Budget
Accord Sends Session Rushing Toward
Adjournment
With
just two days before the end of the
fiscal year, House and Senate leaders
compromised on the remaining items in
dispute between their spending plans for
the budget year starting July 1 and made
plans to adjourn soon after the July 4th
holiday. It's the second year in a row
lawmakers completed a budget on time
after a string of missed deadlines.
The breakthrough came Thursday just a day
after the Senate's lead budget conferee,
Appropriations Co-chair Fountain Odom
(D-Mecklenburg) said the chambers were
“at loggerheads” over pay
raises for state employees, how much
money to set aside for environmental
protection and how to protect against an
imminent surge in state employees health
plan costs.
They split the baby on raising state
workers' pay. The House wanted 5 percent,
the Senate proposed 3 percent and they
settled on 4.2 percent -- a 2.2 percent
COLA and a 2 percent “career
growth” increase. Plus they will get
a one-time $500 bonus that will cost
about $90 million, but next budget year
that amount is earmarked as a hedge
against rising costs in the state health
plan.
Other compromises: As the Senate
proposed, the deal forgives the loan the
state gave to the N.C. Railroad last year
to buy out private shareholders, plus it
allows the NCRR to keep the $11 million
it earns in annual lease payments from
CSX but it must use the money for track
improvements. The House was willing to
forgive $11 million of the loan. The
House dropped its plan to cut $2.7
million from UNC Hospitals and the Senate
agreed to restore $3.3 million cut it
made in funding for a program to help
school systems hire central office staff.
The compromise deal was officially
presented to the conference committee
late Friday morning and was on track to
reach the full House and Senate later in
the afternoon, with 12 hours to spare
before the end of the fiscal year.
Tidying up the session will take a few
more days. House Speaker Jim Black
(D-Mecklenburg) thought they would wrap
up the week of July 10. He and Senate
President Pro Tem Marc Basnight (D-Dare)
set a schedule that calls for legislators
to take Monday off and come back for a
brief session on Tuesday, the 4th.
The big push toward adjournment will
start Wednesday, the 5th, when committee
chairmen will start indefinitely
postponing, and thereby killing, hundreds
of pieces of pending legislation. By next
week's issue of the Legislative Bulletin,
we should have a clearer picture of
exactly what bills passed and which
didn't. Watch for that wrap-up edition.
 Wicker Says Goodbye to
the Senate
Family comes first,
Lt. Gov. Dennis Wicker (left) said
Wednesday when he announced that he
wouldn't be around to preside over the
final days of the short session because
of his family's vacation plans. Wicker,
who has presided over the Senate for the
past eight years, was soundly defeated by
Attorney General Mike Easley in the
Democratic gubernatorial primary. He said
his son, who attends a year-round school
in Lee County, will be starting school
July 12, and the next several days was
the only time the whole family could get
away for vacation. Here are some of the
comments he made in his official goodbye
to the Senate: "Thanks to you and
others before you, we are moving ahead
and are known as a state that is reaching
out and leading the country in progress.
What I want you to know is that today, I
am as optimistic and excited about our
state as I have ever been." He
received a standing ovation from senators
and the gallery.
House Panel Approves New
Tax Credits for Brownfields
The
House Finance Committee on Tuesday
amended and favorably reported a bill
creating a tax credit for owners of
brownfields. The measure, H
1639 Brownfields Tax Incentive,
sponsored by Sen. Fountain Odom
(D-Mecklenburg), says a brownfield will
be have 90 percent of its value excluded
from local property taxes during the
first year of the project, declining to a
10 percent exclusion during the fifth
year. This measure creates a partial tax
exemption for the first five taxable
years for property in any brownfields
agreement reached with the state
Department of Environment and Natural
Resources after July 1, 2000. The
qualified property under this agreement
includes abandoned, idled, or underused
property, at which expansion or
redevelopment is hindered by potential
state or locally mandated remediation of
environmental contamination. Under a
brownfields agreement, the state provides
the prospective developer with a covenant
not to sue, contingent upon the developer
conducting actions outlined in the
agreement, including the cleanup of
environmental contamination, prevention
of future contamination, and
modifications that would maximize benefit
for the public. There are currently three
completed brownfields agreements and six
agreements signed and pending. Seventeen
other brownfields applications have been
filed.DENR staff believe that the tax
incentive will serve as an effective
means of attracting additional
brownfields site developers, as well as
providing an incentive for pending
agreements to proceed at a more rapid
pace. The tax exemption only extends to
the tax appraised value of qualifying
improvements upon the site, not the value
of the entire site. DENR staff and county
tax assessors have said the additional
property tax revenue provided by
improvements to brownfield sites will be
far greater than the combined tax loss
over the five-year partial exemption
period. The Senate Finance Committee on
Tuesday also approved these bills:
* S
1544 Tourist Directional Sign Program,
sponsored by Sen. Linda Garrou
(D-Forsyth), a Senate-passed bill
intended to help the state's travel and
tourism industry by erecting more highway
signs directing tourists to various
attractions. It directs the state DOT to
erect the signs but limits placement of
them to highways other than fully
controlled access highways and to rural
areas in and around municipalities with
population less than 25,000. The measure
received second-reading approval by the
full Senate on Wednesday.
* S.
1318 Amend Bill Lee Act Tier Designations,
sponsored by Sen. Walter Dalton
(D-Rutherford), a Senate-passed bill that
amends existing law to provide that a
Tier 2 county may not be redesignated as
a higher-numbered enterprise tier area
until it has been an in its enterprise
tier one area for at least two
consecutive years. The measure received
second-reading approval by the full
Senate on Wednesday.
* S.
1381 Reallocate Water Bond Funds,
sponsored by Sen. John Kerr (D-Wayne), a
Senate-passed bill which transfers some
of the $800 million in water and sewer
bonds approved by voters in 1998 from
loans into grants for some small towns.
House Panel
Approves Rural Internet Access Authority
The House
Ways & Means Committee on Tuesday
favorably reported a Senate-passed bill,
S. 1343 Rural Internet Access Authority
sponsored by Sen. Eric Reeves (D-Wake),
creating a new state agency by that name
to help bring high-speed Internet access
service to rural areas of the state. The
Microelectronics Center of North
Carolina, a private concern originally
started with state grants, has offered to
give $30 million to the Rural Internet
Access Authority, money it gained from
the sale of a spin-off.Names in the News
Cherokees
Go on War Path Over Ban on Video Poker
Machines
The Senate
on Tuesday voted 44-4 to pass a bill
outlawing video poker machines and other
video games of chance in the state. But
the Senate quickly backtracked Wednesday
and recalled the bill from the House when
leaders of the Eastern Band of Cherokee
Indians, which has the machines in the
casino on its reservation, showed up in
town to protest. Senate President Pro Tem
Marc Basnight said he never intended to
harm the Cherokees. The bill was
rewritten to allow the Cherokees to
continue operating video power machines.
Another amendment says it won't be
illegal to manufacture and assemble video
poker machines in the state because there
is one already doing that here. The
measure, S.
1542 Video Poker Machines Illegal,
originally would have limited to three
the number of video poker machines that
any one establishment could have, but was
rewritten in committee to specify a
complete ban. Officials estimate there
are more than 20,000 machines already in
use in the state. Interest in video poker
machines arose because South Carolina has
banned the machines, and legislators
worried that the machines would be moved
across the state line. As amended, the
measure sponsored by Sen. Allen Wellons
(D-Johnston), gives businesses until Dec.
1 to remove the machines. Cherokee
leaders told Basnight that the ban would
cost the tribe $50 million a year in lost
revenue.
Bill
Lee Act Changes Expected To Be Signed
Into Law
The Senate
on Tuesday gave final approval to a
House-passed bill revising the state's
major economic development law to extend
tax credits to a Gaston County
manufacturing plant and a Midway Airlines
maintenance facility at Raleigh-Durham
International Airport. Gov. Jim Hunt is
expected to sign the measure into law
shortly. The measure, H.
1560 Modify Bill Lee Act, sponsored
by Rep. Gordon Allen (D-Person), gives
Buckeye Technologies 17 years instead of
12 to carry forward investment credits
for a $100 million plant that will
produce diapers and feminine hygiene
products. The measure also subjects
companies seeking grants from the
Industrial Recruitment Competitiveness
Fund to a wage test and extend the
maximum state low-income housing tax
credit for four years in 26 counties that
were impacted by Hurricane Floyd.
Charlotte
Quick-Take Condemnation Bill Advances
The House
on Wednesday gave final approval to a
bill giving Charlotte quick-take
condemnation authority to speed develop
of an industrial park on Wilkinson
Boulevard, a major road from
Charlotte-Douglas Airport into downtown.
The measure, H.
1647 Charlotte Economic Development Quick
Take sponsored by Rep. Ed McMahan
(R-Mecklenburg), attracted opposition but
was passed on a 65-46 vote. The measure
is supported by the Charlotte Mecklenburg
Development Corp., a non-profit venture
formed by the Charlotte Chamber of
Commerce, the city and the county. They
initially asked for condemnation
authority over 450 to 500 acres, but that
was reduced to 200 acres because of
opposition from property owners.The House
on Wednesday also approved a
Senate-passed bill, S.
1263 Charlotte Wheel Locks Allowed,
sponsored by Sen. Charles Dannelly
(D-Mecklenburg), which authorizes police
in the Queen City to use the Denver boot.
Toll Roads
Bill Gets Sidetracked
Hoping to salvage the
measure from likely defeat, the House
Finance Committee brought back up
legislation to allow the first toll roads
in the state, including ones owned by
private developers, but amended the
measure to specify that only one private
toll road could be built as a
demonstration project. Further, the state
wouldn't be able to use its imminent
domain power to condemn land for a
private toll road, the revised version of
the bill, H. 1630 Toll Roads, says after
it was favorably reported Wednesday by
the committee. House leaders said they
had weakened the bill as much as possible
to overcome opposition. Senate leaders
said that, without condemnation powers,
the measure would be useless.
New
Laws on the Books
* H 133 Exempt Bill Disabled
Veteran Vehicles. Exempts from
property tax modified motor vehicles
owned by disabled veterans who are
eligible for federal special equipment
allowances. Effective for taxes imposed
for taxable years beginning on or after
July 1, 2000.
* H 1326 Dry-Cleaning Solvent
Cleanup Amendments. Designates
the state sales tax revenue from
dry-cleaning and laundry services to the
dry-cleaning solvent cleanup fund;
increases the state sales tax on
dry-cleaning solvents; amends the
dry-cleaning solvent cleanup act of 1997
to repeal the requirement of financial
responsibility for dry-cleaning
facilities and wholesale dry-cleaning
solvent distribution facilities; allows
the Environmental Management Commission
to enter into contracts with private
contractors for assessment and
remediation activities at dry-cleaning
facilities and wholesale dry-cleaning
solvent distribution facilities; directs
the secretary of Environment and Natural
Resources to study the use of
dry-cleaning solvents in North Carolina.
Different sections of the act become law
at various times. The remainder of the
act is effective June 26, 2000.
* H 1573 Health Care
Facility/Continuing Care Retirement
Center Tax Exempt. Clarifies the
property tax treatment of a health care
facility undertaken by the Medical Care
Commission pursuant to the Health Care
Facilities Finance Act and extends the
sunset on the property tax exemption for
continuing care retirement centers.
Section 1 of the act becomes effective
Oct. 1, 2000 and applies to bonds or
notes issued on or after that date.
Section 2 becomes effective July 1, 2000.
The remainder of the act is effective
June 26, 2000.
* H 1545 Excise Tax On Timber
Contracts. Clarifies that the
excise tax on conveyances applies to
timber deeds and contracts for the sale
of standing timber. Effective July 1,
2000.
* H 1577 Bullhead Mountain State
Natural Area. Authorizes the
addition of bullhead mountain state
natural area to the state parks system,
as recommended by the environmental
review commission. Effective June 22,
2000.
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