News-Record.com

It is "cross over" week at the General Assembly. May 14 is the self-imposed deadline for legislation that does not raise or spend money to pass either the House or Senate. The deadline is a way for the honorables to impose some discipline on their processes, while leaving plenty of ways to work around when needed or desired.

The upshot: there are tons of bills moving through committee and on the two floors this week. The House calendar was 30-plus bills long tonight. The Senate had 42 bills on the agenda, although pushed off consideration of a few.

At any rate, here are some of things that went down Monday:

• More coming on this in Tuesday’s paper, but the House Commerce Committee voted for a measure that would do away with some of the state's more stringent clear air regulations:

  The measure, approved by the House Environment Committee on a show of hands, would exempt from state reviews businesses building a new factory that emits toxic substances into the air subject to certain federal air-quality regulations.

  “Let’s not make them do the same test twice,” said Rep. Pryor Gibson, a Wadesboro Democrat.

  But environmental regulators and advocates say the measure would gut the state’s ability to head off air-quality problems before they arise.

  “We strongly support the air toxics program as it currently exists, largely because it does give us the opportunity to assess the public health impacts of a new air emissions source before we issue the permit as opposed to having that analysis done later, after the source has already been permitted and constructed and is in operation,” Robin Smith, N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources assistant secretary, told the committee.

• * Judges would have to say WHY they were recusing themselves - in writing - under S 797, which passed the Senate. Currently, appellate judges can beg off a case and not give a reason.

• * Schools could start earlier under a bill that passed the House Commerce Committee Monday.

• * The Senate passed a bill to set a floor on the gas tax.

• * The Senate approved a tax cut for an unnamed large company widely rumored to be Apple.

• * And finally, the Senate gave a second blessing to H2, a bill that would ban smoking in bars and restaurants. The measure falls short of the sweeping smoking ban for all businesses originally passed by the House.

  Senators rejected an amendment offered by Sen. Phil Berger, an Eden Republican, that would have exempted for-profit private clubs that are essentially bars with lose membership requirements.

  “People’s choice is what we ought to be about,” Berger said. “It is a legal product.”

  At one point during the debate, Sen. Stan Bingham, a Denton Republican, asked if truck stops could be exempted along with private clubs. Bingham said that several truck stop owners had called him opposed to the bill.

  “Sen. Bingham, I’ve just never seen a truck stop that was a private club. Have you?” asked Sen. Tony Rand, a Fayetteville Democrat who was picking apart the amendment.

  “Well,” Bingham said, “I’ve been there at night. It seemed like a pretty good club to me.”

  That reply drew chuckles from his colleagues and onlookers.

  “Were you a member?” asked Rand. “And how did they select you if you were?”

  Bingham replied, “The way you were selected is if you had any money,” drawing further giggles.

  Although the House could vote to accept the Senate version of the bill, the measure is much different from when the House approved it. Sponsors have said they anticipate the two chambers will appoint a conference committee to work out differences between the two.