North Carolina lawmakers returned to Raleigh and completed another busy week of legislating this week.  On Thursday, the House and Senate agreed to extend again the temporary budget authority in place as negotiations on a formal State Budget plan continue.  Also on Thursday, very clear signs emerged that those negotiations may finally be nearing an end as chief tax law writers have agreed to a new compromise proposal that they expect will pass both chambers next week.  In other action, dozens of bills were acted on by the committees or the full chambers of the General Assembly this week as legislative leaders prepare to halt committee meetings and bring the session to a close. 

Chief budget negotiators of the House and Senate have apparently struck a new compromise deal on the State Budget.  Two of the leading tax law writers in the General Assembly, Representative Paul Luebke (D-Durham) and Senator David Hoyle (D-Gaston), announced the deal on Thursday.  In total the tax plan would raise nearly $1 billion by placing a 3% surcharge on income tax of married couples earning over $250,000 and a 2% surcharge on those making between $100,000 and $250,000, raising the sales tax by a full 1% and increasing the excise tax on cigarettes, beer, wine and liquor.  Last week's agreement, which was similar to this week's except that the surcharge would have applied to all income level earners, was abandoned when Governor Bev Perdue (D-Craven) rejected the proposal.  Governor Perdue objected to the surcharge being placed upon middle and lower income workers and insisted on an additional $200 million in revenue to protect schools from deep cuts in funding.  The Governor has yet to issue a public comment on the new agreement. 

The Governor's position and the details of the budget plan are among the uncertainties surrounding the budget plan's future.  Also, there are doubts that the House Democratic Caucus will support the plan because many of the Caucus's moderate or conservative members have objected to the cigarette and alcohol taxes.  Legislative leaders will be working over the weekend to finalize the plan and to shore up support for the budget proposal both in the Legislature and with the Governor's office.  Lawmakers expect to put the plan into final form and have votes by the middle of next week.  In the meantime, a temporary spending authorization was set to run out at midnight tonight, so lawmakers approved the third "continuing resolution" of this session by passing House Bill 102, that allows for continued spending at 84% of last year's budget level. 

Passage of the State budget is the first major hurdle to clear before the General Assembly can adjourn the long session.  A second hurdle, the end of committee meetings, is also anticipated next week.  In preparation for closing down committees, committee leaders are coordinating the last of their meetings and deciding which bills will advance and which will have to wait until the short session that begins in May.  House Speaker Joe Hackney (D-Chatham) has told the members of the House that he expects next week to be the final week of committee meetings and that most committees would not meet on a regular schedule next week.  At this point in the session, bills that attract controversy are likely to be put aside for consideration next year or during the interim by the various study committees that are traditionally appointed by Legislative Leaders. 

As the session nears a close, the House and Senate are moving to complete work on legislation of all types.  After a delay of two weeks in order to study the impact of implementing the bill, the Senate has approved changes (Senate Bill 804) to the Certificate of Need (CON) appeals process.  The provisions of the bill include changes to the timeline of appeals, the bonding requirements for those pursuing appeals, and they affect many decisions that are currently under review.  The Senate also gave its final approval to legislation (Senate Bill 882) that amends North Carolina's Statute of Repose to allow a longer period of time in which to bring product liability actions against manufacturers.  Senate Bill 804 and Senate Bill 882 now go to Governor Perdue for executive action. 

Additional legislation advanced to Governor Perdue's desk this week relates to real property sales and condemnation of land held under conservation easements.  Senate Bill 405 would require information to be included in a deed when real property is conveyed, to help tax assessors to more accurately assess the value of property.  Senate Bill 600 creates a higher threshold for condemnation of conservation easement land that requires public condemnors to show that there is no prudent and feasible alternative to the proposed condemnation in order for the condemnation to withstand judicial review.  Both bills were given final approval by the General Assembly this week and now go the Governor for executive action. 

Work on a major probation system reform bill (Senate Bill 920) was completed by the General Assembly and signed into law by Governor Perdue this week.  The bill allows probation officers to access offenders' juvenile records that were once confidential, to make warrantless searches of probationers as a "regular condition" of probation, and prohibit drug by probationers.  Many of these reforms were spurred on by tragic events of the last year, including the slaying of UNC-Chapel Hill Student Body President Eve Carson.  Carson's murderer, had been convicted of multiple criminal offenses and sentenced to probation, and State records show the probation officer assigned to oversee him failed to fulfill his obligations.  Carson's murder and the separate killing of Duke graduate student Abhijit Mahato by another probationer resulted in the resignation of the head of the probation system and ultimately brought the reform legislation to the top of the General Assembly's priority list.  Governor Perdue is also seeking additional funding for more probation officials in the State budget. 

The General Assembly completed work on several insurance law changes this week.  A conference committee on Senate Bill 780 was dismissed as the House version prevailed in a debate over maximum liability for structured settlements in personal injury cases.  Changes (Senate Bill 660) to how disputed auto insurance claims are valued obtained final approval in the General Assembly this week.  Senate bill 660 would allow for use of the "diminution in value" to calculate the claim total as an alternative to the replacement cost already in place today.  Lastly, legislation (House Bill 1166) requested by the Department of Insurance to make various technical changes to the insurance laws cleared the House this week and now awaits action by the Senate Commerce Committee.  Senate Bill 780 and Senate Bill 660 now go to Governor Perdue's desk. 

Other legislation moving to the Governor's desk this week includes House Bill 1222 that will update the rate spread and high-cost home loan statutes and update the emergency foreclosure reduction program created last session. 

Disagreement about how and whether deaf jurors would serve during trials brought the return of legislation (Senate Bill 293) to the House Ways and Means Committee.  Also included in the bill are provisions allowing Registers of Deeds to maintain electronic juror lists.  Debate over the re-referral motion was intense as bill sponsor Representative Rick Glazier (D-Cumberland) and Ways and Means Committee Chair Bill Faison (D-Orange) wrangled over the issues presented in the bill.  Both Glazier and Faison are among the House's corps of attorney-legislators.  On this point Faison prevailed and the bill now awaits action by the Ways and Means Committee.