Legislators returned to Raleigh on Monday and experienced this session's heaviest week of work as dozens of bills were advanced through the legislative process this week.  A review of the latest revenue report at a joint meeting of the House and Senate Appropriations Committee meeting shows the State is more than $3 billion short of a balanced budget in the current fiscal year.  Committees were scheduled consecutively and concurrently this week as the crossover deadline is less than a week away.  Legislation subject to the crossover deadline was the main focus of work this week that included a full day of meetings on Thursday, a rare deviation from the usual legislative calendar. 

The State will likely collect $3.2 billion less than it expected to spend during the current fiscal year according to fiscal analysts who have reviewed the tax collections through April 15^th and reported to lawmakers on Wednesday.  The budget deficit was brought on by a 10.8% decline in revenue over last year, a drop-off that is far more drastic than what the State experienced in prior economic recessions.  The legislature's economists also told lawmakers not to expect a better situation for several years, saying that most estimates show that recovery will only begin in the 4^th quarter of 2009 and limited growth in 2010.  While Federal stimulus funding will help patch this year and next years' budgets, lawmakers say they are not counting on more federal funding.  This means that permanent year-to-year cuts, tax increases, and perhaps more radical changes are under consideration as the House is working to write a budget plan.  The worse than expected report on revenue collected has delayed progress on the House budget and the crossover deadline next week likely means that little progress will be made on the budget next week. 

The "crossover deadline" is a parliamentary prohibition on the consideration of legislation later in the session that has not passed the chamber in which it was introduced by May 14, 2009.  Although the deadline does not apply to legislation that would spend money or raise revenue, either through taxes or fees, its requirement would bar passage of almost all legislation that makes key policy changes.  Each year the crossover deadline brings a landslide of legislation to the floor of the House and Senate.  This year is no exception and the impending deadline resulted in the busiest work week to date during the current session of the General Assembly. 

A set of insurance related bills were approved by the House or Senate this week.  Under Senate Bill 324, approved by the Senate this week, the exemption from the prior authorization requirement under the Medicaid insurance program would be made permanent for anti-hemophilic drugs prescribed for treatment of hemophilia and blood disorders.  The House approved legislation (House Bill 889) that would expand coverage under the insurance guaranty association to include structured settlement annuities for personal injury claims.  Under legislation (Senate Bill 981) approved by the Senate this week the Commissioner of Insurance would have discretionary authority to waive the minimum policy holders position requirement under certain conditions.  The Department of Insurance's requested legislation (House Bill 1161) to make various changes to the insurance financial conditions laws was approved by the House this week.  Lastly, the House approved changes to the High Risk Health Insurance Pool (House Bill 1392) to clarify the reimbursement rates made to out-of-state health care providers and to allow the Pool to negotiate rates for emergency services provided out-of-state. 

Energy and the environment was the subject of several proposals advanced during work this week.  Under Senate Bill 967, approved by the Senate this week, a public trust would be created to own and operate the hydro-electric facilities of the Yadkin river that are presently owned by aluminum manufacturer Alcoa.  More mitigation and clean-up costs would shift to private mitigation banks and away from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources under legislation (Senate Bill 755), approved by the Senate this week.  A revision to the Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard to allow electricity demand reduction devices was approved by the Senate this week in Senate Bill 567.  Also, the State motor fleet would become a little more earth-kind under legislation (House Bill 1079) approved by the House this week that would require a preference for cars that are in the top 15% of their class in fuel efficiency. 

The State Senate has approved a ban on smoking in most restaurants and bars, but the Senate approved legislation (House Bill 2) would not apply to places of employment as the bill passed by the House would have done.  Two weeks ago, the Senate Health Care Committee approved the strongest version of House Bill 2 that has been produced during the process of working on the bill.  However, the majority party Democrats were unable to muster the votes to approve the bill at the full Senate and the bill returned to the Health Care Committee for amendments.  Those amendments were produced and the bill was brought to the floor of the Senate yesterday.  The Senate voted 26-18 to approve the bill after rejecting an amendment that would have further eroded the ban.  The bill included the exemptions for private clubs and residences that the House version included.  House Bill 2 will now go to the House where approval of the Senate changes or a Conference Committee will be required to resolve differences in the bill. 

State employee furloughs and salary reductions was the subject of companion bills approved by the House this week.  The first, House Bill 917, would enact a law to bring legislators and judicial branch officers within the reach of Governor Perdue's executive order that required reduced salaries and a 10 hour unpaid furlough.  The second, House Bill 1172, would allow state government employees and public school personnel to take voluntary furloughs when the Governor determines that the budget requires such an order. 

Numerous other bills were acted on by the House or Senate this week.  A sample of the legislation passed this week includes: 

• revisions to the Statute of limitation and repose applicable to manufacturers (Senate Bill 882)
• changes to the mortgage licensing act that will increase the duties owed by licensees to their customers and increase regulatory oversight of mortgage professionals (House Bill 1523)
• protections for retailers from tax liability when they rely on written advice of the Department of Revenue (Senate Bill 909)
• a strengthening of the requirements on secondary metal recyclers in order to stem the rising thefts of metals (House Bill 323)
• amendments to the appeals process from decisions of local zoning boards (Senate Bill 44), and
• to designate the month of March "Kidney Month in North Carolina."