As was feared, some members of the General Assembly may be bringing back legislation that would roll back existing gun safety laws. A version of the previously introduced H.B. 746 is scheduled to be heard in the House Judiciary IV committee on Wednesday. A new version of the bill would likely eliminate North Carolina’s pistol permitting system, among other things. Calls to members of the NC House are urgently needed. This from North Carolinians Against Gun Violence: NCGV has learned that a bill being considered in committee tomorrow would eliminate…
For Children, It’s Good News and Bad News from the GA
Last week was a mixed bag for children and youth in terms of activity at the General Assembly. Among accomplishments was further progress on raising the age at which juveniles can be charged as adults in criminal proceedings. North Carolina is the only state where 16- and 17-year-olds are automatically charged as adults. While advocates for children and youth were cheered by the prospect for change in juvenile jurisdiction, the Council and its allies were discouraged and disheartened by a provision in the state Senate’s budget that would cut Supplemental…
2017 Stand Up Sabbath — June 16-18
About this time two years ago, I accepted the offer to become the next Executive Director of the NC Council of Churches. We agreed that I would spend two weeks with the outgoing ED in June learning the ropes, and then I would really get to work in August. My first day in the office was June 18, 2015. I had heard the news from Charleston that morning when I woke and I knew that event would forever define my first day at the office. The NC Council of Churches…
Raleigh Report — May 10, 2017
By George Reed, Retired Executive Director [For more information on bills, including committee referrals and re-referrals, texts of bills, procedural histories, and recorded votes, go to the General Assembly website www.ncleg.net.] Newly Introduced Bills EDUCATION Three companion bills would impact food served in schools. H 891, Free Breakfast and Lunch in K-12 Public Schools, would provide funds ($200 million per year) to make free breakfast and free lunch available to all public school students who request it. It would also create a fund to which taxpayers could contribute through a…
Retiring Judge Stands Tall
As Shakespeare’s King Lear famously put it, “How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child.” Top Republicans in the N.C. General Assembly now might well be muttering, “How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a Republican judge who stands on principle!” Sure, Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper had blistered them in vetoing a bill to shrink the Court of Appeals. But Judge Douglas McCullough, who timed his retirement with precision so that Cooper could name his replacement, delivered a rebuke to his fellow…
Raleigh Report — April 26, 2017
By George Reed, Retired Executive Director [The deadlines for the introduction of most new bills have now passed, and we are in Crossover Week. By the end of the week, most non-money bills (i.e., not taxes, fees, or appropriations) must have passed one house in order to remain alive for this session. There are exceptions, and those exceptions can sometimes be used creatively by legislative leaders to keep bills alive. For more information on bills, including committee referrals and re-referrals, texts of bills, procedural histories, and recorded votes, go to…
Guns on Campus Are a Bad Idea
Two of the most volatile elements on a college campus are alcohol and hormones. These ingredients contribute to sexual assault (23.1 percent of female and 5.4 percent of male undergraduates), property destruction (50 percent of college administrators from schools with high drinking levels say their campuses have a problem with alcohol-related property damage), and poor academic performance (25 percent of college students report missing class and doing poorly on exams or papers related to alcohol consumption). Most students survive all three of these, though sexual assault brings its own kind…
Faith Leaders: Make Yourselves Heard on Juvenile Justice
A change in New York law earlier this month leaves North Carolina alone in a place 49 other states have found to be indefensible: only NC automatically prosecutes 16- and 17-year-olds as adults, regardless of their crime. There are many things our state will not let teenagers do because of their age, but it will punish them as an adult. And the impact on them, their families, and their communities can be staggering. Child advocates believe this may finally be the time to bring North Carolina in line with the…
SB 145 Debate Not in Accordance with Matthew 25
Last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee of the North Carolina General Assembly discussed SB 145, an anti-immigrant bill that would expand the 287g program, thereby allowing local law enforcement to act as ICE officials and forcing NC university system institutions to disclose a student’s immigration status if required by a state or federal agency. It would also revoke the exception that allows law enforcement officers to accept a community ID such as the FaithAction ID and withhold state funding from cities or counties that adopt a so-called “sanctuary” policy or ordinance regarding undocumented immigrants in any…
Raleigh Report — April 17, 2017
By George Reed, Retired Executive Director Newly Introduced Bills BUDGET AND TAXES H 540, Teachers & State Employees Pay Raise, would give annual raises of $2,400 to teachers and other state employees making less than $100,000/year. The bill would appropriate more than $700 million for the first year of these raises. Introduced by Reps. Malone (R-Wake Forest), Jordan (R-Jefferson), J. Bell (R-Goldsboro), and Hardister (R-Greensboro). Referred to House Appropriations. CHILDREN AND FAMILIES S 594/H 608, Family/Child Protection & Accountability Act, would require the state to develop a plan to divide…
Raleigh Report — April 10, 2017
By George Reed, Retired Executive Director Bills are being introduced at a rapid pace as the Senate’s deadline for new bills has passed and the House’s deadline on non-money approaches. This Raleigh Report and another one later in the week will try to catch up with the flood of bills. Newly Introduced Bills CHILDREN AND FAMILIES S 439, Eliminate NC Pre-K Waitlist Statewide, would appropriate $36 million over the next two fiscal years to eliminate the waiting list for the NC Pre-Kindergarten Program (formerly known as More at Four). Introduced…
Shock Waves from High Court ‘Nuke’
Our national politics are in an ugly place, driven by an accelerating cycle of suspicion, accusation, blame, recrimination and retaliation. The circumstances by which Neil Gorsuch takes office as a justice of the Supreme Court sadly fit the mold – to the U.S. Senate’s discredit and the court’s peril. President Trump, with his reckless disregard for long-established norms of presidential conduct, bears his own share of responsibility for the mess. Senate Democrats could rightly question why Trump’s choice for the court deserved the customary deference – what with investigations under…
GOP Mantra: Party Hearty!
They might not care for the image, but Republican members of the N.C. General Assembly act as though they were drunk with power. They have the votes not merely to set conservative policies on spending, taxes, education, health care, protection or misprotection of the environment — votes they’ve been only too happy to cast. They also have the votes to put their ideological stamp on North Carolina’s civic affairs in ways that could endure for many years and blight the state’s character – its self-proclaimed identity as a place where…
Raleigh Report — March 13, 2017
By George Reed, Retired Executive Director Newly Introduced Bills CRIMINAL AND JUVENILE JUSTICE H 233, Ban the Box, would govern how state and local governments could use criminal histories in making hiring decision. (“Ban the box” refers to the question on an application form about whether the applicant has ever been convicted of a crime, and the applicant has to check the “yes” box if so. Asking this question at the beginning of a hiring process is a significant factor in making it difficult for formerly incarcerated people to find…
Raleigh Report — March 7, 2017
By George Reed, Retired Executive Director Newly Introduced Bills BUDGET AND TAXES S 147, Reenact School Sales Tax Holiday. The school sales tax holiday was a three-day weekend shortly before the start of school each August during which sales taxes were not collected on a variety of school-related supplies, including some big-ticket items like computers. The holiday was popular with parents, students, teachers and retailers, but it was repealed effective in mid-2014. S 147 would reinstate it. Introduced by Sens. Lowe (D-Winston-Salem) and Foushee (D-Hillsborough). Referred to Senate Rules. CRIMINAL…