2007 General Assembly Session Wrap-Up

Family Policy Facts - August 10, 2007
With the drop of a gavel on Thursday evening, August 2, the 2007 Session of the North Carolina General Assembly was brought to a close. The six-month-long session, which began under a blanket of snow in late January, ended in the oppressive heat of a Tar Heel summer. In much the same way, the political heat in Raleigh escalated throughout the year, as lawmakers hammered out deals on legislation and saw one of their own terminate an eight-year stretch as Speaker of the House and begin a five-year sentence in federal prison.

The resignation of former Speaker of the House Jim Black (D-Mecklenburg) in February, one day before pleading guilty to corruption in federal court, ended a state legislative career that spanned 25 years. In mid-July, a federal judge sentenced Black to five years and three months in federal prison and fined him $50,000. More sentencing followed two weeks later when a state judge fined Black $1 million and said he must pay it before mid-December in order to avoid almost two more years in prison.

While much attention during the 2007 Session focused on the legal proceedings of Black, former State Lottery Commissioner Kevin Geddings, former State House member Mike Decker, former Black political director and lobbyist Meredith Norris and others, the North Carolina General Assembly passed a record $20.7 billion budget and took action on a wide variety of issues. The following is a summary of select legislation on which the North Carolina Family Policy Council worked during the 2007 Session.

ADOPTION
The original version of HB 445—Access to Information for Adult Adoptees would have allowed adult adoptees to obtain a copy of their original birth certificate, leading to the identity of their biological parents without prior consent. The version of HB 445 that was enacted into law, however, allows adoption agencies and local departments of social services to act as “confidential intermediaries” between adoptees and biological parents. These agencies may “obtain and share nonidentifying birth family health information or facilitate contact or share identifying information with adult adoptees, adult lineal descendants of deceased adoptees, and biological parents with the written consent of all parties to the contact or the sharing of information.”

SB 90—Post-Adoption Contacts was briefly discussed in the State Senate but did not pass either chamber. This bill would weaken the rights of adoptive parents by granting biological family members legal standing to sue adoptive parents in order to enforce post adoption contact agreements. These agreements, which may be voluntarily entered into under current law, outline different forms of contact and communication that may take place between biological family members and the adoptive family. The House companion bill, HB 68, was never considered.

EDUCATION
Bills that would have abolished North Carolina's abstinence until marriage education law and replaced it with "comprehensive sex education" that promotes condoms and contraceptives and affirms homosexuality, bisexuality and other "alternative" sexual behaviors failed this session. HB 879—Modify School Health Education Program was forwarded by the House Health Committee without prejudice to the House Education Committee in early May, but the bill never came before the Education Committee for consideration. A similar bill in the Senate, SB 1182, never saw action.

HB 853—Prohibit Corporal Punishment in Schools, which proposed to ban corporal punishment in North Carolina public schools, was defeated on the House floor May 23, by a vote of 50-66. Nearly 60 percent of North Carolina’s local school systems have policies authorizing the administration of corporal punishment, but this bill would have brought an end to this method of discipline.

Despite the fact that numerous bills were introduced to either raise or remove the cap on the number of charter schools allowed to operate in North Carolina, none of these bills were ultimately approved. The House Education Committee turned HB 30—Raise Cap on Charter Schools into a bill to “study the performance of charter schools.” Although HB 30 passed the House in this new “study” form, it was never considered by the Senate. One of sponsors of HB 30, Rep. Jim Gulley (R-Mecklenburg), tried to amend SB 1256—2007 Studies Bill on the House floor at the end of session to require a study of charter schools, but his amendment was defeated by a 46 to 57 vote. An attempt by Rep. Cary Allred (R-Alamance) to amend the budget bill to raise the statewide charter school cap from 100 to 125 also failed.

HOMOSEXUAL RIGHTS
The General Assembly failed to take final action on a bill that would have required local school boards to amend their existing anti-bullying and harassment policies to include special protections for public school students and staff who engage in or identify with homosexuality, bisexuality, cross dressing and other “alternative” sexual behaviors. HB 1366—School Violence Prevention Act passed the House in late May after an amendment to remove a section from the bill that enumerated specially protected classifications including "sexual orientation" and "gender identity or expression" was defeated by a 58-59 vote. In the waning days of the session, the Senate Judiciary 2 Committee heard the bill in a committee meeting on the Senate floor and removed the enumeration section of the bill. HB 1366 then passed the Senate. When the amended bill retuned to the House for concurrence, Rep. Rick Glazier (D-Cumberland), the bill sponsor, made a motion on the House floor to send the bill to the House Judiciary 1 Committee after the Senate indicated that it would not agree to re-inserting the objectionable language into the bill. HB 1366 is eligible for consideration when the General Assembly reconvenes for the 2008 Session in mid-May.

Several other bills seeking to include “sexual orientation” in our state law failed this year. Those bills include HB 1631—Safer Communities Act, which would add "sexual orientation" to the state's Ethnic Intimidation Law, and SB 1534—Nondiscrimination in State Employment (see also HB 1789), which would add “sexual orientation” to North Carolina’s State Personnel Act. Both of these bills define “sexual orientation” as “actual or perceived heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality or gender-related identity or expression.”

LIFE ISSUES
The North Carolina House approved legislation that would authorize the use of state taxpayer dollars to fund human embryonic stem cell research, but the State Senate did not act on the bill. HB 1837—Stem Cell Research and Wellness Act, sponsored by Rep. Earl Jones (D–Guilford), passed the House by a 60 to 55 vote on July 27. While not directly funding embryonic stem cell research, the measure would provide guidelines for the issuance of grants from the State Health and Wellness Trust Fund to non-profit organizations that could use the funds to conduct research involving human embryos. An amendment offered on the House floor by Rep. Mark Hilton (R–Catawba) would have removed all language pertaining to embryonic stem cell research and substituted language authorizing state funding for research on non-embryonic stem cells only, but the amendment failed on a 45 to 62 vote. HB 1837 may be eligible for consideration in 2008.

The General Assembly gave final approval to a bill that revamps the state's laws regarding end of life care. HB 634—Advance Directives/Health Care Power of Attorney (formerly SB 1026) passed the Senate 34 to 10 on July 28 and the House 68 to 48 on July 30. The measure rewrites North Carolina’s health care power of attorney and living wills laws and also introduces an additional instrument—the Medical Order for Scope of Treatment (MOST) form—through which an individual may document their wishes regarding the level of care they desire to receive in an end of life situation. The North Carolina Family Policy Council took issue with the fact that neither this legislation nor existing state law defines a minimum level of care a patient is expected to receive in an end of life situation. While the legislation seems to be written in a way that presumes treatment will be provided—unless the patient elects to withhold or withdraw care through the use of one of these documents—the absence of a codified standard of care creates ambiguity in the law. The bill also fails to define a number of important terms and lacks a mechanism to ensure that a patient receives the treatment they desire in circumstances where the attending physician feels further care would be “futile.”

The budget bill, HB 1473, includes standard language that maintains eligibility restrictions on the State Abortion Fund, allowing the Fund to pay for abortions only in cases of rape, incest, or when the life of the mother is at risk. This provision, which has been enacted in every budget since 1995, has all but eliminated the state funding of abortions through the State Abortion Fund.

MARRIAGE AND FAMILY
A bill to define marriage in the N.C. Constitution as “the union of one man and one woman at one time” made it out of committee and to the House floor in May for the first time in four years. House Speaker Joe Hackney (D-Orange), however, sent HB 493—Defense of Marriage from the floor to the House Judiciary 1 Committee, effectively killing the bill for the year. The companion bill in the Senate, SB 13, saw no action. At the end of session, both Rep. Paul Stam (R-Wake) and Sen. Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) successfully amended the “adjournment resolution” ensuring that constitutional amendment bills may be introduced in the 2008 “Short” Session.

HB 1323—Repeal Cohabitation Law was briefly discussed in the House Judiciary 2 Committee in May before being sent to a subcommittee never to be seen again. The bill would have abolished North Carolina’s 200-year-old “cohabitation” law, which criminalizes fornication and adultery.

A bill that would have abolished the civil actions of alienation of affections and criminal conversation was defeated in the Senate Judiciary I Committee on May 10 by a 10 to 8 vote. SB 1503—Abolish Alienation of Affection/Criminal Conversation would have eliminated these two long-standing laws designed to protect marriages from third-party interference and adultery. The House version of the bill, HB 681, was never heard.

STATE BUDGET
A month after the start of the state’s 2007-08 fiscal year, Governor Mike Easley signed into law a record $20.7 billion budget. The conference report on HB 1473—2007 Appropriations Act, which passed the House 64 to 52 and the Senate 31 to 19, raises spending levels by almost 10 percent over last year’s budget. Among other changes, the bill makes permanent a 'temporary' state sales tax increase originally approved in 2001, increases education spending by roughly $1 billion, and reduces the amount of Medicaid expenses faced by counties. The budget also includes a five percent pay raise for faculty at public schools, community colleges, and public universities.

Due to a significant shortfall in lottery revenue during its first fiscal year of operation, the budget anticipates only $350 million in net lottery funds, $75 million less than the revenue included in the 2006-07 budget. In addition, lawmakers inserted a provision that ostensibly allows the State Lottery Commission to alter the payout structure of the numbers game, potentially allowing the Commission to dedicate a higher percentage of lottery revenues to prize payouts and a smaller percentage to educational programs. Other efforts to modify the net lottery revenue distribution formula for school construction failed.

Provisions in versions of the House and Senate budgets to establish community-based “safe-syringe” programs in North Carolina were defeated. These programs would provide needles, syringes, alcohol wipes, drug “cooking” supplies, condoms and other drug paraphernalia to heroin and cocaine addicts and other intravenous drug users at taxpayer expense. Provisions were amended out of the House and Senate budgets when the budget bill was on the floor of each respective chamber.

The North Carolina General Assembly is scheduled to return to Raleigh on May 13 to convene the 2008 “Short” Legislative Session.

Copyright © 2007. North Carolina Family Policy Council. All rights reserved.