2008 Session Review

Family North Carolina Magazine—September/October 2008

by John L. Rustin

With the traditional drop of a white handkerchief and a bang of the bell, the 2008 “Short” Session of the North Carolina General Assembly adjourned “sine die” on July 18. According to the General Assembly legislative staff, state lawmakers ratified 229 bills during the session, one of which was a record $21.4 billion state budget. Numerous other bills that never received a final vote fell by the wayside at adjournment, including the controversial “Bullying Bill,” and two bills calling for a constitutional amendment to define marriage as “the union of one man and one woman at one time.”

Bills That Passed

The North Carolina General Assembly operates on a two-year legislative biennium, and the “short” session (in the even numbered year) is technically a continuation of the prior year’s “long” legislative session. The primary focus of the short session is adjusting the state budget to abide by a constitutional requirement that state spending remain balanced with state revenues. The enactment of HB 2436—Modify Appropriations Act of 2007 instituted a $21.4 billion spending plan, including $857 million in borrowing for state capital needs. Also in the budget is $405 million in anticipated revenue from the State Lottery for education programs and services—$385 million in net revenues expected to come from an estimated $1.2 billion in ticket sales and $19 million from the lottery reserve account. These funds will go toward the More at Four pre-kindergarten program for at-risk four-year-olds, reducing class size in public schools, school building capital construction, and college scholarships for eligible low income students.

Aside from the budget, state lawmakers also enacted into law stiffer penalties for child sex offenders. HB 933—Jessica Lunsford Act, named after a 9-year-old former resident of Gaston County who was kidnapped, raped, and murdered in Florida in 2005, establishes a minimum penalty of 25 years in prison and lifetime satellite-based monitoring for child sex offenders who rape or commit certain other sexual offenses against minors. The bill also increases the criminal penalties for first, second and third degree sexual exploitation of a minor and for promoting prostitution of a minor.

Lawmakers also passed SB 1736—Sex Offender/Register Email Address, which requires sex offenders to register their email addresses and other online identifiers in the statewide sex offender registry in order to enable more effective monitoring and tracking of offenders’ email and Internet use.

In addition, the General Assembly approved SB 132—Protect Children From Sexual Predators Act, which prohibits convicted sex offenders from accessing social networking websites such as MySpace and Facebook, and clarifies that the operators of these websites may be held civilly liable for failing to “make reasonable efforts” to prevent registered sex offenders from accessing them.

The legislature also closed a loophole used by the gambling industry to skirt the state’s ban on video poker. SB 180—Prohibit Certain Game Promotion makes it illegal to “promote, operate or conduct a server-based electronic game promotion” and to possess any game terminal that simulates video poker or an illegal slot machine used in conjunction with this type of sweepstakes game. The bill became necessary after it was revealed that gambling operators were circumventing the video poker ban by selling phone cards that were redeemable for phone or Internet services, but that also allowed the purchaser to enter a sweepstakes game played on a video terminal resembling an illegal video poker machine. The industry claims the operation is not illegal because the sale of the phone card provides the purchaser something of value, and the sweepstakes is just an added benefit—similar to the sweepstakes offered by soft drink and candy manufacturers. A similar “phone card” ploy was used by the gambling industry before the lottery was enacted in North Carolina, when certain convenience stores sold phone cards that looked like scratch-off lottery tickets. SB 180 goes into effect on December 1, 2008.

Also effective December 1, 2008, is a new law that increases the penalty for burning a cross and establishes a new crime for hanging a noose with the intent to intimidate. SB 685—Up Penalties Cross Burn/Illegal to Hang Noose prohibits the placing of a burning cross “on any public place,” whereas the existing law only applied to burning a cross on someone else’s personal property, a public street or highway. The bill also includes “items such as a noose” in the definition of illegal “exhibits,” if the object is placed with the purpose to intimidate.

Bills That Failed

One of the most controversial bills of the session that did not pass was the so-called “Bullying Bill.” In 2007, the House passed a version of HB 1366—School Violence Prevention Act that would have required all the local school systems in the state to amend their existing anti-bullying and harassment policies to include a listing of special classifications including “sexual orientation” and “gender identity or expression.” When the bill was considered in the Senate at the end of the 2007 Session, that chamber stripped the classification section from the bill and sent it back to the House. Instead of accepting the Senate version of the bill, the sponsor of HB 1366, Rep. Rick Glazier (D-Cumberland) had the bill sent to a House committee to keep it alive for 2008. When the bill came to the House floor on July 2, 2008, the House voted 60–56 to reject the Senate version of the bill and sent the bill to a conference committee composed almost entirely of supporters of the House version. It was no surprise that the report issued by the conference committee was essentially the House version of the bill including the controversial list of classifications. In the end, neither chamber voted on the conference report, and HB 1366 died upon adjournment.

For the fifth year in a row, the General Assembly did not take action on measures that would allow North Carolina voters to amend the State Constitution to define marriage as “the union of one man and one woman at one time.” As a result, North Carolina remains the only state in the Southeastern United States that has failed to take decisive action to define marriage in its constitution. Of the 15 states south from Virginia and east from Texas, all but Florida and North Carolina have adopted marriage amendments, and have done so with an average passage rate exceeding 75 percent. Florida has the question on the ballot this fall. Despite the fact that SB 1608 and HB 2803, both entitled “Defense of Marriage,” enjoyed bipartisan support (the House bill was sponsored by 66 members of the 120 member House), legislative leaders once again denied lawmakers and the citizens of the state the opportunity to vote on a State Marriage Amendment.

A bill that would have authorized the issuance of license plates with the pro-life message “Choose Life” moved out of the House Transportation Committee in 2008 but stalled out in the House Finance Committee, as did most other specialty license tag bills. HB 932—Choose Life Special Registration Plate, sponsored by Rep. Mitch Gillespie (R-McDowell), would have directed a portion of the proceeds from the sale of the plates to the “Crisis Pregnancy Fund” to aid nonprofit crisis pregnancy centers that serve pregnant women “who are committed to either raising their own children or placing their children for adoption.” The bill also would have prohibited the funds from being distributed “to any agency that is involved or associated with abortion.” Ironically, Planned Parenthood called on their supporters to oppose HB 932, saying, “These license plates are specialty plates that bear an anti-choice message.”

Two bills that would have allowed state taxpayer dollars to fund embryonic stem cell research in North Carolina were never considered in the Senate and died as a result. HB 1837—Stem Cell Research Health & Wellness Act passed the House in 2007 but was not taken up in the Senate. Another bill introduced in 2008, SB 1965—Funds/Stem Cell Research, sponsored by Sen. Walter Dalton (D-Rutherford), would have provided grants of up to $4 million each to East Carolina University, UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke University and Wake Forest University. While the bill did not specify what kind of stem cell research could be conducted with these funds, it did not prohibit destructive embryonic stem cell research on human embryos.

HB 388—Tax Credits for Children with Special Needs and similar SB 2059 would have allowed the parents of a special needs child to claim a tax credit of up to $3,000 per semester for the education of the child at a private school or tuition-required public school. HB 388 was introduced in the House in 2007, was reported out of the House Education Committee “without prejudice,” and was sent to the House Finance Committee where it sat idle. On June 18, 2008, however, proponents of the bill thought the measure might see more action when HB 388 was re-referred from the Finance Committee back to the Education Committee, but the bill moved no further. SB 2059 did not move beyond the Senate Finance Committee to which it was originally assigned.

Finally, a House-approved measure that would have expanded the “confidential intermediary” (CI) program established by the General Assembly in 2007 failed, because the Senate did not act on the bill. Under the existing CI program, adult adoptees and biological parents may hire an adoption agency or local department of social services to search for and facilitate contact between the parties, but only after written consent is obtained. HB 2186—Expand Access/Confidential Intermediary Services would have expanded the CI program by allowing the participation of biological siblings and other biological family members. The bill also would have allowed the release of identifying information if, during the search, it was found that the subject of the search was deceased. In both cases, broadening the CI program would increase the potential of an adult adoptee or a biological mother or father being identified and contacted without their prior consent. The day before adjournment, when it became apparent that the Senate was not going to take up HB 2186, the House Judiciary 1 Committee gutted an unrelated Senate bill, SB 869, and replaced the contents with a pared down version of HB 2186. SB 869 passed the House, but when it reached the Senate, it was referred to the Senate Rules Committee, where it died.

The 2009-2010 Session of the North Carolina General Assembly is scheduled to convene at Noon on Wednesday, January 28, 2009.