2002 State Legislative Wrap-Up

Family Policy Facts - October 11, 2002
On October 4, the North Carolina General Assembly ended the longest legislative biennium in state history. Despite the extraordinary length of the session, state lawmakers enacted surprisingly few significant new laws. What was more significant was the legislation that did not pass, including a statewide lottery referendum. The following is a summary of select legislation that was introduced or eligible for consideration in the 2002 session.

ABORTION/PRO–LIFE:
The 2001-02 legislative biennium was a frustrating two years for the pro-life community as practically every pro-life bill introduced in the House and Senate died because they were never considered in committee. Bills to tighten the parental consent for abortion law; to ensure that women considering an abortion have the information to be fully aware of the effects of the procedure before they make their final decision; to require physicians who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital; and to enact other pro-life initiatives never saw the light of day. Nonetheless, restrictions on the State Abortion Fund were kept intact. These restrictions authorize the Fund to pay for abortions only in the case of rape, incest or when the life of the mother is at risk and have all but eliminated the state taxpayer funding of abortions through the State Abortion Fund. At one point during budget deliberations in the House this year, the annual $50,000 appropriation to the Fund was removed altogether. However, this money was restored in the final version of the budget conference report. While the Fund will receive $50,000 for the 2002-03 fiscal year, it is likely that the entire amount will revert back to the General Fund at the end of the year. Because of these ongoing restrictions, the Fund has paid for only one abortion in the last seven years.

A bill banning physician-assisted suicide in North Carolina passed the Senate last year and was eligible for consideration this session, but died in the House Health Committee. The bill would have allowed “licensed health care professionals” to be found guilty of a Class D felony for “participating in a medical procedure or willfully prescribing any drug, compound, or substance for the express purpose of assisting a patient to intentionally end the patient’s life.” It also would have encouraged the State Medical Board to implement policies to train and educate physicians on issues related to physician-assisted suicide.

ALCOHOL:
For the first session in many years, the North Carolina General Assembly did not enact any significant alcohol legislation. Pro-alcohol forces made numerous attempts to expand the sale and distribution of alcohol across the state, but their efforts came up “dry.” Even up to the last day of the session, efforts were being made to slip special alcohol provisions into other legislation such as SB 1217—2002 Technical Corrections. One of these provisions would have allowed convenience stores and grocery stores in dry areas of the state to obtain permits to sell alcohol if they were located within 100 yards of an existing sports club. Another provision would have loosened an existing limitation on alcohol sales in sports clubs which requires the gross receipts for “club activities” to exceed the gross receipts for alcohol sales. This provision would have allowed sports clubs to add to the gross receipts for club activities, receipts for “other recreational activities”—effectively increasing the amount of alcohol they could legally sell. Both provisions were removed from SB 1217 before it was ultimately approved. Similar provisions appeared in numerous other bills in the Senate, but none passed.

EDUCATION:
The 2002 budget bill, SB 1115—Modify Appropriations Act of 2001, included $28 million to expand the “More at Four” prekindergarten program for at-risk four year olds and $26.8 million to reduce class size in the first grade from one teacher per 20 students to one teacher per 18 students.

The General Assembly took no action to remove or raise the cap on the number of charter schools eligible to operate in North Carolina. On a related matter, a provision in SB 1217—2002 Technical Corrections states that charter schools are not entitled to receive funds from fines and forfeitures or supplemental school taxes until July 1, 2003. This means that although charter schools are public schools, they will not be treated like traditional public schools when it comes to these sources of education revenue. This provision stemmed from a 1999 lawsuit in which the Francine Delany New School for Children sued the Asheville City Board of Education because the Board refused to provide the charter school its share of local fine and forfeiture monies and supplemental school taxes. Under state law, local fines and forfeitures go to the local public school system. In May, the State Court of Appeals determined that the charter school was entitled to its share of the money. Subsequently, the school board appealed to the State Supreme Court, which has not ruled on the case.

GAMBLING:
The gambling industry was dealt a loosing hand this session when their efforts to bring a lottery and casino gambling to North Carolina were soundly defeated. Many government experts considered this to be the year for the lottery because of the convergence of numerous factors. Governor Mike Easley, the first pro-lottery governor in recent state history, was relentless in his efforts to fulfill a campaign promise to bring the lottery to North Carolina. Easley and the gambling industry promoted the state budget crisis as a time of “need” for lottery money to fund education. They also hammered away on the idea of holding a statewide referendum on the lottery—trying to get the decision out of the hands of state lawmakers and into the hands of the often less-informed public. In addition, it was widely reported that some high level Democrats were convinced by their political consultants that having the lottery on the November general election ballot would bring out the Democratic vote, and that this was the only way the Democrats could maintain control of the State House.

The first attempt in the House to bring the lottery up for a vote was on July 11. At the last minute, the House leadership pulled SB 93—NC Education Lottery Advisory Referendum when they realized the bill would be defeated. SB 93 remained on the House calendar as a constant daily threat until mid September. Then, on September 17, House leaders considered taking a vote on the lottery by including it in the conference report on the budget. This would have been a blatant violation of the House rules and would have greatly complicated the issue, because lawmakers would be forced to vote on the lottery in the context of many other issues, instead of voting it up or down on its merits. At the last minute, House leaders realized they did not have the votes for this plan, and because they did not want to jeopardize the entire budget compromise, they took the lottery out of the conference report and voted on a separate lottery referendum bill. SB 2—Authorize Lottery Referendum was voted down on a 50—69 vote, an overwhelming margin of 19 votes that surprised many.

Credit for this tremendous victory goes out to all of the citizens across the state who contacted their legislators and asked them to oppose the lottery, as well as to all of the public policy organizations that pulled together to fight the pro-gambling efforts in Raleigh. Many groups joined the North Carolina Family Policy Council in the lottery battle including: the Christian Action League of North Carolina, Citizens for a Sound Economy, Citizens United Against the Lottery, Common Sense Foundation, John Locke Foundation, North Carolina Budget and Tax Center, North Carolina Council of Churches, and the North Carolina Retail Merchants Association.

In addition to the lottery, an effort to institute Las Vegas-style casino gambling in the state also failed. HB 716—Casino Nights was approved by the Senate Rules Committee and made it to the Senate floor only to be re-referred to the Senate Finance where it died. In order to allow nonprofit organizations to hold “casino nights” as fundraisers, HB 716 would have legalized the possession and operation of gambling tables and other gambling equipment. By doing so, the bill would have allowed for Las Vegas-style gambling on the Cherokee Reservation in western North Carolina and even would have allowed Las Vegas-style gambling casinos to open anywhere in the state. Because the bill did not restrict where nonprofit organizations could hold casino nights, the gambling industry could come into North Carolina, set up gambling casinos in the state, and then have a different nonprofit organization sponsor each casino night. Allowing nonprofits to use gambling as a fundraising mechanism would also create unfair competition in the nonprofit industry, as some charitable organizations would choose gambling while others would not. HB 716 was brought up during the last two weeks of the session but was abandoned by the Senate after the North Carolina Family Policy Council exposed how expansive the impact of the bill actually could be.

For the second time in two years, the Senate passed a bill to ban video poker machines in North Carolina, but the House did not consider SB 1008-—Ban Video Poker/All But Reservations. SB 1008 would have eliminated the use of video poker machines in the state on December 1, 2002, except on the Cherokee Reservation in western North Carolina. The North Carolina Family Policy Council supported the bill but expressed concerns that the exemption language for the Cherokee Casino could actually authorize all forms of gambling on the reservation, including Las Vegas-style gambling, horse racing, dog racing, and even a lottery. A simple amendment to the bill could have fixed this problem, but the opportunity to fix the bill never arose because it remained buried in the House Rules Committee. The General Assembly did pass a provision in SB 98—Studies Act of 2002 authorizing the “House Select Study Committee on Video Gaming Machines” to study video machine gambling in North Carolina and report its findings to the 2003 General Assembly.

HEALTH:
A bill to authorize needle exchange programs (NEP) in North Carolina was eligible for consideration this session, but fortunately saw no action. These programs allow cocaine and heroine addicts and other intravenous drug users to exchange used needles and syringes for new ones and provide NEP participants immunity from prosecution under the state’s drug paraphernalia laws.

HOMOSEXUAL RIGHTS:
No action was taken this session that would grant special legal rights and privileges to homosexuals.

MARRIAGE:
An effort to abolish the civil actions of alienation of affections and criminal conversation failed this session. HB 576—Abolish Alienation of Affection/Criminal Conversation would have eliminated two centuries-old laws designed to protect marriages from affairs and adultery. With alienation of affections, an aggrieved spouse can sue a third party who, willfully and maliciously “steals the affections” of their husband or wife and breaks up their marriage. With criminal conversation, an aggrieved spouse can sue a third party who commits adultery with their spouse. HB 576 passed the House and Senate Judiciary 2 Committee, and got to the Senate floor last year, but was returned to the Judiciary 2 Committee when it appeared the bill would be defeated. HB 576 could have been brought back to the Senate floor, but remained in the Judiciary 2 Committee where it died.

PORNOGRAPHY:
By a unanimous 112-0 vote, the North Carolina House passed a resolution urging “the Congress of the United States to support and enact legislation that would establish a “.XXX” Internet domain for the posting and dissemination of material that is pornographic, obscene or harmful to minors and to limit such material to the designated domain.” The resolution cites a U.S. District Court ruling that found “major provisions of the [Federal] Children’s Internet Protection Act facially unconstitutional.” It also states that “other attempts to limit children’s access to adult content through filtering software and on-line informational websites designed by service providers have been largely unsuccessful.” Beginning on September 10, Rep. Sam Ellis (R-Wake) filed identical resolutions almost every day, but each time the bills were introduced on the House floor, House Speaker Jim Black (D-Mecklenburg) immediately sent them to the House Rules Committee. The Rules Committee never took the bills up for consideration, so other House members began introducing similar resolutions, all of which met the same fate. Finally, Speaker Black introduced his own resolution, HR 1804, brought it before the House for immediate consideration, and it passed.

Another bill directing public libraries and the State Board of Education to adopt policies to protect minors from accessing obscene material through the Internet passed the Senate last year but was not acted upon by the House this session. SB 1032—Minors’ Internet Access would have specified that these policies must include equipping computers with Internet filtering software and/or purchasing Internet connectivity that provides filtering at the Internet service provider (ISP) level. SB 1032 died when the General Assembly adjourned.

TAXES/BUDGET:
After much negotiation, the General Assembly finally agreed on a $14.35 billion budget for 2002-2003 in late September—over two-and-a-half months after the start of the state’s fiscal year. For the first time in recent memory, the state budget did not exceed the prior year’s spending, which was $14.4 billion. SB 1115—Modify Appropriations Act of 2001 also included provisions to raise more state revenue by repealing over $330 million in reimbursements previously paid to local governments for lost revenue due to the repeal of the inventory tax, intangibles tax and other taxes. The bill delayed for one year the implementation of the elimination of the marriage tax penalty and the increase in the child tax credit passed last year, closed a number of corporate loopholes, and made various other changes.

In addition to the budget, the General Assembly also approved a bill to allow local governments to increase the local sales tax by one-half cent effective December 1, 2002. Assuming that local governments will levy the additional half-cent authorized by SB 1292—Local Sales Tax Acceleration, the effective combined state and local sales tax will increase to seven percent in most areas of North Carolina.

Copyright © 2002. North Carolina Family Policy Council. All rights reserved.