After a frenzied Monday and Tuesday, the House began a spring break on Wednesday that will last until next Wednesday. The Senate will take its break next week. Tuesday was a bill filing deadline for House bills that do not have finance or appropriations components; see the information below for a wrap up on the rush of bills filed early this week.
Legislation repeals school boards' ability to sue counties over capital outlay funding
Three former county commissioners filed legislation in the House this week addressing one of NCACC’s top five legislative priority goals. House Bill 850 Repeal Right of Action/Capital Outlay Fund removes the ability for school boards to sue boards of county commissioners over appropriations made to the school capital outlay fund. Under the legislation, the decision of the board of county commissioners would be final when a dispute occurs and mediation fails to result in an agreement.
Repealing the statutory authority that allows school boards to file lawsuits against a county board of commissioners over local education funding has been a long-standing goal of NCACC. The Association had partial success on this goal last year as the General Assembly repealed the ability for local school boards to sue counties over school operations funding, replacing it with a default funding mechanism when the boards cannot agree on funding. That legislation created a working group to study the issue of how to deal with capital funding disputes between local school boards and county commissioners. The working group, made up of appointees from NCACC, the North Carolina School Boards Association, and the North Carolina Association of School Business Officers, recently concluded its work on the issue and a report is forthcoming. After several meetings with substantial dialogue between stakeholders, the working group was unable to come to a consensus on how to resolve disputes related to appropriations to the capital outlay fund. NCACC thanks the county representatives on the working group for all of their work on behalf of counties.
NCACC also thanks Representatives Debra Conrad, Howard Hunter, and Larry Potts for their leadership on this issue of importance to boards of county commissioners across North Carolina.
Contact Legislative Counsel Adam Pridemore for more information on school funding disputes.
Electric co-op broadband legislation passes committee
Legislation enhancing electric membership cooperatives’ ability to provide high-speed internet access passed the Senate Commerce and Insurance committee Wednesday. Senate Bill 310 Electric Co-Op Rural Broadband Services makes it easier for EMCs to form and operate separate business entities that provide broadband service, and allows the use of existing electric easements held by an EMC to be used for telecommunications purposes. The bill has its next hearing in the Senate Judiciary committee.
Contact Government Relations Director Johanna Reese or Government Relations Coordinator Hugh Johnson for more information on broadband legislation.
House committee passes legislation allowing Sunday liquor sales
This week, the House Alcoholic Beverage Control committee passed House Bill 91 ABC Laws Modernization/PED Study allowing counties and cities to adopt an ordinance allowing ABC stores under their operation to be open and sell alcoholic beverages on Sundays. During the committee meeting, members voted to remove a provision in the bill requiring merger of ABC systems in counties where two or more ABC systems are present. The bill will next head to the House Finance committee for consideration.
Contact Legislative Counsel Adam Pridemore for more information on ABC issues.
House legislation would clarify legal liability for county health departments, amendments anticipated
Former county commissioners in the House filed legislation to clarify that county health departments are not liable for certain elements of a septic system process performed by licensed soil scientists. House Bill 761 Clarify Wastewater Permitting Liability will undergo some additional clarifying amendments when it moves through the House Environment Committee, but the intent will remain to specify that local health departments are not liable for wastewater system failures that are a direct result of certain private soil scientist evaluations. The authority for private, licensed soil scientists to perform these evaluations became law as part of Section 11 of last year’s omnibus regulatory reform bill. The NCACC thanks the bill sponsors, former county commissioners and Representatives Larry Yarborough, Pat McElraft, Becky Carney, and Kevin Corbin for working on this issue.
Contact Government Relations Coordinator Hugh Johnson for more information on public health issues.
Bill delays voting machine deadline
Representative Julia Howard filed House Bill 851 Delay Decertification/Certain Voting Machines to delay decertification of certain voting machines from December 1, 2019 to December 1, 2021. A 2013 change required counties to use machines with paper ballots. However, uncertainties about the makeup of the State Board of Elections led to delays in approval of voting machines counties may purchase, which also delayed counties’ ability to test those machines during elections as required. NCACC thanks Rep. Howard for her efforts to provide counties adequate time to evaluate and purchase voting machines.
Contact Government Relations Coordinator Amber Harris for more information on elections issues.
Bills addressing fire service funding pass the House and Senate
Several bills impacting funding for fire services saw movement at the legislature this week. House Bill 120 Clarify Fire District Funding and House Bill 349 Wilkes County Fire Tax-Procedure both passed final votes in the House and now move to the Senate for consideration. Senate Bill 286 Amend Fire Protection Fees/Union/Brunswick passed the Senate and moved to the House.
As previously reported, HB120 bill limits county authority to use funds collected from fire protection districts to provide countywide fire services, but maintains county authority to use sales tax allocated for these districts for countywide services. HB349 allows Wilkes County to make changes aligning fire tax and fire service districts.
Contact Government Relations Coordinator Amber Harris for more information on fire district issues.
House amends legislation to remove property tax provision affecting counties
The House Finance Committee approved an amended version of House Bill 118 First Responders Act of 2019 that removes a property tax provision affecting counties. Previous versions provided a property tax exclusion for the surviving spouses of fallen emergency service personnel; however, the version approved in House Finance on Monday removed that provision. The bill now goes to the House Rules Committee after which it would be voted on by the full House.
Contact Government Relations Coordinator Hugh Johnson for more information on property tax issues.
Senate version of safekeepers bill passes committee
Senate Bill 118 PED/Safekeeper Health Care Cost Recovery Practice passed the Senate Health Care committee on Thursday. The bill was a substitute version identical to the House companion HB108 reported in last week’s brief. Previous versions of the bill established a 15 day stay for safekeepers. The newer version of H108/S118 extends the initial stay of safekeepers to 30 days. The bill also changes the role of the Department of Public Safety in determining inmate Medicaid eligibility. S118 now moves to Senate Judiciary for its next hearing.
Contact Government Relations Coordinator Amber Harris for more information on jail issues.
House bill filing deadline triggers introduction of many bills affecting counties
Members of the House of Representatives filed hundreds of bills this week ahead of the House policy bill filing deadline. Bills related to appropriations or finance may be filed in the House until April 25, 2019. Highlights of many bills affecting counties are listed below. The NCACC will provide updates and report in more detail as legislation begins to move during the coming weeks and months.
- House Bill 759 Electronics Recycling Amendments – Addresses electronics recycling responsibilities for the manufacturing industry, the department, and the electronics recycling industry
- House Bill 789 Amend Recycling Rqmts for Computers and TVs – Comprehensive changes to the statute governing electronic manufacturer recycling requirements that would shift more of the burden to counties to handle these materials, particularly new TVs
- House Bill 798 Low-Performing Schools – At the time of submitting the budget, requires the local school board to submit to the county commissioners academic performance information of the schools in the local unit, including school performance grades of each school, any schools identified as low-performing or continually low-performing or included on the ISD lists, and improvement efforts by the local board; requires the local school board to present the academic performance information at a public meeting upon request of the board of commissioners
- House Bill 823 NC Managing Environmental Waste Act of 2019 – Addresses management and recycling of certain plastic waste; includes funding increases for counties to help reduce plastic waste
- House Bill 825 Strengthen Child Fatality Prevention System – Establishes the office of Child Fatality Prevention within NCDHHS to oversee coordination and planning for the entire NC child fatality prevention system
- House Bill 826 Standardized Assessment/Foster Care Pilot – Establishes a pilot project with three LME/MCOs and their counties to develop a standardized process for children entering foster care that includes adequate screening and assessment to ensure appropriate diagnosis and care for the child
- House Bill 837 School Calendar Flex/Low Performing Schools – Provides school calendar flexibility for schools identified by the State Board of Education as “low-performing”
- House Bill 861 Net Neutrality in Procurement – Establishes broadband procurement procedures local government entities must use in order to support the principle of net neutrality
- House Bill 873 System Development Fee/Clarify Time of Charge – Addresses the timing for collecting fees under a county’s recently clarified system development fee authority; establishes definitions for new construction related to this issue
- House Bill 881 Private Process Servers - Evictions – In counties with 250,000 or more residents, allows landlords in summary ejectment proceedings to use private process servers, instead of the sheriff’s office, to provide service to defendants
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