By Cassie Gavin
Director of Government Relations
The NC House passed a proposed budget early this morning (Friday, June 2) that differs in many ways from the Senate’s budget proposal. The House budget is largely better than the Senate’s on environmental issues. For example, the House largely restored budget cuts that the Senate proposed for the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). The House budget also does not include the policy provision in the Senate budget that would place a 3.5 year moratorium on new wind energy projects.
The House budget isn’t perfect; there is a provision that would push DEQ to test unproven chemical algaecides in Triangle drinking water supplies and another that would provide funding for the Department of Agriculture to continue the state’s legal challenge to the federal Waters of the United States rule that’s meant to protect water quality and wetlands.
The budget (Senate Bill 257) will next go back to the Senate, which will likely vote to "not concur" with the House changes. The budget bill will then go to conference to be negotiated by a small set of conferees appointed by the Senate President Pro Tem and Speaker of the House.
After the budget is passed, things usually wrap up quickly at the General Assembly. We expect legislation to start moving at a flying pace, beginning next week.
House votes to spend $1.3M on testing chemical algaecides in drinking water
Rep. Pricey Harrison (D-Guilford) proposed an amendment during the House budget debate to re-start implementation of the Jordan Lake cleanup rules, which have been delayed repeatedly by the Legislature. Her amendment also would have deleted the provision to dedicate over a million dollars to testing chemical algaecides in Jordan and Falls lakes. Although the the amendment did not pass it spurred a good discussion. Reps. Grier Martin (D-Wake), Gale Adcock (D-Wake), Billy Richardson (D-Cumberland) and Verla Insko (D-Orange) expressed concerns about water quality, recalled the SolarBee fiasco and noted the need to address pollution flowing into the lake. Rep. Larry Yarborough (R-Granville, Person) defended the provision and Rep. Pat McElraft (R-Carteret, Jones) backed him up.
Opportunity for Action
Please thank the representatives who voted for Rep. Harrison’s amendment to reinstate the Jordan Lake cleanup rules and eliminate the provision to dedicate $1.3 million of taxpayer funds to studying the use of algaecides in Jordan and Falls lakes. And contact House Speaker Tim Moore to ask him to remove the algaecide provision from the budget - because pollution prevention is the way to ensure water quality, not pouring money into in-lake experiments.
More digital billboards for North Carolina?
House Bill 581 - the so-called "Billboard Protection Act" is expected to come up for a vote in the House next week. As a reminder, the bill would allow more cutting of trees around billboards and in medians, make NC taxpayers pay substantially more to billboard companies for removal and relocation of billboards. H 581 also would take authority away from local governments to control the relocation and regulation of billboards, including vegetation removal.
Opportunity for Action
Please contact your representative and ask them to oppose this giveaway to the billboard industry, which would result in more digital billboards and fewer trees on our highways.
Senate Finance Committee to consider repeal of OBX plastic bag ban
Next week, the Senate Finance Committee will consider House Bill 56, "Amend Environmental Laws." This measure includes:
- a repeal of the popular Outer Banks plastic ban that protects sea turtles;
- new exemptions to buffer and stormwater rules; and
- a proposal to exempt riparian buffers from property taxes.
Opportunity for Action
Please call your senator and ask them to protect sea turtles and water quality by opposing H 56.
Stay tuned for special action alerts as the Legislature heads into a period of dramatically increased activity. Thanks as ever for your support!