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Neighbors on Call’s NC Policy Update for 5/1/23
Fair Representation
On Friday the NC Supreme Court ruled that partisan gerrymandering is legal in North Carolina, overturning the previous court’s ruling on partisan gerrymandering from late last year. The vote in the rehearing of Harper v. Hall was split along party lines, with all Republican justices joining the opinion and both Democratic justices dissenting. The court’s decision may render the U.S. Supreme Court’s current consideration of NC’s partisan gerrymandering moot.
Voting Rights
The NC Supreme Court also voted Friday to overturn the previous court’s ruling in Holmes v. Moore, allowing for voter ID requirements to go into effect. The voter ID law was passed in late 2018 by a lame duck General Assembly, and the previous court had ruled that it was unconstitutionally discriminatory, but the new Republican majority ruled that discriminatory intent was not proved “beyond a reasonable doubt.” Both Democratic justices again dissented.
The NC Supreme Court ruled on Friday that a state law preventing people with felony convictions from voting if they have not completed the terms of their probation or parole is constitutional. The ruling in Community Success Initiative v. Moore overturns yet another recent decision from the previous court and will disenfranchise more than 50,000 people – disproportionately African Americans.
Education Policy
On Thursday the NC House voted along party lines to approve a Republican-sponsored bill that would create an appointed commission to recommend standards in K-12 education. HB 756 would allow the Speaker of the House, Senate president pro tem, and governor to each appoint 6 members to the commission (amended from the original proposal, which would have given the NCGA leadership 8 seats each and none to the governor). The State Board of Education currently receives recommendations for standards from the Department of Public Instruction. The bill now moves to the Senate for consideration.
A Republican-sponsored bill under consideration at the NC House would eliminate tenure in UNC System schools, replacing tenure offerings with a contract program. HB 715 would also require system schools to report on research conducted by faculty and recommend ways to “increase instructional time,” give boards of trustees powers to eliminate “unnecessary or redundant expenses, personnel, and areas of study,” and limit the types of extracurricular activities schools can spend money on. On Thursday more than 670 UNC-Chapel Hill faculty signed an open letter opposing this bill and HB 96 (a bill that would create an American history/government graduation requirement), calling these measures overreach by the General Assembly.
On Wednesday the NC Senate Education/Higher Education Committee gave a favorable report to a Republican-sponsored bill that would expand the state’s private school voucher program. SB 406 (=H 823) would allow all families, regardless of income, to qualify for an “opportunity scholarship” and would appropriate $3 billion to the voucher program over the next seven years. Democrats expressed concerns that increased funding for vouchers would continue to drain public school resources.
On Monday a group of Democrats in the NC House filed a bill to make school breakfast and lunch free for all K-12 students. HB 844 would allocate $172 million in recurring funds to pay for school meals for all. North Carolina’s school lunch debt is currently a record $3.1 million.
A Republican-sponsored bill under consideration in the NC House would ban sex education before seventh grade and forbid teaching of sex education to students without a signed parental permission slip. HB 185 replaces the current opt-out model, where parents may choose to take their child out of sex ed, with an opt-in model. The bill was scheduled to be debated Tuesday afternoon but the discussion was postponed.
On Thursday the House Education Committee approved a Republican-sponsored bill that would ban public colleges and universities from requiring employees or students to talk about their political beliefs. HB 607 would ban higher education institutions from making staff, faculty, or students speak about their beliefs related to “matters of contemporary political debate or social action.” A similar Senate bill, SB 364, would extend the ban to all state government entities. Supporters of the bills have made clear that they are intended to target diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
Economic and Housing Policy
On Thursday the NC House Banking Committee approved three Republican-sponsored bills that would prevent banks from using certain criteria to deny service and ban them from keeping records of gun purchases. HB 784 would prevent banks from denying services to people or businesses based on their history of corruption, human rights violations, violations of environmental regulations, or workers’ rights violations. HB 781 would ban banks from denying services “based on a personal, ideological, moral, or political opinion,” with supporters saying the bill will protect gun dealers from being denied banking services. HB 564 would ban banks from keeping records that show gun purchases.
On Thursday the NC House passed a bill that would allow credit unions to expand. HB 410 would allow credit unions to serve a broader range of people with the goal of closing bank coverage gaps caused by branch closures in rural areas. The bill passed with both support and opposition from members of both parties.
Environmental Policy
Rep. John Autry (D-Mecklenburg) filed a bill in the NC House on April 18 to ban fracking across the state. The bill was referred to the rules committee and has not moved. HB 676 would make hydraulic fracturing (fracking) illegal, and it is equivalent to bills Autry has filed in the previous two legislative sessions. Fracking was legalized in North Carolina in 2012 and is known to cause air and water pollution.
Health Care Policy
On Thursday the NC House passed a bill that would allow Blue Cross Blue Shield NC to reorganize. HB 346, which has been “heavily lobbied,” would allow the insurance company to establish a new holding company that would give the company the ability to make investments and purchases without approval from the state’s insurance commissioner. State Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey opposes the bill and said that he expects it would cause insurance premiums to increase.
On Thursday the NC House Health Committee approved a Republican-sponsored bill that would allow health care workers to deny treatment based on personal beliefs. HB 819 would allow any health care professional, including doctors, nurses, lab technicians, nursing home employees, and insurance companies, to deny services based on their moral, religious, or philosophical beliefs. Critics of the bill expressed concerns over how broad its language is and pointed out that it would give cover to discrimination, potentially denying trans people gender-affirming care or preventing people from accessing birth control.
Representatives in the NC House filed a bipartisan bill that would allocate $1 billion to improve the state’s mental health care system. HB 855 would use around two-thirds of the funding the state will gain by expanding Medicaid to fund new mental health care facilities, expand school-based behavioral health services, and improve the foster care and mental health court systems. North Carolina’s mental health metrics have trended poorly in recent years, with youth suicides doubling over the past decade.
Child Welfare Policy
On Tuesday the NC Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously voted to advance a bipartisan bill that would reform NC’s child welfare system. SB 625 would change the law that currently allows parents to lose parental rights if they fail to pay child support while their children are in foster care, grant foster families a right to petition a judge if they wish to adopt a child they have fostered for more than a year, and allow post-adoption contact agreements between birth parents and adoptive families. Sen. Sydney Batch (D, Wake) is one of the primary sponsors of the bill.
Criminal Justice
On Tuesday the NC Senate Judiciary Committee advanced a Republican-sponsored bill that would increase the felony penalty for disseminating obscene materials in front of a child, which the bill’s sponsor indicated may include drag shows. SB 579 would make spreading obscene materials in front of children a Class H felony (an increase from the current Class I felony) with a maximum prison sentence of two years. While advocates of the bill spoke about the harms of pornography, critics questioned whether the bill was intended to target drag shows, which have been under attack by Republicans in many states. Others pointed out that the bill might lead to juveniles who share pornographic material with their friends being transferred to the adult criminal justice system.
A group of Democrats in the NC House filed a bill that would provide stipends to indigent people leaving prisons to help ease their transition out of incarceration. HB 836 would provide stipends up to $3000 for housing, food, clothing, and transportation for up to 6 months after a person’s release from prison, with stipends varying based on level of indigence. The bill would also fund the creation of five new Local Reentry Councils and prohibit occupational licensing boards from denying applicants based on conviction of a nonviolent crime.
On Wednesday the NC House Transportation Committee advanced a bipartisan bill that would add license plate reader cameras to state highways. HB 198 would create a pilot program to add these cameras, which would need to be renewed after one year. The bill would also make illegally accessing data from license plate readers a class 1 misdemeanor and repeal a prohibition on spending money on bicycle and pedestrian path projects that aren’t linked to road projects.
A group of Democrats in the NC House filed a bill aimed to address an increase in hate crimes in North Carolina. HB 596 would increase penalties for crimes that are motivated by bias, require additional training for prosecutors and law enforcement officers, and establish a hate crimes statistics database. The bill does not currently have bipartisan support.