From the Times-News

Posted on July 23, 2019 by admin in Inside Baseball, McGrady

The following editorial appeared in the July 21, 2019 edition of the Hendersonville Times-News.

How sausage gets made

There’s an old saying: “Laws are like sausages. It’s better not to see them being made.” But there’s a lot to be learned about the sometimes messy goings-on in Raleigh from N.C. Rep. Chuck McGrady’s newsletters to constituents.

How does a bill become law? What’s the status of disaster relief for farmers in Henderson County and elsewhere affected by last year’s historic flooding? And what happens to legislation when the governor vetoes the state budget in an impasse with lawmakers over expanding Medicaid?

McGrady answers these questions and many others in painstakingly detailed insider accounts he emails to anyone who requests them.

Many legislators use their newsletters, websites and social media to update constituents, spell out positions and tout accomplishments. McGrady, a former summer camp owner, attorney and environmental and civic leader, goes a step further to educate his readers on the legislative process.

In his July 15 newsletter, “More Than One Way to Pass A Law,” he explains how bills become laws “in less straightforward and transparent ways” than the “textbook process” of being introduced, heard in committee and then modified between House and Senate.

“As we approach the end of the legislature’s Long Session, veteran legislators employ different methods of moving their bills to the governor’s desk,” he writes. “While one feels good about passing a free-standing bill that carries one’s name and the bill number as introduced, if a legislator is focused on having something becoming law, one should forget about public credit for passage of a numbered bill, and just move the bill or provision in whatever way is most likely to achieve success.”

He explains several of these alternative methods, including attaching provisions to another lawmaker’s legislation.

For instance, McGrady introduced a bill, passed by both chambers and expected to be signed by the governor, to allow Henderson County to join the Metropolitan Sewerage District of Buncombe County and lower sewer rates. Sen. Bill Rabon, R-Brunswick, attached a provision to study wildlife enhancement, invasive species control and natural habitat restoration on state property. Rabon is the chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, “the gatekeeper for all legislation in the Senate.”

“I was certainly willing to provide a vehicle for Sen. Rabon to move a provision that I supported in the budget and was important to him,” McGrady writes.

McGrady also updates the status of other bills important to Henderson County and the state. For instance, a bill to provide disaster relief to Henderson and adjoining counties affected by last year’s flooding was in the budget the governor vetoed. However, it was included in a supplemental appropriations bill intended to provide funding for “critical or time-sensitive items.” This is one way legislators keep money and laws flowing despite a budget impasse with the governor.

In providing constituents with detail, context and education on the process, McGrady sets a high bar for keeping the public informed — for other legislators, and for whoever succeeds him representing District 117 when he steps down later this year.

Budget Prospects After the Veto

Posted on July 17, 2019 by admin in Appropriations, Budget, Cooper, McGrady, Newsletters

On June 28, Governor Cooper vetoed House Bill 966 [2019 Appropriations Act], the budget bill. The most-asked question of legislators now is “What happens next?” In theory, the answer is simple: The legislature can override the veto. But that isn’t easy. With all legislators present, it takes 72 votes in the House and 30 votes in the Senate to override a veto. Since only 65 House members and 29 senators are Republicans, it will take a bipartisan vote to override the veto.

In the Senate, a total of 33 senators voted for the conference report on the budget — more than enough votes to override the Governor’s veto. However, in the House, only 68 House members voted for the conference report on the budget or announced their support — less than the required number of votes to override the veto. Prior to adoption of the conference report on the budget, House leaders worked to gain bipartisan support for the budget and three Democratic Members, Reps. Cecil Brockman (D-Guilford), Elmer Floyd (D-Cumberland) and Howard Hunter (D-Hertford) voted for the budget conference report. As noted in the media, monies to fund projects and programs in the districts of Democratic members were included in the conferenced budget. Even with money flowing to projects and programs generally supported by the Democratic members, the bill failed to garner sufficient support to override the veto.

Subsequently, House leadership — primarily Speaker Tim Moore (R-Cleveland) — has worked to garner additional support — showing a willingness to seek additional funding for projects and programs. While the Governor explained his veto by citing the need to invest in public schools, teacher pay and health care, most of the focus has been on his demand for Medicaid expansion. In an effort to respond to this demand, Speaker Moore allowed a type of Medicaid expansion to be heard in committee and placed on the House calendar for consideration, HB655 [NC Health Care for Working Families]. Presumably, that bill will not be heard by the full House until he has commitments from Democrats to support the budget. HB655 received a strong vote in the committee that heard the bill, and the conventional wisdom is the bill would pass with a large majority of Democrats and one or two dozen Republicans supporting the bill.

More than two weeks have passed since the Governor vetoed the bill and no one seems to know what will happen next. No significant negotiations between the Governor and House and Senate leaders have occurred. House leaders continue to seek votes to override the veto, but how long will this effort continue? Both the Governor and legislative leaders have communicated through the media, but no one expects negotiations via the media to result in any compromise or breakthrough.

So what could happen?

First, the House and Senate could just give up and go home. If this happens, the recurring funding in last session’s budget would remain in place. Teachers would still get paid. Many programs would still be funded. The State Highway Patrol would continue to function, and NCDOT would continue to build roads. However, the pay raises for state employees and teachers would not happen. New capital projects would not be started, and some number of programs would be without funding, as they were funded with nonrecurring funds.

Second, the budget could be cut into its component parts and sent back to the Governor. If that were to happen, the Governor would have to decide if he wanted to veto a public safety bill, one involving funding for law enforcement, prisons and programs like Raise-the-Age, that has nothing to do with his chief complaints about the budget involving increased funding of public education and health care. Will the public support the Governor not approving funding new school construction or school safety programs because he prefers teachers to get larger pay increases?

Third, the Governor and legislative leaders could agree to compromise in some fashion. While this might be seen as the most sensible alternative to outside observers, the differences between the two sides are significant. The House may be willing to pass a Medicaid expansion-type bill, for example, but no one sees any likelihood of the Senate passing such a bill. If that is true, what is the point of holding up the funding of many projects and programs that have broad support? Legislative leaders have included inducements for Democrats (including the Governor) to support the budget bill. They are not likely to simply allow the Governor to cherry-pick those portions of the budget he supports for inclusion in some compromise budget.

If the problem was not having the money to spend on projects and programs, the public might understand the budget impasse, but the legislature’s budget is hundreds of millions of dollars less than the money available to spend. The budget impasse reflects serious philosophical differences, and it also reflects very different perspectives on how this might play out in the elections in 2020.

The only obvious movement to resolve some set of budget differences came with the House’s unanimous vote for HB111 [Supplemental Appropriations Act]. Unlike HB966, a 400-page bill, HB111 is only a six page bill. HB111 only addresses a handful of funding issues, like funding increases in Average Daily Membership (ADM) for public schools — essentially increases in public school enrollment The bill also allows the UNC’s Board of Governors to carry forward unexpended UNC enrollment funds to continue the financial obligations of the NC Promise program — the program that keeps tuition fixed for students at the rate charged when they enter Elizabeth City State University, UNC-Pembroke, and Western Carolina University.

HB111 also implements some disaster relief provisions in the vetoed budget, and provides the minimum funding necessary to implement Raise-the-Age. There was only one capital project only partially funded in the FY 2018-19 budget: the Western Carolina University steam plant project. HB111 adds the money to complete that project.

The presumption is everything in this bill is totally noncontroversial, and that presumption was likely confirmed by the unanimous House vote. No doubt, some legislators would have liked to see more included in the supplemental appropriations bill. However, the idea was to pass what was necessary but not to pass anything that would relieve the pressure to pass a complete budget.

The Senate’s version of a bare-bones appropriations bill was approved in a Senate committee yesterday. HB961 [Ensuring Authorization of Federal Funds] appears to only appropriate some federal funding coming to North Carolina. These funds are primarily used to pay for various human services, like health care. It will be interesting to see if this approach garners the same bipartisan support that the House bill did.

As an Appropriations Chair, I assumed House and Senate leaders were in agreement on what was going to be in a supplemental appropriations bill. Obviously, the House appropriations chairs made a bad assumption, and I doubt we’d have pieced together HB111 if we’d known that the House and Senate would take such different approaches to the adoption of these stripped down appropriation bills. If House and Senate leaders cannot agree on a small step forward towards addressing the budget impasse, one has to wonder how we can address the more complicated budget issues dividing the House, Senate, and Governor Cooper.

In the coming weeks, my expectation is the House and Senate will not have as many voting sessions as usual. The Senate went home on Tuesday this week and is already shutting down its committees.

Both senators and House members reasonably expected to be home by this time of year and increasingly legislators will need to consider returning to their regular jobs and honoring family obligations. My hope is that, with a slower legislative pace, the Governor and legislative leaders will stop negotiating through the media and in social media, and instead will focus on resolving the budget impasse. If that isn’t possible, then we should head home and let the voters decide who is at fault for the failure to adopt a budget.

More Than One Way to Pass a Law

Posted on July 15, 2019 by admin in Agriculture, Appropriations, Beer, Budget, Children, Civil Service, Crime, Disabilities, Economic Development, Economy, Elections, Environment, Farming, Food, Government Reform, Hard Cider, Health, Inside Baseball, Jobs, Justice, Law, Local Government, McGrady, Newsletters, Nonprofits, Private Property Rights, Public Safety, Recreation, Redistricting, Regulatory Reform, Spirituous Liquor, Utilities, Water

The textbook way of passing a law is to introduce a bill in one legislative chamber, have that bill heard in one or more committees, and then passed by that legislative chamber and sent to the other one. The same process then occurs in the second legislative chamber, resulting in passage of the bill. Any discrepancies may be addressed in a conference committee, but ultimately both legislative chambers pass the same bill and it goes to the governor for his approval. Many bills take this textbook path, but other bills become law in less straightforward and transparent ways.

As we approach the end of the legislature’s Long Session, veteran legislators employ different methods of moving their bills to the governor’s desk. While one feels good about passing a free-standing bill that carries one’s name and the bill number as introduced, if a legislator is focused on having something becoming law, one should forget about public credit for passage of a numbered bill, and just move the bill or provision in whatever way is most likely to achieve success.

One of the easiest ways to move a bill is to have a colleague in the other chamber move a companion bill—an identical bill in the other chamber. So for example, I am a primary cosponsor on HB532 [DNCR Add New Trails & Various Changes] but the same bill was filed in the Senate as SB380. Rather than moving SB380 in the Senate, by agreement with its Senate sponsors, the House bill was moved and passed both chambers and was signed by the Governor into law.

Another way to move a bill is to incorporate a bill into the budget. Typically, the House objects to policy in the budget (unless it is policy put in to conform with a money appropriation or the House’s position on some issue), but sometimes both chambers want to avoid an extended debate or want to expedite consideration of a bill. The budget bill is a must pass bill, so including another bill in the budget is usually a sure-fire way of getting a bill passed. Of course, that assumes the budget is not vetoed.

HB570 [Water/Wastewater Public Enterprise Reform] and its companion bill, SB536, were incorporated in the budget bill, HB966 [2019 Appropriations Act]. Usually, the budget bill passes and becomes law, but this year the budget bill was vetoed by Governor Cooper making the effort to include the bill to fund the fixing failing water and wastewater systems in the budget not successful.

That has now led to another way of passing a bill. Senator Newton, my colleague, in an effort to address the issue of failing water and wastewater systems, attached the language from our bills to HB777 [Various Retirement Chngs/Wastewater Reform]. That bill is pretty different than HB570/ SB536 since it passed the House as HB777 [Purchase Opt/Credit for Prior Year FT Service], a bill to allow certain employees to purchase into certain retirement systems under certain circumstances. Of course, if the legislature overrides the governor’s veto, then HB570/SB536 will become law as part of the budget and there will be no need for the new HB777 to address water and sewer infrastructure.

So as we move towards the end of the legislative session, here is the status of the bills I have introduced:

HB3 [Eminent Domain]. The bill passed the House and is currently awaiting action in the Senate.
HB14 [Reconstitute Various Boards & Commissions]. HB14 was attached to SB381 [Reconstitute/Clarify Boards and Commissions] which passed both chambers and is now law.
HB69 [Nonpartisan Redistricting Commission] & HB140 [The FAIR Act]. These are both bills to require nonpartisan redistricting. HB69 is technically dead since it didn’t meet the crossover deadline, but HB140 is not subject to the crossover deadline. If the issue of nonpartisan redistricting is taken up, it is likely to move only after the completion of the constitutional challenge to legislative redistricting currently being tried.
HB91 [ABC Laws Modernization/PED Study] & HB536 [ABC Omnibus Regulatory Reform]. These bills got combined when they were heard in the House Finance Committee. After passing the House, the combined bill was then added to SB290 Distiller Regulatory Reform Bill] and passed by the House. The bill is awaiting action in the Senate. SB290 was a companion bill to HB378, a bill I introduced in the House.
HB245 [DEQ/Policy Changes.-AB]. This agency bill did not receive a hearing and is now dead since it didn’t meet the crossover deadline.
HB246 [DEQ/Fund and Fee Changes.-AB]. This agency bill was largely incorporated in the budget, HB966, but since the budget has been vetoed, the bill hasn’t become law. If the governor’s veto is overridden, then it will become law.
HB326 [Hendersonville Local Option Sales Tax]. Technically, the bill is still alive, but it really isn’t. It will not receive a hearing before the House Finance Committee prior to the end of session.
HB334 [NCSU Honey Bee Laboratory/Funds]. The bill would fund a complete renovation of the honey bee lab at NC State. Sen. Brent Jackson (R-Sampson) put this bill in the Senate version of the budget, and it was included in the conference report of the budget. With the Governor’s veto, funding of the bee lab has been blocked.
HB347 [Study No Delinquent/Undisciplined Under 10]. The bill passed the House as a study bill and is now awaiting action in the Senate.
HB373 [Ag Disaster Fund/Excessive Rain and Flooding]. The bill is a companion bill to SB268 which passed the Senate. If it becomes law, it would provide disaster relief to Henderson County and adjoining counties related to Tropical Storm Alberto. The bill was incorporated into the budget, HB966, but when the budget was vetoed, it was included in HB111 [Supplemental Appropriations Act]. HB111 is intended to provide funding for certain critical or time-sensitive items that were vetoed in the budget. HB111 passed the House last week and is expected to be considered by the Senate shortly.
HB374 [Sex Offender/Expand Residential Restriction]. The bill passed the House and is awaiting action in the Senate.
HB395 [Regulate Challenge Courses]. The bill was never heard in the House. A bill on the same subject, HB380 [Aerial Adventure Courses/Sander’s Law] did pass the House. HB380 is now awaiting action in the Senate. Having opposed HB380, my hope is the Senate will not take action on that bill.
HB536 [ABC Omnibus Regulatory Reform]. The bill passed the House, but has now been combined with SB290 and is awaiting action in the Senate.
HB559 [The Pollinator Protection Act]. While this bill is now dead having not made crossover, funding for the bee lab at NC State University is still possible if the legislature overrides the Governor’s veto or some other budget bill is put together later in the session.
HB560 [Ban PFASBin Fire Retardant Foam]. This bill is technically dead having not made crossover, although another primary cosponsor, Rep. Pricey Harrison (D-Guilford) was working to revive the bill by adding an appropriations provision to it to keep it alive.
HB570 [Water/Wastewater Public Enterprise Reform]. The Senate companion to this bill passed the Senate, and it is now included in the budget and in HB777. With broad support, the bill is likely to pass in some form.
HB592 [Check-Off Clean Water Mgmnt Tr. Fund]. The bill passed the House and is now awaiting action in the Senate.
HB610 [Civil Procedure/Deponent Declaration]. The Senate companion bill, SB508, has cleared both chambers and is awaiting action by the Governor.
HB649 [Grand Jury if LEO Charged Performing Duties]. The bill is dead since it didn’t make crossover.
HB671 [Behavior Analyst Licensure]. The bill would provide licensure for behavior analysts, the primary providers of services for autistic children. The bill passed the House and is awaiting action in the Senate. [Note: This bill is one of my primary priorities in the coming weeks.]
HB682 [Capital Procedure/Severe Disability]. Having not made crossover, the bill is dead.
HB732 [Nonprofit Mergers/Incr Charit. Solic. Exempts]. The bill passed the House and is awaiting action in the Senate.
HB741 [Study Flood Mitigation]. Having not made crossover, the bill is dead.
HB758 [MSD Expansion and Governance/DACSBStudy]. The bill has cleared both chambers and is awaiting action by the governor. It will allow Henderson County to join the Metropolitan Sewerage District of Buncombe County and will lower sewer rates in Henderson County. The bill is expected to be signed. Interestingly, the bill includes a provision, that was in the budget, put forth by Sen. Bill Rabon (R-Brunswick) to study wildlife enhancement, invasive species control, and natural habitat restoration on state properties. In other words, my bill was used as a vehicle for another legislator to pass a provision important to that legislator. Rabon is the chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, the gatekeeper for all legislation in the Senate. I was certainly willing to provide a vehicle for Sen. Rabon to move a provision that I supported in the budget and was important to him. Having the Senate Rules Chairman move your bill is certainly a good way to get a House bill passed.
HB759 [Electronic Recycling Amendments]. The bill is dead, having not made crossover. However, the subject of electronic recycling is the subject of a study in the budget bill. With the budget having been vetoed, it is unclear if the State’s electronic recycling program will be studied by a legislative committee between legislative sessions.
HB812 [Nutrient Offset Amendments]. The bill has become law.
HB823 [NC Managing Environmental Waste Act of 2019]. The bill seeks to address the problem of single-use plastic. The bill passed the House and is awaiting action in the Senate.
HB828 [Energy Savings Incentives/State Agencies]. The bill is dead since no action was taken prior to the crossover deadline.
HB879 [End of Life Option Act]. The bill is also dead, since no action was taken prior to the crossover deadline.
HB885 [Study Criminal Justice Data Collection]. The bill passed the House and is awaiting action in the Senate.
HB966 [2019 Appropriations Act]. This is the budget bill that was vetoed by the Governor. It will take a three-fifths vote to override the Governor’s veto; 72 House Members and 30 Senators would have to vote to override the veto if all House Members and Senators are voting. A veto override would have to start in the House since it is a House bill. As of today, no attempt to override the veto has been taken.
HB971 [Modern Licensure Model for Alcohol Control]. This is a bill to adopt a licensure model for the sale of alcoholic beverages. The bill is sometimes called the “privatization bill” since it would get the state and local governments out of the sale and distribution of alcoholic beverages. The bill is likely to be heard in the House ABC Committee before the end of the Long Session.
HB995 [Hard Cider/Revise Excise Tax Rate]. The bill got a favorable recommendation from the House ABC Committee, but is being held in House Finance. The bill is not likely to be heard this year.

In the not-so-distant-past, by mid-July the legislature would have passed a budget and would be getting ready to adjourn. With the budget hung-up and no near-term solution evident, the session continues with no clear end in sight.

If the budget becomes law in some form, several bills that I’ve put forward are likely to become law, e.g. HB334 [NCSU Honey Bee Laboratory/Funds], HB570 [Water/Wastewater Public Enterprise Reform], among others]. Within days, it is possible that several of the alcoholic beverage laws will clear the Senate in SB290. Two bills, HB758 [MSD Expansion and Governance/DACSBStudy] and HB610 [Civil Procedure/Deponent Declaration] will likely become law when the Governor signs them.

The session is expected to continue for several more weeks while everyone awaits some resolution of the budget stalemate. Until the budget is complete, legislators, including this one, will continue to use the time to complete work on pending legislation.

2019 Budget Passes First Vote in NC House

Posted on June 27, 2019 by admin in Appropriations, Budget, Disaster Relief, Education, Justice, Technology, Transportation

A $24 billion compromise state budget proposal that provides pay raises supported by the State Employees Association of North Carolina and injects billions of dollars into school construction passed the first of two votes in the state House of Representatives on Wednesday.

House Bill 966, the 2019 Appropriations Act, also provides pay raises for teachers, correctional officers, assistant district attorneys, community college and university faculty, clerks of court, and other public workers.

The budget authorizes $1.5 billion for capital expenditures on K-12 schools and $400 million for community colleges to fund repairs, renovations, and new buildings on public education campuses across North Carolina.

Rep. Craig Horn (R-Union), an education budget writer, called the spending plan a “student-centered budget.”

“I’m pleased to tell you this education budget for North Carolina totals $14.2 billion,” Rep. Horn said. “That’s 57% of our total budget and a near $500 million increase over the previous year. There can be no question about North Carolina’s commitment to public education. This is a student-centered budget.”

The proposal also invests over $25 million to fund 170 new salaried positions in the courts to implement North Carolina’s commitment to “Raise the Age” of juvenile jurisdiction.

Eleven counties would share another $26.1 million to assist with courthouse renovations and repairs across the state.

Rep. Donny Lambeth (R-Forsyth), a Senior House Appropriations Committee co-chair, noted North Carolina’s strong economic growth under Republican-led budgets that spend responsibly and lower tax burdens.

“Our people are working and being productive, providing for their families,” Rep. Lambeth said. “North Carolina has passed 18 states in teacher pay rankings with the second highest teacher pay in the Southeast. We continue to invest in our families, in our parks, our ports, and our business infrastructure. We are being good stewards of taxpayer money.”

Rep. Lambeth noted that the State Employees Association of North Carolina is urging legislators to support the state budget.

“We are proud to stand with SEANC to recognize our state employees,” Rep. Lambeth said.

The legislature’s only active public school teacher and a House Education Committee co-chair, Rep. Jeffrey Elmore (R-Wilkes), said a consistent run of teacher pay raises have overcome pay freezes instituted last decade.

“We have a focus on our veteran teachers in this budget and teacher recruitment bonuses for smaller counties,” Rep. Elmore said.

Hurricane recovery needs are also addressed in several parts of the state budget proposal.

House Majority Leader John Bell (R-Wayne) noted the budget continues to fund critical disaster recovery needs, including repairs of education facilities.

“This package is about $112 million in disaster relief funding,” Majority Leader Bell said Wednesday. “Additional funding goes in for stream and debris removal, replacement of emergency response equipment, and additional search and rescue grants needed to respond to disasters. It also provides funds for flood mapping and monitoring for flood-prone areas. This is another big key in the mitigation process, identifying those areas and making sure we monitor them before, after, and during a storm.”

Rep. Jason Saine (R-Lincoln), a Senior House Appropriations Committee co-chair, noted the spending plan makes a major commitment to the state’s savings reserve after natural disasters required significant transfers from the Rainy Day Fund.

“We transfer an additional $710 million into the savings reserve account, replenishing all but $46 million of the $756 million transferred for the Hurricane Florence Recovery Fund, bringing the total anticipated balance of our savings to $1.96 billion by 2021,” Rep. Saine said. “We are preparing for the next rainy day.”

The General Assembly’s budget provides $75 million of additional grant funding to support commercial airports, $23 million for rail infrastructure, and another $11 million to the Port of Wilmington specifically to raise power lines across the Cape Fear River.

“The North Carolina Ports Authority is an exciting story,” Rep. John Torbett (R-Gaston), a transportation budget writer, said Wednesday. “We have invested heavily in our ports and they are doing things people said would never happen. Our investments in new cranes, deeper basins, and better resources will double the output of our ports, powering this economic engine for North Carolina.”

Another $15 million would support the Growing Rural Economies With Access to Technology (GREAT) broadband program, which has already awarded $10 million of grant funding to facilitate high-speed internet access in underserved regions.

Rep. Greg Murphy (R-Pitt), a physician serving eastern North Carolina, noted a massive investment in the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University was included in the budget plan.

“Funding for the new medical school in eastern North Carolina, which has been a priority of mine since coming here, will be included with $200 million for what is perceived to be the cost of that project,” said Rep. Murphy said.

The state budget also increases the standard deduction or ‘zero tax bracket’ for working families to increase their take-home pay, and reduces the franchise tax to continue attracting businesses to North Carolina’s rapidly growing economy.

“We worked with the senate to take a balanced approach to the finance package,” said Rep. Julia Howard (R-Davie), a House Finance Committee co-chair. “This will make a significant impact for the families of our state, for jobs and the economy, for big and small businesses around the state.”

Capital construction projects and investments in rural broadband are also a major focus of the state budget proposal.

Rep. Dean Arp (R-Union), a House Appropriations Committee co-chair, said the new State Capital Infrastructure Fund is a “commonsense” approach to construction projects.

“In 2017 we began this historic transformation in the way we invest responsibly in growing North Carolina and addressing our needs,” Rep. Arp said.

“The surpluses we’ve received have been used to infuse an additional $300 million into a K-12 building fund that will provide $1.5 billion for K-12 school needs, and an additional $400 million for community colleges.”

“This represents the full amount of the House budget proposal of $1.9 billion, but it does so with cash. This is truly a historic investment in our future.”

Speaker Tim Moore (R-Cleveland) said the budget’s balanced investments give North Carolinians confidence in the financial security of their state.

“This budget reflects the kitchen table priorities of families – to spend carefully, save wisely, balance essential needs, and focus on the future,” Speaker Moore said.

“This is a plan that is fiscally sound, lives within our means, and lays out a vision for an even brighter future in North Carolina.”

“Our revenue surpluses and record savings reserve were no accident. We plan ahead and prepare, like families and businesses. Our state is benefitting from the smart choices of strong budget leadership, and this is another spending plan all North Carolinians can be proud of.”

The North Carolina House is scheduled to vote again on the proposed budget Thursday.

A statement from Rep. Chuck McGrady

Posted on May 13, 2019 by admin in House of Representatives, McGrady

[Hendersonville, NC, May 13, 2019] Representative Chuck McGrady (R-117) released the following statement today:

“Serving in the North Carolina House of Representatives has been one of the greatest honors of my life; my gratitude to the people of Henderson County for providing me with that opportunity goes beyond measure. And that journey would not have been nearly as successful without the knowledge and support of the many dedicated professionals, including fellow legislators and staff, that I have been fortunate to have worked with along the way.

“But the time has now come to turn my focus back home to my friends and family — and most especially to my wife, Jean, who has made untold sacrifices over the years so that I could serve as a council member, county commissioner and a legislator.

“In the near future, I hope to hike and camp more in places that it’s been my privilege to protect. And I also have a lengthy list of books that I’ve had to put off reading for far too long.

“For those reasons, I will not seek re-election when filing starts in seven months. I look forward to supporting the next representative of House District 117, and I will assist that person in any way I can.”

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