By Cassie Gavin
Senior Director of Government Relations
This week, the N.C. General Assembly moved two bills that the N.C. Sierra Club has opposed all session: the billboard bill and the Farm Act. Meanwhile, the budget impasse continued with no end in sight.
The spotlight here in Raleigh this week was primarily on the gerrymandering court case being considered by a three-judge panel just around the corner from the General Assembly at Campbell Law School. Some state legislators testified in court this week and the outcome of the case may impact state legislative districts for the next election. The case is expected to be decided in coming weeks or months but then the losing side may appeal to the N.C. Supreme Court. WRAL has more news about this ongoing case.
Senate passes billboard blight bill
On Tuesday evening, the Senate passed H 645, Revisions to Outdoor Advertising Laws, sponsored by Reps. Jason Saine, Jimmy Dixon, Brenden Jones, and Michael Wray (with a twin bill filed in the Senate by Sens. Chuck Edwards, Harry Brown and Wiley Nickel) on a 27-17 vote. Please thank Sen. Mike Woodard (D - Durham, Granville, Person) for proposing amendments to improve the bill and for speaking up for local governments and against digital billboards. H 645 would limit the ability of local governments to determine how to control billboards and would allow more cutting of the public’s trees along highways to increase billboard visibility.
The measure may also allow converting existing billboards to digital signs. The House version of the bill explicitly disallowed relocated billboards from going digital thanks to an amendment by Rep. Darren Jackson (D - Wake) but the Senate deleted that provision. The bill will next go back to the House for a concurrence vote since the Senate made changes.
Opportunity for Action
Please contact your House representative and ask them to vote “not to concur” on H 645. The bill may be voted on as soon as Monday evening. If the House votes to concur with the Senate changes, H 645 would next go to the governor for consideration.
House committee reverses House changes to Farm Act
On Wednesday morning, the House Judiciary Committee considered S 315, the Farm Act, and things took a strange turn. The committee approved changing the bill back to the Senate version, which means that all of the changes made by two House committees (including positive changes to provisions that the Sierra Club has opposed) were undone. This includes scrapping an amendment made by Rep. Deb Butler (D - Brunswick, New Hanover) that improved a provision that makes certain agricultural documents secret.
In committee, Reps. Pricey Harrison (D - Guilford), Rachel Hunt (D - Mecklenburg), and Brandon Lofton (D - Mecklenburg) introduced helpful amendments on parts of the bill that the Chapter has opposed. Please thank these legislators for their efforts. Unfortunately, the amendments were not approved by the committee, so the Senate version of S 315 was approved. The bill will next go to the House Rules Committee for consideration, perhaps as soon as Monday.
There was no movement on Duke Energy’s bill - S 559 - this week. Reports are that it may not have the votes in the House. Read more about this measure in this Energy News Network story.