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Dear ,
Your Legislative Update for
the month of September is below. Please feel free to
forward this on to others who might find the
information useful!
General Assembly Adjourns 2009 Legislative Session
The North Carolina General Assembly officially adjourned its 2009 legislative session on Tuesday, August 10th. The General Assembly met for nearly seven months, at a time of national economic crisis and a historical state budget crisis.
A total of 578 bills and 33 joint resolutions were passed during the session. The Governor has until September 10th, 2010 to sign all bills into law. |
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Governor Signs $19 Billion State Budget
The final $19 billion state budget was signed by Governor Bev Perdue in private on Friday, August 7th. Perdue followed the signing with a statement, “I signed this budget with reservation. I fought for two basic principles: protecting our classrooms and making sure working families were not saddled with an across-the-board income tax increase. It fell short in some areas, but it is a better budget as a result of those efforts.”
As reported previously, the final state budget, which is $2 billion less than last year’s budget, includes temporary tax increases amounting to $990 million. Highlights of the budget provisions.
The major components of the tax package in the state budget plan are:
- A one-cent increase in the sales tax with a two-year sunset, meaning that the sales tax rate would decrease to its previous rate in two years unless lawmakers take action to extend the penny increase
- A two percent surcharge on personal income tax owed for taxpayers earning $100,000 per year to $250,000 per year (married filing jointly) for tax years 2009 and 2010
- A three percent surcharge on personal income tax owed for taxpayers earning more than $250,000 per year (married filing jointly) for tax years 2009 and 2010
- A three percent surcharge on corporate income tax owed for years 2009 and 2010
- Excise tax increases on alcohol and tobacco products
- Expansion of the sales tax to digital downloads/click-through Internet purchases
In overcoming what he described as a $4.5 billion budget shortfall, NC House Speaker Joe Hackney, a Democrat from Orange County, said that budget writers had utilized 40 percent cuts, 30 percent federal stimulus dollars, 8 percent fee increases and 22 percent tax increases. The Speaker also said that lawmakers were dealing with a 20 percent drop in state revenues that led to the shortfall.
Earlier in the legislative session, the NC Senate had introduced a plan to overhaul the state’s tax code primarily by expanding the sales tax to services not currently subject to it, allowing them to lower the rate, along with some others. The state House chose a very different approach, proposing sales and income tax increases to raise most of the revenue to balance the budget, while expanding the sales tax base to only a few additional services. Senate leaders have indicated that they will continue to pursue broader tax system reform in the coming months to help the state weather future economic storms better than this one.
At a press conference on Aug. 4, 2009, Speaker Hackney said that the House is committed to working on reforming the system in good faith in the interim, between legislative sessions. He further said that there should be public hearings on the matter and that he hopes that any tax reforms will be bi-partisan and revenue-neutral.
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Tax Reform Overhaul Discussions & Potential Special Session
As lawmakers faced a budget crisis this session, Senate Democratic leaders pushed a plan to overhaul the state’s tax structure. The Senate is continuing to push for tax reform and would like to begin discussions this fall. While the reform package was not passed during this legislative session, the Senate is continuing to push for tax reform and would like to begin discussions this fall. Speaker of the House, Joe Hackney and Governor Bev Perdue have indicated their willingness to work on such reform between now and the 2010 legislative session.
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Bill Highlights
During the past legislative session, PENC tracked and monitored over 100 bills and provided meaningful input and work into about 30 (click here for a list of the bills). Here are just a few of our successes:
- Working with Representative Melanie Goodwin, we successfully amended HB 221 – Oversight of Licensing Boards to add reporting requirements for all licensing boards. The additional requirements will, hopefully, draw attention to licensing boards that are not adequately policing their respective profession (not NCBELS as we worked with them to get this bill amended).
- At the request of Mecklenburg County’s Code Enforcement Division, we worked successful with its Director, Jim Bartl, David Tuttle with the NCBELS, AIA, and the legislative sponsor, Representative Thom Tillis and other interested stakeholders on legislation that mandates that units of local government treat the seal of a licensed design professional as “confidential information”, protecting the seal from being copied and/or disclosed to the public.
- We strongly supported the Lt. Governor’s signature legislation, SB 1069, which establishes a Joining Our Business and Schools (JOBS) Commission which passed with no opposition. Although we were not successful in having a Professional Engineer actually named in the bill, we continue to lobby hard to have either the Governor, Speaker of the House or President Pro Tempore of the Senate appoint our recommendation – Pam Townsend, PE, PENC’s current President. The commission will study how to best prepare our students for 21st century careers, focusing heavily on STEM education. Read more here.
- Although HB 643, a bill introduced at the request of Onslow County that would authorize the injection of reclaimed water into an aquifer for temporary storage, was not approved in the House, there was a study committee appointed to further advance this concept and PENC is hopeful that Don Safrit, PE with McKim and Creed will be involved in the work of the committee, providing the unbiased PE perspective. Read more here.
- With the Soil Scientists, we supported HB 617 that would have prevented potential conflicts of interest by persons employed by the state or acting as agents of the state within local health departments preventing these persons from evaluating, consulting or providing service maintenance for any wastewater site or any wastewater system regulated by the Department. The legislation did pass the House but was not heard in the Senate. However, it is eligible for consideration in the short session beginning in May, 2010.
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NCBELS Update
The North Carolina Board of Examiners for Engineers and Surveyors met on September 3, 2009. The Engineering Committee, chaired by David Pond, PE, WK Dickson, reported on the following items:
- Energy Audits – Should energy audits be performed by a licensed PE? No, however there are parts of the energy audit application that requires professional engineering. A letter will be sent to the State Energy Office to clarify.
- NCDENR Ecosystem Enhancement Program – NCBELS Engineering committee will meet with EEP Director Bill Gilmore, PE to discuss requirements that stream restoration plans be sealed by a licensed professional engineer.
- NC Board of Landscape Architects – There are reports that a person or persons serving on the NC Board of Landscape Architects has/have been contacting municipalities and universities saying that licensed LAs can perform work that NCBELS believes is engineering work. The Engineering Committee will be reviewing the state statutes to determine if LAs are authorized to perform the work in question.
- NCBELS Attends National Council of Examiners for Engineers and Surveyors (NCEES) Convention –
- B+30 was one of the hot topics (again) at the NCEES conference. A resolution was introduced by the states that comprise the western region to kill the Bachelors + 30 education requirement that has been endorsed by NCEES. The western resolution failed which means that NCEES will continue to support the Bachelor’s +30 education requirement. Each state will, of course, be responsible for changing its own statutes.
- Alabama has now become the 10th state to support the creation of an exam for software engineering which NCBELS has supported for several years. Now that the 10 th state goal has been met, NCEES has agreed to begin development of the exam so that software engineers may become professionally licensed.
- A presentation on crane safety was given at the conference and the recommendations were assigned to an NCEES committee for further action.
- A presentation on “successor engineer” policies was made with Florida given as a good example to follow. NC received an average rating. The NCBELS Engineering Committee will be studying this further.
If there are questions or you need additional information, please feel free to contact me at bbailey@penc.org or phone 919-834-1144, ext. 1.
Sincerely,
Betsy Bailey
Professional Engineers of North Carolina
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Congratulations to PENC Members Appointed to Boards and Commissions!
Valoree Eikinas, PE, Mulkey Engineers – State Building Commission – Appointment Confirmed
Joseph Glass, PE, Public Works Commission, Fayetteville – Sedimentation Control Commission – PE Position – Appointment Confirmed
Rick Caitlin, PE, Caitlin Engineers, Appointed to Public Health Commission
Donnie Brewer, PE, Rivers and Associates continues to serve on Sedimentation Control Commission
Survey Corner
Have you received any direct or indirect professional benefit from the stimulus funding (ARRA Act)?
Please click here to answer.
Disclaimer: Disclaimer: This information will only be used in the aggregate to determine if
the stimulus funding has had the desired effect in retaining engineering jobs in
NC.
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Contact Us
Professional
Engineers
of North Carolina
1015 Wade Avenue, Suite A
Raleigh, NC 27605
Phone: (919) 834-1144
Fax:
(919) 834-1148
Web Site: www.penc.org
E-Mail: exec@penc.org
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