All assets associated with the tag: Julia Howard
Thursday, April 22, 2021 -- Service in the General Assembly - or any other elective office - is a public trust. It is not a secret society where deals that benefit those public servants are cut outside of the public view. More and more the closed party caucuses are the forums where the REAL debates over policy and legislation occur. Public sessions are choreographed displays that too often disguise the true intent and issues at hand.
As the legislature churns toward a break, and the two chambers spar over priorities, a mashup bill emerges.
Travis Fain, WRAL statehouse reporter
Budget working its way through the House both creates and deletes a new tax on ride-sharing services like Uber.
The strains of the end of a contentious session were on display Friday morning as a House Finance Committee meeting turned into a full-on House revolt against Senate leaders over a local occupancy tax.
Laura Leslie
Outgoing state House Speaker Thom Tillis authorized extensive changes to the House chamber without discussing it with fellow lawmakers.
Proponents of the measure say it will help bring jobs to now-abandoned industrial buildings. But opponents of the measure say it was rushed-through with hard-to-understand provisions.
Mark Binker
Confusion over a sales tax issue could have affected those renting houses during the U.S. Open golf tournament in Pinehurst. A fix that cleared committee Wednesday would make clear those who rent houses for less than 15 days through a real estate broker must pay sales tax.
The House on Tuesday gave key approval to a package of tax changes, despite impassioned pleas to consider a proposed excise tax on e-cigarettes separately and to give cities relief from a plan to cap the privilege license taxes they charge businesses.
Laura Leslie and Matthew Burns
A package of tax changes is headed for the House floor next week after chamber leaders rushed it through committee Thursday.
A key legislative oversight panel is working on legislation that would ban state workers who oversee contracts from jumping to a job with the vendor they oversee.
Gov. Pat McCrory is using Facebook to call on senior Republican House leaders to sustain his vetoes of bills dealing with drug testing for welfare recipients and immigration.
Mark Binker and Laura Leslie
Lawmakers made provisions dealing with when workers could be denied unemployment benefits too strict, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Lawmakers say federal regulators never raised issues before.
A rift between top House leaders was on display Monday night as a bill allowing taxpayers to sue over taxes and spending is referred to the Finance Committee over the objections of House Speaker Pro Tempore Paul "Skip" Stam.
The House voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to enact stiffer penalties for people who cook up batches of methamphetamine.
Matthew Burns and Laura Leslie
The state House gave key approval Tuesday to legislation that would eliminate a state tax credit for low-income workers at the end of this year.
Matthew Burns
Gov. Pat McCrory says he'll decide next week whether to support an unemployment reform plan that would cut off federal extended benefits for tens of thousands of jobless North Carolinians.
House Finance Committee Chairman Julia Howard says lawmakers should push ahead with unemployment insurance reform, regardless of the action's impact on federal benefits for jobless workers.
Laura Leslie and Mark Binker
