Friday June 24, 2011
After one of the most efficient and productive legislative sessions in modern history, the North Carolina Senate adjourned early Saturday morning.We passed hundreds of bills in 87 legislative days, including many long-overdue reforms that will put North Carolina on a new, more responsible path to better economic growth, prosperity, and educational reform.And we adjourned quicker than any legislature since 1973.We refused to accept the status quo, despite fierce resistance to change and overblown rhetoric from the political left. We fought for the responsible change North Carolinians have long needed and deserved. We simply did what we said we would do, and we did it more openly and efficiently than our predecessors.
Senate Votes to Eliminate Cap on Public Charter Schools
North Carolina parents soon will have more choice and control over their children’s education following final Senate passage of legislation eliminating the 100-school cap on public charter schools. There are only 99 public charter schools in North Carolina – not enough to meet the needs of about 20,000 students on a waiting list.The Senate unanimously passed the conference report on SB 8. It is a simplified version of the original charter school bill, which passed the Senate with bipartisan support earlier this year.
SB 8: No Cap on Number of Charter Schools
Medical malpractice reform bill passes with bipartisan support
The North Carolina Senate passed a bipartisan compromise that reforms the state’s medical malpractice laws, a move that will help attract new jobs and high quality medical personnel and make health care more affordable and accessible for all North Carolinians.
Like the original version of Senate Bill 33, the conference report sets a $500,000 cap on the amount juries can award for pain and suffering and other “noneconomic damages.” But the new cap does not apply if a defendant’s act of gross negligence, fraud, intentional failure, malice, or reckless disregard for the rights of others results in someone’s death, disfigurement, permanent injury, or loss of a body part.
Patients still can recover all medical costs and lost income.
The bill protects doctors and medical personnel from frivolous lawsuits that force them to perform unnecessary procedures and tests. Every North Carolinian pays for that defensive medicine through higher insurance costs and taxpayer-funded medical programs for the poor.
SB 33: Medical Liability Reform
This is the first time North Carolina’s annexation laws have been reformed in more than 50 years. The long-overdue, comprehensive annexation reform the legislature passed will keep municipalities from forcibly annexing private property and saddling residents with the high costs of hooking up to municipal services. Residents often pay thousands of dollars to connect to water and sewer lines – against their will. The people who are targets of annexation will now have a vote in the matter. This has been a major issue in New Hanover County.
HB 845: Annexation Reform Act of 2011
We kept our promise to the voters not to raise their taxes. We enacted tax reforms that will jump start the economy by helping the private sector create thousands of new jobs. The state budget eliminates a nearly $1 billion “temporary” sales tax hike that Gov. Perdue and legislative Democrats raised in the peak of the economic recession and promised would end this year. The budget also eliminates Democrats’ “temporary” income tax surcharge and enacts a $50,000 income exemption for private businesses – the job-creating engines of North Carolina’s wounded economy. These tax savings return more than $1 billion to the pockets of North Carolina citizens and businesses, where it will create as many as 15,000 jobs in the short term and thousands more in the future, economists say. Yes, it’s a new day in North Carolina. The days of endless tax and spend are over. The working taxpayer is now respected, not abused.
HB 200: Appropriations Act of 2011
Democrats say they want abortion to be safe, legal and rare. While we don’t support abortion, we understand it is legal, and have passed legislation that makes it safer and, likely, rarer by requiring doctors to educate women considering abortions. Click on the video above and you can here my statements on the Senate floor in regrads to this legislation.
HB 854: Abortion- Women’s Right to Know Act
Senate Approves Bill Requiring Photo ID to Vote
The North Carolina Senate passed a hugely popular, common-sense bill that requires North Carolinians to show a photo ID when they vote. Some liberal Democrat activists are up in arms over this, which makes you wonder what they might have up their sleeve for the 2012 elections. This law is overwhelmingly supported by the people of North Carolina.
HB 351: Restore Confidence in Government
Both the Senate and the House have acted to protect the Second Amendment rights of North Carolinians. A bill on the governor’s desk would further protect property owners who use a weapon in self-defense, and expand the number of places citizens with a concealed carry permit can carry firearms.
HB 650: Amend Various Gun Laws/Castle Doctrine
The General Assembly fought to protect North Carolinians from President Obama’s overreaching federal health care law. The legislature passed a bill early in the session that gave North Carolinians the right to opt out of the law, the same right the Obama administration extended to some favored corporations, big unions, and Washington insiders. The governor said she would let the bill become law but, after meeting with Obama, she vetoed it. Unfortunately for North Carolina, Perdue has become a major promoter of the Obama political agenda.
Burdensome Regulations Eliminated
The General Assembly passed sweeping changes to the state’s regulatory environment that will simplify outdated rules and regulations. More than 15,000 new or amended regulations have hit the books over the past decade. Many are complex, confusing, and unnecessary rules that are imposed by unelected bureaucrats and cause uncertainty for the state’s businesses. The bill that passed the House and Senate prohibits new state regulations that are more restrictive than federal rules, and requires the state to review and eliminate burdensome regulations annually.
1) 179 bills already law
2) 114 bills on the Governor’s desk
3) 109 bills being delivered to the Governor Monday
4) 6 bills vetoed by the Governor (see page 2)
StarNews: Castle Hayne incorporation leaps final legislative hurdle, off to ballot
StarNews: New commission to study reform of property insurance rates
WRAL: Lawmakers send abortion restrictions to Perdue
WWAY: ONLY ON 3: Goolsby calls veto override ‘wonderful day’ in NC
We will reconvene in July for a speacial one-week redistricting session. Until then I will be in New Hanover County. My office in Raleigh is still open if you have any questions, comments, or concerns.