NC Legislative Update

Cady Thomas

Activity Updates

Legislative Calendar

  • Senate Bill Filing Deadline – April 4th.

  • The legislature is taking Spring Break the week of April 10.

  • House Public Bills & Resolutions (Not Approps or Finance) Filing Deadline – April 18.

  • House Public Bills (Approps and Finance) Filing Deadline – April 2

  • CROSSOVER is MAY 4

 

Bills and Legislation

Medicaid Expansion

North Carolina became the 40th state to expand Medicaid this week when Governor Cooper signed H76. An additional 600,000 North Carolinians will have access to Medicaid. Parts of the bill will not go into effect until a budget is enacted.

NCDOT Funding

S 354 – NC TEN was filed this week to create additional revenue sources for the department. The legislation does the following:

  • Increase the EV registration to $180/year

  • Create a plugin hybrid vehicle registration of $90/year

  • Impose fees for using rideshare services ($0.20-$0.50/ride)

  • Removes the $2,000 cap on the highway use tax when purchasing commercial and recreational vehicles.

 

The bill also allows NCDOT to enter into private agreements to finance the cost of acquiring, constructing, equipping, maintaining, and operating transportation infrastructure in this State, and to plan, design, develop, acquire, construct, equip, maintain, and operate transportation infrastructure.

 

Agency Bill – NCDOT

H198 is the annual legislation requested by NCDOT to make legislative changes. Some of the changes include:

  • Requires that NCDOT establish an emergency reserve fund in the amount of $125 million for unreimbursed expenditures arising from an emergency.

  • Creates a pilot program to allow NCDOT to utilize Progressive Design-Build on up to 5 projects with a value less than $500 million.

  • Extends the expiration date of Build NC Bonds act from the end of 2028 to the end of 2030.  Also allows NCDOT to issue and sell bonds before June 30, 2024 if their cash balance is over $2 billion.

A full summary can be found here.

House Budget

The House released their budget proposal on Wednesday afternoon. The bill spends $29.7 billion in the first year and $30.8 billion in the second. After several hours of discussion and amendments, H259 passed out of the Appropriations Committee on Thursday. It will be voted on the floor Wednesday and Thursday of next week. Budget and Committee Report and DOT Budget

CRMCA highlights include:

  • Economic Development – $50 million each year for the Select Sites Readiness Program and $150 million each year for the Megasites Readiness Program.

  • Decreases business franchise tax rate incrementally, eliminating it by 2029.

  • Reduces individual income tax rate to 4.5% in 2024 and brings the rate to 3.99% in 2027.

  • DOT Budget

Articles

 

Interesting Legislation 

  • Sports Betting – The House passed H347 which legalizes mobile and online sports betting this week. The bill failed in the House last year by 1 vote.

  • Veto Override – The NCGA overrode S41 which repeals the state’s pistol permit requirement. This is the first override since 2018.

COVID

Numbers as of February 22, 2023:

  • 3,485,661 total cases

  • 28,540 deaths

  • 313 people – 7 day average of those hospitalized (Down 530 since last CRMCA report)

  • 74% of adult population fully vaccinated, 63% of total population fully vaccinated

Axios Article

 

Election News

Governor’s Race

The race for NC Governor in 2024 added a Republican candidate this week when current NC Treasurer, Dale Folwell, announced he is running.

Current Lt. Governor Mark Robinson is also expected to announce he is running on April 22 at a rally in Elon.