Bills, bills and more bills
This time of the session, there are a few things to keep us scruffy press types occupied at the General Assembly:
- Roll out of bed extra early so we can listen to staff briefings on various aspects of the state budget. Coffee shops do really well downtown on those days.
- Read through all the interesting bits of legislation that are being filed and write stories about them.
- Watch the freshman legislators (and rookie staffers/reporters/lobbyists) run about the buildings in circles because they still can’t find their way from their offices to the House floor and back.
- Ask the leadership offices for the ump-teenth time whether they’ve assigned committees yet.
So as you might imagine, a lot of stories like this one about making billboards more visible are getting written.
And while only a fraction of bills filed will get through the committee process, much less get approved and signed, this time of year everyone has high hopes. All bills are heading to the same place and getting exactly the same amount of work, from those filed by the lowliest member of the minority party to those authored by the highest ranking leaders.
Of course, all that will change once things get going, but for now its rather egalitarian racket down here.
For those of you playing “General Assembly – the home game,” here’s a fun (disclaimer: fun is relative term used in this context to describe something only government geeks find amusing) thing to do. Surf over the House members list or the Senate members list, click on your favorite legislator, and once their profile loads click on the “Introduced Bills” tab. Scroll through the list of legislation they’ve signed onto as a sponsor of co-sponsor and see if what they’re working on lines up with your interests.
For extra credit, e-mail mail me (mbinker@news-record.com) with bills you have questions about.
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Three bills have been introduced in the General Assembly seeking to increase the number of charter schools allowed in North Carolina. A bill sponsored by Sen. Eddie Goodall (R-Union) SB 106—Remove Cap on the Number of Charter Schools, would completely lift the cap on charter schools, thus allowing the demand for charter schools to determine the number that exist, rather than the General Assembly. Presently, North Carolina has 100 charter schools, the maximum allowed under the statute. Every year the State receives numerous applications for new charter schools that it cannot grant because of the cap. Especially in light of the growing population of the state and the inability of the largest school districts in the state to keep up with opening new schools to accommodate the growth, lifting the cap on charter schools makes sense.
Another bill sponsored by Sen. Eddie Goodall, SB 105—Counties May Fund Charter Schools, would allow counties to use property taxes to fund charter schools. Charter schools could use the property tax receipts they receive from the County to fund operations or to build buildings (capital expenses).
The two other bills regarding charter schools were introduced in the House, H 30—Raise Cap on Charter Schools, sponsored by Rep. Jim Gulley(R-Mecklenburg), and SB 39—Raise Cap on Charter Schools sponsored by Sen. Fred Smith (R-Johnston), would raise the cap on charter schools from 100 to 125. Both bills are identical.
Posted on February 12, 2007 8:26 PM