CSE Raleigh Report: July 19, 2004
Two weeks into the new fiscal year, our legislative session finally ended and legislators returned home for barely forty-eight hours of campaigning before their primaries.
Highlights of the week included the passage of our $15.8 Billion State Budget, passage of a bill changing the public school calendar, a historic vote in the House to over-ride a veto by Governor Easley, a major lobby effort by “voting rights groups”, passage of a requirement of a coastal fishing license, and a vote to strengthen the child safety seat laws.
As I have stated in previous reports, North Carolina CSE is not completely pleased with the State Budget. While the budget does not include any new tax increases, increases passed last session are maintained and spending is increased. Monies allocated for one-time expenditures are used to fund reoccurring expenses. The budget obligates our State and it’s citizens to fund programs without having the money actually needed to pay for them in the future. Also included in the budget is what proponents are calling a “borrowing package” for state university construction projects. Universities to be expanded include: UNC-CH, ECU, UNC-A, Elizabeth City State, Fayetteville State, UNC-G, UNC-Pembroke, Western Carolina, and the NC School of the Arts.
After years of debate, the controversial change in school calendar bill passed both the House and the Senate. The realty and tourism lobbies heavily supported the schedule change. Interesting to note that NCCBI (North Carolina Citizens for Business and Industry) did not support the bill instead asking for further study. The State School Board, the State Department of Public Instruction, and school administrators from across the state opposed the change citing lack of local control and harm to the educational process. Local school boards passed resolutions opposing the change. The bill was never debated in an education committee having instead been sent to the House Committee on Commerce.
In my last report, I spoke of “Monentary Compensation/Outdoor Advertising”. The legislation requires local governments to pay monentary compensation for the removal of lawfully erected outdoor advertising signs. In his fourth veto since taking office, Governor Easley used his veto power in an attempt to prevent the bill from becoming law. In a bold and historic move, the House voted to over-ride the governor’s veto making “Monentary Compensation/Outdoor Advertising” the rule of the day.
“Voting Rights Groups” lobbied the legislature with 5,600 signatures calling on our State Board of Elections to modify its November election plan to include machines that produce paper copies.
In eighteen months, recreational fishermen will be required to purchase a $1 coastal fishing license. The license will be valid for seven days and can be purchased in advance on-line or at the coast. Opponents of the licensing requirement argued that it’s passage would make our state one of the only states to require a license to fish from private property including private piers.
Sierra Hartkopf and Mary Allison Page, five-year-old daughters of NC CSE Director Allen Page and myself are extremely upset and downright indignant about the passage of legislation strengthening the child safety restraint laws. Currently North Carolina law requires children to ride restrained in approved child safety restraint seats if under five years old and under forty pounds. The new legislation requires children to ride restrained in approved child safety restraint seats if under eight years old and under eighty pounds. If you hear of a little red head and a little blonde going door to door at the General Assembly, you will know it was Sierra and Mary Allison.
