Governor Budget Veto Expected Tuesday; House and Senate will Likely Override June 10, 2011
Greetings!
The House and Senate sent a budget to the Governor last Saturday (June 4). The Governor has until Tuesday, June 14 to decide whether to veto the budget. Indications are that leadership in the House has secured enough votes to override a veto. The Senate already has a veto-proof majority. We are still urging calls to the offices of the five swing legislators.
See Action Alert, below.
As detailed in an earlier update, the compromise budget does make more investments in Public Education and in Health and Human Services, but the budget overall is still a bad budget for children. The depth of the cuts would not be necessary if current revenues were maintained.
The House and Senate leadership are still aiming for next Friday, June 17th to be the end of this session of the General Assembly. There are, however, plans being made for "special sessions" later in the summer/fall on redistricting and constitutional amendments.
Teacher Pay for Performance Question There was a question on the call as to whether or not the pay for performance plan for teachers was included in the final House-Senate budget sent to the Governor last week. We spoke with our friends at NCAE, who report that the budget includes a sketch-out of a pay for performance plan for year two of the biennium, but no details are included. There is a $200,000 allocation, but that is for state employees in general (not just teachers) to receive pay for performance raises. So it looks like they punted that question to next year.
Budget Documents
Line-by-line comparisons of the House budget vs. the first draft Senate budget vs. the budget sent to the Governor are below.
Click here for a detailed run-through of the changes in the final House-Senate budget, from the last Senate draft budget.
Bill Update Tracking lists of bills in each of Action for Children's four areas of interest will be maintained on the website and updated weekly. Please visit our Policy Action page for full lists. The crossover deadline was this week. All bills that don't have an appropriation (money implications) had to have passed one chamber or the other by this week in order to remain viable for the rest of session and for the 2012 short session. Because of the crossover deadline, a LOT of bills moved this week. Here are highlights. Raise the Age Update: HB 632 has been languishing for weeks in the House Judiciary B committee. The committee co-chair, Representative Stam, has refused to bring the bill up for a discussion and vote. An effort is now being made to move the bill to another House Judiciary committee, where it could get a fair hearing. There is likely only one week left in session, however. SB 397 to expunge the records of most 16- and 17-year-olds who have committed misdemeanors may come up for a vote in Judiciary B next week. Safety HB 650: AMEND VARIOUS GUN LAWS/CASTLE DOCTRINE passed the House and was referred to Senate Judiciary II. Would protect people from liability if they shoot someone in self-defense in their home, car or workplace and would remove the current requirement to try to retreat before shooting. Would also allow guns to be held in locked vehicles at schools, businesses, state buildings and courthouses. SB 636: MODIFY GRADUATED LICENSING REQUIREMENTS passed the Senate and referred to House Judiciary B. Would place more restrictions on younger drivers, including a log of hours driven with a parent in the car and the threat of losing one's license for a month if charged with a driving violation. The changes are not evidenced-based and make the law more complicated, increasing fears that parents and youth will not follow the restrictions.
Education HB 467: IMPROVE SCHOOL DISCIPLINE was gutted and used as a vehicle for a completely different bill. The bill would have allowed school officials to use "reasonable force" in disciplinary matters and provide them with immunity from prosecution. The school discipline issue will not advance further this session.
HB 503: NUTRITION STDS/ALL FOODS SOLD AT SCHOOL passed the House and was referred to Senate Education committee.
HB 707: SCHOOL VIOLENCE PREVENTION ACT passed the Senate Judiciary II committee and was re-referred to Appropriations, likely so it would not have to make the crossover deadline. The bill has been improved, but still requires principals to report certain events to law enforcement, defines cyberbullying against teachers very broadly and makes it a crime, and provides immunity to school employees for not breaking up a fight between students.
HB 736: AMEND LAW RE. SCHOOL DISCIPLINE passed the House and the Senate, but the House did not concur with the Senate version of the bill because the Senate inserted the corporal punishment ban language into the bill. The language has since been removed and the corporal punishment bill will be heard, as planned, as a stand-alone bill next Tuesday, June 14 in the House Education committee.
See Action Alert, below.
HB 744: SAFE STUDENTS ACT passed the House. Fortunately, a compromise was reached, and the bill no longer requires parents to confirm their children's immigration status when enrolling them in school.
HB 822: DROPOUT RECOVERY PILOT PROGRAM passed the House and was referred to Senate Education/Higher Education committee. The bill would implement a program to bring dropouts back into the school system. It is interesting that this bill should move while the House-Senate budget eliminates all funding for drop-out prevention.
HB 823: GOVERNANCE OF THE DEP'T OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION passed the House and was referred to Senate Rules committee. Would give the General Assembly more control (and the Governor less control) over the state school board.
SB 8: NO CAP ON NUMBER OF CHARTER SCHOOLS passed the House and Senate and will likely be supported by the Governor. A compromise was reached that will lift the cap on charter schools in the state but that will not create a separate Board to oversee the charters.
SB 498: MODIFY LAW RE. CORPORAL PUNISHMENT will be heard in the House Education committee next Tuesday, June 14 at 10 a.m.
See Action Alert, below. Economic Security HB 344: TAX CREDITS FOR CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES passed the House and will be heard in Senate Education/Higher Education on Monday, June 13. Would provide a small tax credit to families who move their disabled children to private schools. Credit is not high enough to allow children from low-income families to benefit, and the refundability clause was struck from the final version of the bill. HB 810: CONSUMER FINANCE ACT AMENDMENTS passed the House and was referred to Senate Rules committee. Would allow consumer finance companies to raise rates and fees on small loans, which would hurt small borrowers. Overall annual percentage rates for some loans could top 50% of the loan value. The bill was opposed by the Pentagon, AARP, NAACP and many other consumer groups. See Action Alert, below. SB 675: REQUIRE COMMUNITY SERVICE/WORK FIRST PROGRAM passed the Senate. Would require participants in the Work First program to perform community service and would limit vehicle exemption (when considering assets for the purpose of eligibility) to only one vehicle. Puts still more hurdles in the path of low-income families. Health HB 218: LEGISLATIVE TASK FORCE ON CHILDHOOD OBESITY passed the Senate Health Care committee and will be heard on the Senate floor on Tuesday.
HB 334: REPORT ON FITNESS TESTING IN SCHOOLS passed the House and was referred to Senate Rules. Would increase reporting of fitness testing by local school districts.
SB 415: ELIMINATE COST OF REDUCED PRICE SCHOOL MEALS passed the Senate and was referred to House Finance committee.
ACTION ITEM - Contact Swing Legislators to Urge Them to Vote AGAINST Veto Override As mentioned above, despite some improvements in Education and Health and Human Services, the House-Senate Compromise budget is still a bad budget for children. Particularly in the areas of Medicaid and early education, the budget represents a rollback of our long time state investments in children and families. This severe of a rollback would not be necessary if current revenues were maintained.
CONTACT LEGISLATORS' OFFICES
Please contact the following five Representatives and encourage them to vote against overriding the Governor's veto.
Rep. William Brisson - 919-733-5772 Rep. Jim Crawford - 919-733-5824 Rep. Dewey Hill - 919-733-5830 Rep. Bill Owens - 919-733-0010 Rep. Tim Spear - 919-715-3029
SUBMIT LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
We are also encouraging letters to the editor to newspapers in these legislators' districts. If you live in the circulation area for the Elizabeth City Daily Advance, the Oxford Ledger, or the Fayetteville Observer and you are willing to put your name on a letter to the newspaper, please contact Louisa Warren at the NC Justice Center.
ACTION ITEM - Call House Education Committee and Urge Members to Support Parental Choice on Corporal Punishment (SB 498) SB 498 would allow parents to opt their children out of corporal punishment in school by signing a form to that effect. The bill is scheduled to be heard in the House Education committee next Tuesday, June 14 at 10 am. Please contact members of the committee with this simple message: - Only 17 of the 115 local districts still use corporal punishment.
- SB 498 would allow parents to opt their children out of corporal punishment by signing a form to that effect.
- All 17 districts already use some form of parental consent procedure. SB 498 simply standardizes the process.
- This process is already in place for students with disabilities.
- There is no opposition to the bill. The Local School Boards Association and the Family Policy Council helped craft the bill.
ACTION ITEM - Call Senator Stevens on Bill that Increases Costs of Small Loans (HB 810) (Alert from our friends at the Center for Responsible Lending) URGENT ACTION NEEDED FROM WAKE COUNTY RESIDENTS!! Last Thursday, the House passed HB 810, a bill that significantly increases the rates and fees on small loans in NC. These loans are already in the 25-54% APR range. Senator Stevens will be an important vote on this bill. When the House vote was approaching, House members got flooded by industry calls as well robo-calls from Americans for Prosperity. We expect the same and more on the Senate side. Please help counter these calls and stop this bill: - Call Sen. Richard Stevens asap, 919-733-5653, Richard.Stevens@ncleg.net (Calls are better than emails)
- Forward this email to your key contacts in Wake County, and ask them to call as well.
The message: "My name is [Your name] and I live at [Your address]. I am calling to ask you to oppose HB 810, Consumer Finance Act Amendments. There is no reason to increase rates on small loans in North Carolina. They are already too high and families cannot afford it. Please don't vote against NC military and all NC families. This bill is a terrible idea." To see our summary of the HB 810 >> To see our talking points >> Sincerely, Action for Children North Carolina |
