After a long and grueling week of work the General Assembly adjourned the 2010 session around 5:30 A.M. on Saturday July 10, 2010.  Before leaving Raleigh, lawmakers settled a number of highly controversial and important legislative issues and sent Governor Perdue a landslide of bills to be considered for her signature.  Governor Perdue now has thirty days to consider whether to sign the bills into law, allow the bills to become law without her signature, or issue a veto.  To this point, the Governor has not signaled that a veto is being considered, although she used the veto power last year.  In this our final weekly legislative update, we summarize the key votes and debates.  In the coming weeks, we will prepare a comprehensive report on all the action taken by the General Assembly this year. 

On the final day of session, lawmakers approved several important economic development incentive proposals.  A once large package of tax incentives (House Bill 1973) was trimmed significantly to allow separate consideration of issues that were contained in earlier versions of the bill.  The issues that were placed in separate legislation include a clarification in the application of the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) to economic incentives (Senate Bill 778 and House Bill 1099), changes to the film industry credits (House Bill 713), creation of the Uwharrie Regional Resources Commission (House Bill 972), and authorization of a new “low profit limited liability company” (Senate Bill 308).  The changes to SEPA emerged as a key economic development issue when a Wake County Superior Court Judge issued an order requiring SEPA compliance for any project receiving public economic incentives.  Senate Bill 778 and House Bill 1099 together will make that ruling inapplicable to future and some pending development projects.  The creation of the Uwharrie Regional Resources Commission in House Bill 972 is a step back from the highly controversial issue surrounding creation of the Yadkin River Trust and the Alcoa facility on Badin Lake.  Formation of a new type of corporate entity, a “low profit limited liability company,” would be authorized under Senate Bill 308.  In separate but related action, lawmakers approved a package of incentives designed to attract wood pulp-to-paper manufacture, a turbine manufacturing company and two new data centers (Senate Bill 1171). 

Legislators agreed to sweeping ethics and campaign finance legislation (House Bill 961) last week.  House Bill 961 would create a commission on public funding of statewide elections, place new limits on how soon a state employee may become a lobbyist, require new disclosures of fundraising activities by high level appointees, and clarify the reporting requirements applicable to lobbyists and lobbyists’ principals.  In related action, legislators approved new reporting requirements for corporations and labor unions that are now constitutionally permitted to finance political campaigns under the US Supreme Court ruling in Citizens’ United (House Bill 748). 

The General Assembly passed legislation related to mortgage lending and homebuyer protections in the final days of the session.  Under Senate Bill 1216, the emergency foreclosure protections first enacted a few years ago would be extended to all home loans, as lawmakers continue to grapple with the high rate of defaults on home loans.  Related legislation (Senate Bill 1015) would provide new regulations of foreclosure rescue programs and refinancing schemes that have been identified as unfairly targeting distressed homeowners.  Both bills now await Governor Perdue’s decision. 

Environmental law changes were a large part of the work in the waning days of the legislative session.  These proposals include efforts to improve river basin modeling (House Bill 1743), to amend or extend renewable energy tax credits (House Bill 1829), to aid in improving water quality of Falls Lake and to change the interbasin transfer laws (House Bill 1765), to remove the cap on liability for oil spills and prepare North Carolina for the potential arrival of oil spilled in the Gulf of Mexico (Senate Bill 836), and to make technical changes to the environmental laws (House Bill 1766).  In related action, the legislature has approved triple renewable energy credits for a specifically identified project in Mecklenburg County that would be constructed on an unused brown field site (Senate Bill 886). 

Legislators have approved a sweeping reform of the state alcoholic beverage control (ABC) laws (House Bill 1717) that would enact new ethics requirements for local ABC boards and new oversight authority for the State ABC Commission.  In other action, lawmakers have approved a ban on electronic sweepstakes played in internet cafes (House Bill 80). 

Utility service vehicles would be included under the “move over” law if House Bill 1729 becomes law.  The addition would require motorists that pass a utility service vehicle parked on the roadside to switch lanes or slow down, a requirement that already applies for law enforcement and emergency vehicles. 

Collection of DNA from certain arrestees emerged as a key issue and sparked a tense debate over constitutional rights and civil liberties (House Bill 1403).  After the hours long debate during the middle of the night, House Bill 1403 was approved in the House and Senate and sent to Governor Perdue’s desk. 

Emerging at the eleventh hour, House Bill 455 would provide two taxpayer friendly provisions under the sales tax laws and authorize another study of local government broadband authority.  Local government authority to own and operate communication services was an issue debated throughout the legislative session.  Although some key lawmakers advocated a moratorium on any new local government operations of the systems, the moratorium never gained traction.  Instead, lawmakers have authorized a few different studies of the issue. 

To round out the action on legislation, lawmakers approved the annual studies bill (Senate Bill 900) and the appointments bill (House Bill 1670).  The studies bill authorizes a myriad of different topics that commissions and committees may study during the legislative interim.  The appointments bill names a number of individuals to state boards and commissions upon recommendation by the Speaker of the House and the President Pro Tempore of the Senate. 

As with every legislative session, the bills that are defeated are sometimes of equal import as the legislation that is approved.  In the last week of session, the House Judiciary III committee defeated a proposal that would have drastically altered the nuisance abatement laws (Senate Bill 372).  The legislation withered under criticism from lawmakers who were concerned about the authority to take private property that comes with a nuisance and the more lenient standard of showing a violation that was put forward in the bill.  After the committee’s unfavorable action, the legislation became ineligible for consideration this year. 

A number of other bills were also defeated or simply failed to gain traction.  All of the major issues and the key debates will be a part of our upcoming comprehensive legislative summary.