THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 23, 1996 TAG: 9606230082
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
DATELINE: RALEIGH LENGTH: 112 lines
What legislators did, and what they left undone, in the five-week session that ended without a revised budget:
DONE
North Carolina voters will decide in November whether to borrow millions of dollars to build schools, highways, both, or neither. A $1.8 billion bond package would provide money to help local school districts build or renovate buildings. The school bonds will join a $950 million bond package for highway construction.
Hog farms and other livestock operations will be required to get a state permit, meet state standards on waste control and pass twice-annual inspections. But with no budget in place, there will be no money to hire new inspectors or regulators to enforce those rules, the toughest yet.
A reform plan will shift more of the control over the state's public schools from Raleigh to local school boards. The ABC's Plan will make local schools more accountable for student performance and require that parents be notified if most students at a school are behind their grade levels in reading, writing and math.
Legislators created a type of public school new to North Carolina that allows parents and teachers to use taxpayer money to form alternative schools that would compete with public schools. Charter schools are independent public schools that operate without many of the constraints imposed by local school districts.
Public hospitals will be allowed to keep secret the financial details of their managed-care contracts until the legislature has time to revisit the issue next year.
Local governments were stripped of much of their authority to regulate guns. The new law prevents cities and counties from regulating the ownership, transportation, registration or sale of guns.
The speed limit on some North Carolina four-lane highways will be as high as 70 mph this fall. The state Department of Transportation will have the authority to raise the speed limits on some limited-access highways from 55 mph to 60, 65 or 70 mph after Oct. 1.
The name of Pembroke State University will change to the University of North Carolina at Pembroke on July 1. The legislature approved the university's request after a feud between Robeson County legislators vying for the credit.
Killers facing the death penalty will face strict limits to their appeals. A new law sets time limits for each step in appeals of death penalty cases.
Chapel Hill was given the authority to require fire sprinklers in fraternity and sorority houses at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. That bill was proposed after a fire May 12 that killed five.
North Carolina's position against same-sex marriages was reinforced with a law that bars recognition of same-sex marriages performed in other states. Legislators worried that a court decision in Hawaii could force this state to recognize homosexual marriages, even though state law already defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
NOT DONE
A budget plan for spending more than $690 million in surplus taxes that the state collected this year. The money will stay in the treasury. There will not be enough money to pay new teachers for an expected increase in public school students, to enforce new hog-farm rules, to clean up the Neuse River and undertake other pollution programs, or to match more than $300 million in federal grants.
A fund that would use money the state does not spend each year to clean and protect rivers. A board of trustees appointed by the governor and legislative leaders would have used the fund to provide grants to agencies and nonprofit groups to purchase buffers along rivers, restore wetlands, repair failing wastewater systems and septic tanks, and improve stormwater runoff controls and greenways.
A long list of tax reductions, ranging from the sales tax on food to one paid by soft-drink bottlers.
A package of rest-home reforms, developed after a middle-of-the-night fire at a Laurinburg facility killed eight. The Senate wanted to create a $1 million loan pool to help older homes install sprinklers and smoke detectors. The House ignored the proposal.
A bill that would have required a 24-hour waiting period for abortions. Doctors performing abortions also would have had to inform women of abortion alternatives and provide them with material on medical problems that could develop.
A bill that would provide legal immunity for companies and communities that confess violations of environmental laws. The bill would have allowed those who admitted breaking environmental laws to be protected from lawsuits or prosecution if the violation did not create an imminent hazard and was not the result of intentional or reckless activity.
A bill that would have eliminated the state's annual safety inspections for all automobiles. Supporters said the inspections are a mandate that people do not want, but opponents said ending it would compromise highway safety.
A plan approved by the House, but not the Senate, that would give legislators the right to approve the governor's Cabinet secretaries and 120 other top appointments. The measure would have taken effect only if the governor's veto power is approved in a November referendum.
Only the Senate approved a bill that would eliminate the position of commissioner for the Division of Motor Vehicles. The proposal came from an outside audit of the division that alleged mismanagement and abuse of power by then-Commissioner Alexander Killens.
A graduated system of granting licenses to young drivers that would have required a year of adult supervision followed by six months of limited, violation-free driving.
Expansion of Smart Start programs; existing programs will continue to be funded at last year's level. Also no expansion money for Support Our Students, an after-school program for middle-school students.
Refunds to federal retirees on the state income taxes they paid on their pensions from 1985 through 1988. North Carolina began taking taxes from the pensions of state retirees in 1989, but federal retirees sought a refund of taxes they paid for the previous three years. Federal courts said the state need not refund those taxes.
A measure to eliminate state-set limits on credit card interest. It was sent into limbo after legislators complained that consumers would be hurt. The bill would have eliminated the state cap on bank charge-card interest rates and fees, and raised the interest cap for store credit accounts from 18 percent to 21 percent.
KEYWORDS: 1996 LEGISLATIVE WRAP-UP by CNB