Additions to the NC Legislative Watchlist

All commentary provided by Civitas Institute Bad Bill of the Week

…which requests $50,000 to “construct an environmentally friendly visitor’s center in Wilkes County.” To paraphrase former tennis star John McEnroe, “You can not be serious!”

Senate Bill 202 – the House’s version of the 2009-2011 budget

With almost 11 percent of North Carolina’s workforce unemployed, this bill will raise taxes by almost $800 million this fiscal year and over $1 billion the following fiscal year. The effect will be either killing or severely slowing new job creation in North Carolina’s economic recovery.

House Bill 1050 sponsored by Blue, Tolson, Glazier, and Harrison

The plan is to add another tax to our gas and electricity bill to fund “NC Save$ energy,” a quasi-governmental, non-profit charged with promoting and regulating energy efficiency.  “NC Save$ energy” would be completely unaccountable and have the unfettered power to raise the tax as it sees fit.

House Bill 1516/Senate Bill 576 sponsored by Crawford, Dickson,and Gibson

…keeps North Carolina moving ahead on a failed “job creation” strategy. This strategy consists of bribing companies with your tax dollars to relocate here and the companies respond by extorting money out of N.C. taxpayers for doing what they are supposed to do – hire people to make money for their companies!

House Bill 1623 sponsored by Jones

Jones’ bill would fund the creation of a new research facility at the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. This study and land acquisition comes with a price tag of $1.7 million. This money will be used to “secure land, to conduct a feasibility/market study, and to develop a master plan for the construction of a state-of-the-art technology research and development building complex known as, drum roll please, “The Star Fleet Academy Complex.”

Wait a second… The what? No, this is not a science fiction novel. It is a real bill in the North Carolina General Assembly, has been assigned to a committee, and if it passes it will start the process to build an academy based on the movie Star Trek.

HB 1128 sponsored by  Insko

The purpose of HB 1128 is to “provide one full-time healthful living coordinator in the central office of each local school administrative unit.” What would the newly invented position of “healthful living coordinator” entail? According to the bill’s language, “The healthful living coordinator shall design, support, implement, manage, and evaluate a district-wide coordinated school health program that will address childhood obesity prevention and other health related issues.”

In other words, each school district will have a central planner for your children’s diet and exercise regimen while at school. The bill further notes that the healthful living coordinator will “work collaboratively with the obesity prevention staff at the local health department.” Apparently, the “obesity prevention” bureaucrats aren’t preventing very much obesity, so of course the solution is to add more bureaucrats!

HB 1384 sponsored by Jones

The purpose of the bill is to “protect consumers from shopping cart handles that may be contaminated with bodily fluids, including blood, saliva, mucus, and urine, and fecal matter, by encouraging that the means to disinfect or sanitize nonporous surfaces on shopping carts be provided to the public.”…

Of course, using the term “encourage” indicates that stores will not be required to provide such wipes under this law. But we all know what will happen if stores are not complying at a high enough rate – the next law will force retailers to comply, imposing yet another government cost on business owners.

House Bill 1005 sponsored by Carney and Cole

“An Act to Allow the Department of Transportation to Participate in Funding Fixed Rail Projects That Do Not Include Federal Funds,” the state has now put it in writing that they are going to get funding for this mode of transportation one way or another. …

After spending almost $150 million dollars in taxpayer money the Triangle’s light rail spending proposal didn’t receive federal funding because the projected population density and ridership numbers weren’t sufficient. Light rail services don’t fall directly under the parameters of President Obama’s $8 billion recovery spending plan for high-speed rail service either. The state has already asked the feds for $76 million of that money. So if and when stimulus and U.S. Department of Transportation money begins to be pumped into the state, the backup plan is to spend our own money on said light-rail projects – just because.

Instead of coming up with creative ways to pay for light-rail services, or making decisions based on sound evidence, lawmakers have chosen to keep taking water from the well and pursuing dead end deals. This is another indirect way of growing government and raising taxes.

House Bill 1668 sponsored by Lewis

“An Act to Exempt From Sales and Use Tax the Purchase of Products Entirely Composed of Recycled Materials” … this bill does exactly as its title suggests.  All products manufactured from 100-percent recycled items would, in effect, be exempt from sales taxes.

Just before the start of this year’s legislative session, Senate and House Democrats estimated that between $800 million and $1 billion in additional revenue or spending cuts would be needed to balance the budget for the start of the fiscal year in July.  Considering this news, one would probably expect the state to not be as charitable this year in offering North Carolinians tax credits or other programs that would further reduce the amount of generated revenue.  When it comes to legislative politics, however, one must throw all semblance of common sense out the window.

Senate Bills 1113 and 1114 sponsored by Kinnaird

…grant the city council’s of Carrboro and Chapel Hill, respectively, the ability to engage in “no-bid” contracts.

What these bills would do is encourage city councils to invent projects that could be termed “aimed at energy efficiency” in order to line the pockets of any contractor they favor with the money of Carrboro and Chapel Hill taxpayers. These bills would create blatant system of patronage in Carrboro and Chapel Hill.

Senate Bill 1396 sponsored by Garrou and  Brunstetter

…would appropriate $100,000 dollars for the creation of a biofuels go-kart competition for North Carolina high school students. This bill has two stated objectives, to “increase [students] empirical understanding of environmentally responsible technology” and “lead them into careers in science, engineering, and environmental advocacy to ensure the development and public acceptance of this emergent technology”.

Read the original story at Asheville Tea Party