In an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 104 to 112 vote Tuesday afternoon, the legislature passed legislation requiring money in a $58 million special fund be distributed to eight school districts in Eastern North Carolina that are along the path of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline project. House Bill 90 drew praise from local education leaders in the pipeline’s corridor, […]
Having overridden Governor Cooper’s veto of the budget, the General Assembly concluded its work just past 2:00 am on June 30, and headed home. The legislature had rocked along at a fairly slow pace until the last few weeks, but then completed its work in a series of long days and nights. More legislation was […]
With both the House and Senate passing the budget with bipartisan and veto-proof majorities, they are each moving quickly to finish their work. Numerous bills are being taken up by both bodies, and the usually light Monday night calendar has been replaced by earlier sessions on Monday with lots of bills in the queue for […]
The following article is reposted from yesterday’s edition of the Raleigh News & Observer. It references a report prepared by Dr. Michael L. Walden, William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at North Carolina State University. You can read the entire report here. (Note: Dr. Walden’s report concerns North Carolina’s economic […]
Senate Leader Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) and House Speaker Tim Moore (R-Cleveland) held a joint press conference yesterday to announce details of the $22.34 billion budget agreement reached between Senate and House conferees this past weekend. The compromise budget includes a responsible 2.8 percent spending increase and achieves both chambers’ shared goals with Governor Pat McCrory of […]
As the legislative session winds down, legislators and lobbyists wonder when exactly the session will be over and what bills will be taken up before adjournment. Hardly a day goes by without some lobbyist frantically calling to find out whether I think some bill will be taken up in the House. A few years ago, […]
Yesterday, the North Carolina House of Representatives passed its version of the state’s budget for the second year of this session’s biennium. The spending plan cleared the chamber by an overwhelming margin, with a bipartisan vote of 103-12. Representative McGrady, one of the House’s Chief Appropriations Chairs (largely responsible for crafting the plan) voted with every other […]
The North Carolina House of Representatives took its last vote of the Long Session at 4:12 am on September 30. The vote came on a technical corrections bill, Senate Bill 119 [GSC Technical Corrections 2015]. 37 members weren’t around to vote and the bill passed because the remaining Members were assured that the bill just […]
More time is needed to continue to carefully consider more than 9,000 comments received on the proposed transmission line and create a solution to deliver cleaner, reliable power to Western Carolinas, according to a press release from Duke Energy. The company is looking at all options that can meet the region’s power demand over the […]
Tonight, the North Carolina House of Representatives passed a bipartisan State Budget by a vote of 80-35. Representative McGrady, as one of the House’s Chief Appropriations Chairs largely responsible for crafting the budget, voted with all of his Republican colleagues and nine moderate Democrats in support of the plan. The budget, which covers funding for Fiscal Year 2015-2016 and Fiscal Year […]
Representative McGrady joined House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate Leader Phil Berger this afternoon at a joint press conference to announce details of the $21.735 billion budget agreement reached by members of the House and Senate this past weekend. As one of the “big chairs” of the House Appropriations Committee, Representative McGrady was one of just […]
Duke Energy’s effort to inform the public about possible routes for a high-voltage power line didn’t satisfy most residents who attended the public information session at Blue Ridge Community College last Thursday. It was the third of three sessions that Duke Energy sponsored on the proposed new transmission line running from upstate South Carolina through […]
The best part of serving in the legislature is having the ability to positively affect the outcomes on a broad range of policy issues. The worst part, aside from dealing with sometimes petty politics, is that one rarely gets to catch one’s breath — at least if one is fully engaged. Returning to Raleigh on Sunday […]
Legislation allowing a coal-burning power plant in Buncombe County to convert to cleaner natural gas was approved in the General Assembly today and is now on its way to becoming law. Senate Bill 716, The Mountain Energy Act, would also allow Duke Energy extra time to clean up existing coal ash ponds while it reconfigures the […]
…after Passage of its Budget The last two weeks were mostly long days and late nights followed by early mornings. Having passed its budget at about 1:00 am last Friday, the House had a relatively easy week this week. Part of the reason for that was the Memorial Day holiday on Monday, but most of […]
Many of my constituents know that the closest thing I have to an office in Henderson County is the Underground Bakery Co. on Seventh Avenue in Hendersonville — and the most likely time to catch me there (when the legislature is in session) is on Friday or Saturday mornings. Typically, the folks I run into will apologize […]
When the legislature voted last session to allow permits to be issued for natural gas exploration and production to begin in North Carolina, they also created the Mining and Energy Commission to develop a regulatory framework for the process of hydraulic drilling and horizontal fracturing, also known as “fracking.” Once the draft regulations were presented to the General Assembly for […]
This Thursday is the bill filing deadline for the Senate — meaning that, with a few exceptions, all bills that can be filed by senators must be filed by that date. Of course, there are other ways to get a matter considered, but for your rank-and-file senators, Thursday is a big day. One either gets one’s […]
After having a highly productive week last week, this week gave me heartburn. While accomplishing a lot on drafting legislation (in advance of filing deadlines on issues like autism and craft brewing, and working on thorny issues like the school calendar) action on the House floor bogged down over matters of not much substance. Committee […]
Winter weather was a big topic of conversation across North Carolina last week and affected us all in one way or another. The weather certainly affected the legislature. With some legislators having driving times of up to five hours or more, legislative leaders had a hard time getting committee meetings scheduled so that bills could […]
There’s nothing quite more thrilling for state government geeks (like us) than the annual publication of the General Assembly’s Summaries of Substantive Ratified Legislation. This weedy tome, of which only a few hundred are printed, is produced at the end of each legislative session by the good folks of the Research Division. The Research Division is a non-partisan central office […]
During the 2012 legislative session, Representative McGrady and his Republican colleagues in the General Assembly made a promise to fix government — a government which had left North Carolinians struggling under a faltering economy, crushing state debt, a bloated and inefficient bureaucracy, costly and over-burdensome regulations, and an outdated and confusing income tax structure. After 140 […]
The General Assembly has been in session for just over five weeks, and now the question is when is it going to be over? No one, not even the most senior leaders, know the exact answer to that, but it is becoming clear that the end is in sight. How does one know? Well, there are “signs.” […]
To look at the House calendars this week, it would seem to have been a quiet week — particularly compared to the first two weeks, when a tax bill and an energy bill passed both houses and became law, and the Senate budget bill and a regulatory reform bill moved forward. But looks are sometimes deceiving. […]
The General Assembly didn’t take any time to get into full gear. The House opened by moving an omnibus tax bill and completed action on a bill that will send 16- and 17-year-old offenders to the juvenile justice system rather than the adult justice system. The Senate approved an energy bill which would expedite hydraulic […]
Having outlined what the “Short Session” is and how it proceeds and then discussed the upcoming issues, I figured I’d better talk about what I’m working on. My focus is on three things: 1) introducing and passing legislation sought by Henderson County local governments, 2) working on statewide issues that have been assigned to me, […]
Part Two Today, at noon, the General Assembly convenes. While everyone expects this will truly be a “short session,” there is no consensus on what exactly that means or what to expect. Here are my guesses: Budget/Teacher and State Employee Pay Raises The main purpose of the Short Session is to tweak the two-year budget […]
[youtube_sc url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tenKnIx4ouY” width=”580″ modestbranding=”1″ autohide=”1″ fs=”1″ border=”1″ hd=”1″] A new law will help streamline the operations of electric membership corporations by exempting them from certain costly and unnecessary regulations. House Bill 223 passed with unanimous support in both chambers of the General Assembly and was signed into law by Governor McCrory on June 26. Electric membership […]
Last week was a week for moving one’s bills through the legislative process. With the Senate working on its budget, the House’s focus was on moving bills introduced by House members through House committees and onto the House floor. For me, it was a good week. House Bill 488 — Regionalization of Public Utilities — […]