Taxes, schools big legislative topics
RALEIGH - State legislators set a vote on a $2 billion bond package, rewrote several environmental rules, restricted food aid for adults and tossed a football on the Senate floor during a break — and that was just in the last day and a half of this year's session.
Sen. Jeff Tarte, R-Mecklenburg, tweeted that he "will need a couple of weeks of detailed reading to know EVERYTHING we passed in the last two weeks!"
Who knows how long it would take to read every piece of legislation that passed in the entire eight and a half month session, which began in late January. If you want to take a pass on that, here's a summary:
Some say money makes the world go round. Maybe, but it didn't make the legislature go faster.
Disagreements between the House and Senate over the state budget were a big reason the 2015 session was the longest the legislature has seen in years. The last vote to approve the budget didn't happen until Sept. 18, more than two and a half months after the start of the state fiscal year July 1.
The final product cut and raised taxes, put money into state reserves and disappointed public education advocates. Highlights:
--Total spending of more than $21.7 billion is about a 3 percent increase over the previous fiscal year.
--The state personal income tax rate will fall from 5.75 percent to 5.5 percent and legislators restored a tax deduction for medical expenses that they had cut in 2013. A scheduled decline in the corporate tax rate will continue.
--The state sales will be extended to many services like auto repairs and appliance installation.
--Rural and suburban counties will get more sales tax revenue as a result of expansion of the tax while urban counties won't see a change. A Senate plan to reduce the amount of sales tax revenue urban counties get and give that money to rural counties died.
--State employees and teachers will get a $750 bonus. Beginning teachers will see their pay raised from $33,000 to $35,000.
--The budget allocates $600 million to reserves and ends a $216 million annual transfer of highway funds to pay for the State Highway Patrol and other programs not directly related to building or maintaining roads.
--Senate proposals to cut funding for teacher assistants, already well below levels of a few years ago, and funding for driver's education did not make it into the final budget.
"It doesn't feel like a real commitment to pay our teachers what they need to be paid." Rep. John Ager, D-Buncombe.
"This is a good budget for North Carolina and I don't know why you'd vote against it." Sen. Tom Apodaca, R-Henderson.
Social issues sparked some of the most passionate debate. In response to legalization of same-sex marriage, the General Assembly voted to allow magistrates and workers in register of deeds office to opt out of performing or licensing all marriages if they have religious objections. Legislators then overrode Gov. Pat McCrory's veto of the bill.
A bill to ease restrictions on gun ownership was watered down significantly to make mostly minor changes. It allows districts attorneys to carry concealed weapons in courtrooms and struck some misdemeanors from the list of offenses that can prevent someone from getting a concealed carry permit.
A bill to institute a 72-hour waiting period for abortions and add some requirements to practitioners passed as did another to keep state funds from going to Planned Parenthood and ban the sale of body parts from fetuses.
"One of the most common things I hear is that 'I didn't have time to make a decision." Sen. Joyce Krawiec, R-Forsyth, on her experience counseling women after abortions.
"You are relegating us to second-class citizenship, and you are insulting us to say it takes 72 hours to make up our mind." Sen. Erica Smith-Ingram, D-Northhampton, referring to the abortion bill.
An overhaul of the state Medicaid program, which covers low-income people and the disabled, shifts financial risks for treating patients to outside medical networks or managed-care companies.
Instead of being paid for each procedure performed, the organizations that contract with the state will get a set amount of money per patient per month.
Supporters said the changes, which require federal approval and would take several years to implement, will save the state millions and end past budgetary overruns. Opponents said organizations will have too much incentive to not give needed care.
The idea of accepting federal money to expand Medicaid, as proposed under the Affordable Care Act, got little discussion.
Legislators set a vote on the $2 billion bond package, a major priority for McCrory, for March 15. That's the same day party primaries for president and the usual state, federal and local offices will be held in 2016, a switch from the usual early May date.
If voters go along, the UNC system would get the biggest chunk of money, with $935 million going to designated projects and $45 million to general repairs and renovations. One earmarked project is a new natural science building at Western Carolina University. Next would be $350 million for community colleges and $309.5 million for local water and sewer projects. The rest would be spread through a variety of areas, including $75 million for state parks.
North Carolinians can now hunt on Sundays on private land. A law passed by the legislature to allow it took effect Wednesday.
They said:
"Somehow in my heart of hearts there's something about taking an animal on Sunday that doesn't seem quite right." - Sen. Louis Pate, R-Wayne
"We do everything else we decide we want to do on Sunday. Everything. ... I can go fishing. I can go play golf." - Sen. Brent Jackson, R-Sampson
With a few exceptions, state officials and local governments cannot now remove historic markers, monuments or statues from public property without passage of a state law to allow changes. The bill was filed before a fatal shooting in a Charleston, South Carolina, church brought more attention to Confederate symbols and memorials but the shooting affected debate before the bill passed.
"We're talking about statues that invoke passion, and not necessarily good passion; the get folks angry. ... Right now it's the wrong legislation, it's gonna send the wrong message." - Rep. Kelly Alexander, D-Mecklenburg
"The whole purpose of the bill, as I see it, is to keep the flames of passion from overriding common sense." - Rep. Michael Speciale, R-Craven.
The General Assembly authorized raising the tax on stays in Buncombe County hotels and motels from 4 to 6 percent, with three-quarters of the money going to marketing efforts to draw more tourists and a quarter to bricks-and-mortar projects to make the county more attractive to visitors.
Proponents said the additional efforts are needed so that existing hotels remain viable as new ones come on line. Critics, including some members of Asheville City Council, said some or all of the money should go to local government to pay for the strain tourists place on local services. The city and Buncombe County will be able to apply for grants from the tax.
Mission Health would no longer be subject to state rules to limit its influence over the local health care market if, as expected, McCrory signs a bill legislators passed in the session's final week.
Legislators approved a bill to ease Duke Energy's plans to stop burning coal at its generating plant in Skyland and switch to natural gas and solar.
Another bill starts the process of replacing a statue of former Gov. Charles Brantley Aycock in the U.S. Capitol with one of the Rev. Billy Graham. The House also passed a resolution asking for a postage stamp commemorating Graham.
Efforts to allow Waynesville and the unincorporated community of Lake Junaluska residents to vote on whether Waynesville would annex the community died in the House.
"Looking at purely simple economics, we all said we need to do something about" plans for new hotels. Jack Cecil, developer and hotel owner, on the room tax.
"We have to reach some compromise, primarily because of where the legislature is right now." Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer, explaining why the city won't be guaranteed a share of the tax.
--Eased some provisions of the state's voter ID law as a challenge to it moved through the courts.
--Passed bills changing the way Wake County commissioners, Greensboro city councilmen and several school boards are elected despite the objections of those bodies. Greensboro changes have been held up in court.
--Replenished the state's economic development incentive funds.
--Allowed tax credits for most renewable energy projects to expire at the end of the year.
--Banned those under 18 from using tanning beds.
--Allowed distilleries to sell one bottle of liquor a year to each person touring their facilities.
--Capped the state's contribution to a proposed Chapel Hill-Durham light rail line at $500,000 but ultimately dropped a controversial proposal to make it harder for local governments across the state to add bike lanes to state-owned roads.
The tax man cometh
Here is a summary of changes in state taxes and fees approved as part of the budget for the 2015-16 fiscal year that began July 1, along the with amount of money they will add or subtract from state revenue.
Personal income tax
--The income tax rate drops from 5.75 percent to 5.499 percent, effective in the 2017 tax year.
--Taxpayers can once again deduct medical expenses from their gross income, effective this year. The legislature had eliminated the deduction in 2013.
--The standard deduction, the amount of income taxpayers who do not itemize deductions can shield from taxation, goes from $15,000 to $15,500 for married couples and $7,500 to $7,750 for singles as of next year.
Impact. The changes will cost the state $117.3 million in the current fiscal year, rising to $719.8 million in FY 2017-18.
Sales tax
--The sales tax will be applied to the installation, maintenance or repair of objects that are subject to sales tax when they are sold, starting March 1.
Impact. The state will gain $44.5 million in revenue in the current fiscal year, rising to $159.5 million in FY 2016-17.
DMV fees
--The renewal fee for the standard drivers license, paid every eight years, rises from $32 to $40, effective Jan. 1.
--Most other license, registration and title fees go up by about 30 percent, also as of Jan. 1. Examples include the annual car registration fee, which goes from $51 to $66, and an application for a new car title, which rises from $40 to $52.
Impact. The state gets an additional $91.3 million in the current fiscal year and $217 million more in FY 2016-17.
Corporate income tax
--A 2013 law set up a scheduled to cut the corporate income tax rate, then at 6.9 percent, each year until it reached 3 percent if the amount of state revenue from all sources met certain targets. The new budget bill ensures that the cuts go into effect. The rate is 5 percent this year, will be 4 percent next year and 3 percent in 2017.
--Corporations will change the way they calculate their income over a three-year period beginning Jan. 1, further reducing the amount of tax the state collects.
Impact. The state loses $117 million in the current fiscal year and $372.4 million in 2016-17, rising to $627.3 million in FY 2018-19. About 85 percent of the impact comes from the tax rate cuts already scheduled.
Historic preservation
--The bill reinstates a tax credit given to people who renovate historic buildings, although the new credit is less generous than under previous state law.
Impact. The state loses $8 million annually once the credit goes into effect next year.
Municipal vehicle fee
--Cities and towns can increase the annual tax on vehicles from $5 to as much as $30 as of July 1 next year.
Impact. None to the state.