It’s over; the “Fat Lady” sang and the General
Assembly has gone home! The House of
Representatives adjourned sine die July 18, 2008 at
4:47 PM and will convene for the 148th Session
on January 28, 2009 at noon.
The issue of most interest to you is Rep. Pryor
Gibson’s House Bill 2678, Anson County Commissioners Form of
Government and the effort of three of our
county commissioners and Pryor to
change the structure of our county commission. This bill never made
it to committee and, to the very best of my determination; nothing
concerning the Union County Commissioners was attached to the
Moving on to another topic, HB 2499 Drought
Water Management Recommendations) was heard for concurrence
yesterday. I voted against this bill because, while it was good
legislation when the House sent it over to the Senate, the way it
came back, there was a question as to whether or not wells were
covered in the bill. While I feel that it is very important for the
state to assess the status of this crucial natural resource, I think
we need to know whether we are depleting our groundwater before we
take action to infringe on peoples’ property rights. I am very
opposed to infringing on property rights; however, to have our
ground water dissipated and cause peoples’ homes to become virtually
worthless, due to the lack of water, would be catastrophic. Under
such a scenario, some regulation of ground water usage would be
warranted. Let me also point out that from the beginning, the bill
had a major flaw in that it totally failed to address the need to
create additional water sources, i.e., such as reservoirs.
At this point, let me refer back to my newsletter
of June 10 where I reported on the passing of House Bill 2436, the
“budget” bill. At that time I told you I was one of the twenty
Republican House members who voted against the budget and I gave you
two or three of my major concerns. The first of those was the
failure of the budget to address the $22B unfunded obligations for
retirees’ (state employees and teachers) health care. It is
certainly interesting that within less than six weeks, the Democrats
have acknowledged a $100-200M shortfall in the NC State Health Plan
for this fiscal year. To deal with this problem, the House
leadership (D) proposed to withdraw $100M out of the rainy day fund
to shore up the system through March of
2009. The Republicans opposed this raid feeling that it would
be much more prudent for the Governor to reduce state spending by
1%. The proposed freeze would have excluded salaries and one or two
other categories. As no bill was passed, so it would appear that the
present leadership will either call a special session to deal with
this crisis (which I would anticipate would be held after the
November elections) or have the Governor use the power already
delegated to him to reduce state spending (which is the Republican
position). While it is gratifying to have one’s vote and position
confirmed, it is a bit sad that either the accounting down here is
woefully inadequate or the Democrat members of the Legislature are
so financially irresponsible. I spoke with several members of the
House leadership and they fully expect a $2B shortfall in revenue to
fund the next budget. It’s beyond my comprehension considering the
following:
the
shortfall in the State Health Plan,
the
$65B shortfall in road needs,
the $800M plus in COPS and other bonds (that were put into this budget
without a vote of the people) which will require funds out of the
next budget to service them,
that the elected state
representatives responsible for the welfare of the people,
would intentionally expand this year’s spending and thus
compound the potential “train wreck” awaiting the 2009-2010
budget.
Sorry for putting such negative news in what I had wanted to be an upbeat end of session newsletter. However, I am eagerly looking forward to being home with my family and getting in some vacation time. Certainly hope that all of you enjoy the rest of your summer and, again, thank you for all the support that I have received from you. It makes holding public office worthwhile.