in-person voting options. Republicans claim SB 724 (titled “Expand Access to Voter ID and Voting”) would facilitate online voter registration and getting identification cards if a currently blocked voter ID law is allowed by state and federal courts to be enforced. Voting rights advocates oppose the law because implementation would be both difficult and underfunded, effectively disenfranchising many potential voters. All three bills will now go to the NC House for consideration.

Economic and Housing Policy

• Under a bill approved by the NC House with bipartisan support, military retirees with at least 20 years of service or who retired due to medical reasons will not have to pay state income tax on their military retirement pay. HB 83 sponsor John Szoka (R-Cumberland) suggested that the cost to the state would be recouped as military retirees will pay state income tax when they take on second careers in the state. Rep. Verla Insko (D-Orange), who voted for the bill, expressed concern that the state is underfunding many essential services, saying, "There are a lot of people who aren't paying their fair share. When we cut taxes, we ought to balance it out by finding a place where people can pay more." The bill now moves to the Senate.
  

• The latest state tax revenue forecast, released Tuesday by the Legislative Fiscal Research Division and the Office of State Management and Budget, indicates the state will have $6.5 billion more than expected over the next two years. The increase is credited to “the state collecting more individual and corporate taxes as the economy recovers and to an economic boost from the federal American Rescue Plan” and makes it more likely there will be disagreements between the Republican-led legislature and Governor Cooper over tax cuts versus spending. Traditionally, a budget is in place by July, the start of the new fiscal year, but that will be delayed as both legislative chambers negotiate a final budget to send to the Governor. The delay could be extended if the Governor vetoes the bill.

Environmental Policy

• Gov. Cooper issued a formal statement criticizing a major legislative energy policy bill that has not yet had its first public hearing. Cooper said the bill would "cost ratepayers too much, fall short of clean energy goals, hamper job recruitment and weaken the Utilities Commission, which exists to provide accountability for utility companies." He wants more emphasis on renewable energy and more input from stakeholders on a policy that will determine the state’s energy strategy for the next decade. The 50-page HB 951 was written by NC House Republicans in concert with Duke Energy, renewable energy industry representatives, and major electricity customers.
  

• The Air Quality Committee of the NC Environmental Management Commission (EMC) recommended the state join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a multi-state agreement to cap companies' carbon dioxide emissions. The full EMC will vote in July on whether to join the RGGI. While major regulatory steps would need to be developed, including a long rule-making process and public hearings, environmental advocacy groups were pleased by the committee’s recommendation.

Gun Violence Prevention

• Gov. Cooper vetoed SB 43, a bill that would allow concealed-carry permit holders to carry guns in churches that meet on school property as long as the school was not in session. In his veto message, Governor Cooper said, “For the safety of students and teachers, North Carolina should keep guns off school grounds,”

Women’s Rights and LGBTQ Rights

• The federal Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a block on a North Carolina statute that would severely limit abortions rights. The law, enacted in 2016, sought to ban abortions - with very few exceptions - after 20 weeks’ gestation. It was originally blocked in 2016 in a lower court on appeal from several reproductive rights advocates.