Drought bill on tap 

With the passage of the 2008-09 budget this week, talk of adjournment is growing. We don't have any definite dates for the General Assembly's end, but legislative leaders have been quoted as saying that they expect to wrap up the session by the end of next week.

Drought legislation to be heard in House

A revised version of the drought proposal is scheduled to be heard in the House next week. The League has been in intense negotiations with the Governor's office, DENR and others in recent days and the House Environment Committee approved a substitute version of HB 2499 - Drought/Water Management Recommendations that addresses many of our concerns. Our thanks to Reps. Lucy Allen and Pryor Gibson for allowing us the opportunity to work on the bill before it reached committee and to the members of House Environment for hearing and responding to our concerns.

Under the committee substitute, local governments will be able to implement the water shortage response plans they have recently created and submitted in accordance with rules adopted last year. Systems without plans would have to implement the default conservation measures currently required by state administrative rules in the event of extreme or exceptional drought. We are pleased that the work and expense of developing system-specific vulnerability assessments and establishing local triggers and tiered responses will not be wasted. Earlier versions of the bill would have mandated specific conservation percentages triggered by the drought designation map.

HB 2499 does recognize an important state role in drought response. DENR would make sure the local plans provide for increasingly stringent conservation measures and would be authorized to require local water systems to move to the next stage of response in their plans if the measures do not prove effective in an extreme or exceptional drought. The bill also makes changes to existing emergency powers by shifting the responsibility for declaring a water shortage emergency and potentially diverting water between systems from the Environmental Management Commission to the Governor.

Land use planning authority may be at risk

Local ability to enact a temporary building moratorium to allow time to update or adopt a local land use ordinance would be limited in a provision inserted in HB 2313 - Permitting and Building Code Changes . The bill was amended in Senate Finance this week to add a ban on development moratoria “on the sole basis that an existing ordinance is outdated or in need of amendment or that there is a need for a new ordinance.” The bill when passed by the House dealt solely with DOT express permitting and did not contain this unrelated provision. The city and county land use statutes were modernized in the 2005 session following extensive negotiations, and that legislation included substantial limitations on moratoria. Further changes should be discussed openly among the affected parties. HB 2313 is on the Senate calendar for Monday night, July 14. Please contact your senators to request that this provision be removed before the remainder of the bill moves forward.

Bill on newspaper distribution advances

SB 942 - Prohibit Restricting Newspaper Distribution passed the House this week and will return to the Senate for concurrence in the House changes. The bill had passed the Senate in the 2007 session with broad language exempting the news media from any local restrictions on standing in the street or street right-of-way. When it became clear that the bill would advance on the House side, the League was able to work on clarifying and narrowing the language in committee to address concerns about public safety and the obstruction of traffic. Our thanks to Rep. Margaret Dickson, chair of the House Commerce Committee, and Sen. Walter Dalton, sponsor of the bill, for that opportunity. The bill was further amended on the House floor and now provides that “no local government may enact or enforce any ordinance that prohibits engaging in the distribution of newspapers on the non-traveled portion of any street or highway except when those distribution activities impede the normal movement of traffic on the street or highway.” If you have concerns about this legislation, please ask your senators not to concur so that the bill can be discussed by a conference committee.

Annexation moratorium bill assigned to Rules

HB 2367 – Involuntary Annexation Moratorium , which passed the House last week, has been referred to the Senate Rules Committee. Municipal officials do not believe that a moratorium is warranted and are concerned that this bill will impair their ability to deal with growth issues. Please contact your senators to express your opposition to the moratorium and ask them not to consider this bill in this session since there is not time for adequate discussion of the issue.

Senate to vote on attorneys' fees in public records lawsuits

SB 2064- Open Government Act is on the Senate calendar for consideration Monday night. This legislation would mandate the awarding of attorneys' fees to plaintiffs who successfully compel the disclosure of public records. Current statutes allow the judge discretion not to award the fees upon finding that the agency acted with substantial justification in denying access to the records or that circumstances would make the awarding of fees unjust. If the bill passes the Senate, it then goes to the House for consideration.

Police officer 25-year retirement now a study

Legislation to allow law enforcement officers to retire with unreduced benefits at age 50 with 25 years of service was turned into a study this week. A committee substitute for HB 2350—Law Enforcement 25-Retirement passed House Pensions and Retirement and has been rereferred to Appropriations.

Child info bill awaits signature

The General Assembly has ratified SB 212 – Local Park and Rec Participant Records , which creates an exception in the public records law so that personal information about a child participating in a local government parks and recreation program is not considered public record. The protected information includes the child's name, age, date of birth, home address, telephone number, and name and address of the parent or guardian. Local governments may develop their own policies to allow disclosure, but they are not required to release this information. The child's county, municipality and zip code remain public. The League supported this legislation to help protect children from predators. The bill now goes to the Governor for approval.

Coastal stormwater on the move

A compromise bill on coastal stormwater passed the Senate this week and is scheduled for consideration in the House. SB 1967 - Improve Coastal Stormwater Management went through a lengthy stakeholders' negotiation process. League staff participated in the meetings and were able to obtain some modifications to address concerns of member municipalities that are already under Phase II stormwater requirements. The version that passed the Senate is considerably less restrictive than the original rules adopted by the Environmental Management Commission.

Tip tax delay not in the cards

Senate Finance adopted a committee substitute for a House-passed bill to make administrative changes to the tip tax adopted last session. HB 2530 - Solid Waste Tax Changes , does not include a delay in implementation of the tax, which went into effect July 1 but does make clarifying changes regarding the distribution of funds back to eligible local governments.

Budget Approved
Legislators have approved the state budget bill and sent it to Governor Easley. Under HB 2436 – Modify Appropriations Act of 2007 state employees will receive a 2.75 percent increase or $1,100, whichever is greater, while teachers get a 3.0 percent pay increase. The budget includes some $857 million in borrowing for state construction projects, mostly university buildings and prisons. Lawmakers enacted no new taxes, and delayed for a year the elimination of the gift tax and the expansion of the earned income tax credit.

In other provisions of interest to municipalities, the bill

•  sets aside $10 million for implementation of gang legislation

•  provides $50 million to the Rural Center for water, sewer and natural gas grants

•  adds 31 new assistant district attorneys and 3 district court judges, and provides additional funds for probation and parole staffing; also provides $5 million for a criminal justice data integration pilot project and uses a state court facility fee for courthouse phone systems

•  provides a $300,000 increase in the state fire protection grant fund

•  begins phase-out of the transfer from the Highway Trust Fund to the state's general fund

•  enacts a property tax exclusion for disabled veterans and their surviving spouses that excludes the first $45,000 of appraised value from taxation, effective for tax years beginning on or after July 1, 2009

•  implements a sales tax holiday for certain Energy Star qualified products and appliances the first weekend in November of each year

•  allows a tax credit to taxpayers that donate money to a local government for the government unit to acquire renewable energy property