Legislative Update 6/7/2023

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State Updates

While budget negotiations between the House and Senate continue, lawmakers are maintaining that they intend to finish by the end of the month before the start of the next fiscal year. President Pro Tempore, Phil Berger, has noted that they are “really close with the House on raises,” but they are still hung up on reserve funds and state income tax level adjustments. 

Things are still progressing with legislation and other happenings around the state, however! 

• NC Innovation Money
  • More than $1 billion in the NC Senate’s proposed budget would go towards NCInnovation. 
  • This is intended to convert academic research into start-up businesses. 

• Energy Rate Hikes 
  • Duke Energy will raise rates by 4.8% beginning June 1 for residential customers in Asheville, Raleigh and eastern North Carolina.
  • The North Carolina Utilities Commission approved the increases last week as it wrapped up expert witness hearings on Duke’s request to raise rates by 18.7% over three years under newly permitted multiyear rate plans.
  • If regulators approve a more minor increase than the temporary rates, Duke would have to refund the difference to customers. 

• Energizer Investment
  • Two weeks ago, the battery company announced that they would be adding 144 jobs to the Asheville area, with a $43 million investment. 

• Voter ID
  • Come November, voters in North Carolina will have to show a form of ID, such as the following prior to voting: 
    • The voter has a reasonable impediment to presenting photo ID. This category is wide-ranging and includes lost or stolen IDs, lack of transportation, disability or illness, conflicting work schedules or family responsibilities, lack of documentation such as birth certificates needed to get an ID, or not yet receiving an ID after applying for one.
    • The voter has a religious objection to being photographed.
    • The voter suffered a federal or state-declared natural disaster within 100 days of the election. Bipartisan county boards of elections are required to count ballots with completed ID exception forms “unless the county board has grounds to believe the affidavit is false,” according to state law.

• Redistricting
  • NC is no stranger to controversy when it comes to redistricting, and later this session, following the completion of the budget, lawmakers will once again begin the process of drawing new electoral maps. 
  • Previously, Republicans have had former map drafts eliminated by the State Supreme Court as unconstitutional; however, whatever maps are drawn this year will likely stick, as the once 4-3 Democrat-controlled court is now 5-2 in favor of Republicans. 

• STEM Workforce
  • As negotiations between the House and Senate continue, one thing to look at is the university system appropriations in the two budgets. 
  • In the Senate’s version of the budget, an additional $8 million dollars was allocated to UNCW for the purpose of increasing their “critical workforce programs,” with particular emphasis on coastal engineering, cybersecurity, and intelligent systems engineering programs and other STEM-focused career paths. 

• Resilience Projects
  • More than $600,000 in state-private partnership funds will be appropriated for recovery and resiliency projects through NCORR, including the following: 
    • The Albemarle Commission has been awarded $65,000 to develop a toolkit of customizable stormwater, water quality and flooding outreach for its member counties.
    • In the Cape Fear region, $65,000 has been awarded to expand Men and Women United for Youth & Families, an organization serving historically underserved communities with disaster mitigation and recovery assistance.
    • In the Eastern Carolina Council of Governments region, through an agreement with Goldsboro, $65,000 will go to Community Technical Assistance Inc. to reuse city-owned property acquired through FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program as an outdoor classroom for education and leadership training.
    • Roxboro, in the Kerr-Tar Council of Governments region, will use its $65,000 to coordinate a commercial and industrial building inventory, including analysis of climate hazard impacts and risk reduction improvements, for its member counties.
    • In the Lumber River Council of Governments region, $65,000 goes to Carolina Wetlands Association and its partners to develop a wetland restoration plan for 50 acres covering part of the Lumbee Cultural Center property and surrounding wetlands in Robeson County that routinely floods.
    • Cumberland County, in the Mid-Carolina Council of Governments region, has been awarded $27,650 to install stream gauges and sensors at six locations to help improve flood warning and forecasting in routinely flooded areas.
    • Two projects in the Mid-East Commission region have been awarded funding. Carolina Wetlands Association will use $65,000 for wetland and floodplain restoration along Parker Creek just north of Greenville and further downstream. The Association of Mexicans in North Carolina will use its $60,850 to relaunch NC Latino Disaster Recovery Alliance to share hazard response and preparedness information with Latino and Spanish-speaking community members, including farmworkers.
    • Triangle J Council of Governments has been awarded $65,000 to plan and implement a Haw River warning system and evaluate backup power needs for emergency shelter facilities.
    • Nash County, in the Upper Coastal Plain Council of Governments, has been awarded $65,000 to create flood resiliency by developing a benefit-cost analysis and a study of routinely flooded access points that include access to an emergency communications tower and residential neighborhood.