RALEIGH, N.C. — Good morning and welcome to Today @NCCapitol for Tuesday, May 7. This is WRAL's roundup of what you need to know about North Carolina state government today.
THE BIG STORY – TAXES: Senate Republicans are scheduled to roll out their tax reform plan at a news 12:30 p.m. conference today.
In a news release and video
released last night, Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger claimed the plan would lower income and sales tax rates while delivering a $1 billion tax cut. However, the GOP did not provide details of the plan in its release.
Also today, The N.C. Justice Center’s Budget & Tax Center, J.W.P. Civitas Institute and the Institute for Emerging Issues at NC State will host a debate on tax reform at 11:45 a.m. The debate will feature Jared Bernstein of the Center on Budget & Policy Priorities and Elizabeth Malm of The Tax Foundation, two national experts on the subject of taxation and finance.
FIRST UP – TRANSPORTATION: The full House Appropriations Committee is due to take up Gov. Pat McCrory's transportation proposal at an 8:30 a.m. meeting this morning. This is the bill's last stop before heading to the floor.
MCCRORY: The Council of State, a group of North Carolina's 10 statewide elected officials chaired by Gov. Pat McCrory, will meet at 9 a.m. to approve land deals and other ministerial matters.
CATCHING UP WITH THE WRAP: Monday was an unusually busy day at the legislature with arrests, debate over a firearms bill and a public hearing on game fish. Capitol Bureau Chief Laura Leslie and reporter Mark Binker catch up on all the action in
Monday's late night edition of The Wrap.
The episode is far from unprecedented but demonstrates the broad latitude committee chairmen have to push measures they favor or that are backed by key legislative leaders. "I walked out of there shaking my head," Sen. Gene McLaurin, D-Richmond, said Friday. McLaurin, a former mayor of Rockingham, said he was disappointed in the procedure but added it was not the first time he had seen a bill move through a committee in that fashion during his three-month tenure.
WRAL.com will carry the House session live at 2 p.m. Check the Video Central box on our home page.
COMMITTEES: For a full list of committee meetings, please see the main @NCCapitol page. Highlights from today's calendar include:
Senate Judiciary 1 (10 a.m. | 1027 LB): The committee is scheduled to discuss a bill that purports to prohibit the sales of electronic cigarettes to minors. Health advocates worry that changes to the definition could actually clear the way for e-cigarettes to be use on public school campuses, where smoking is by and large banned.
Senate Judiciary 2 (10 a.m. | 1124 LB): Lawmakers will discuss, but not vote on, a bill that would allow local school systems to create standard for placing armed guards in elementary schools. Those guards would not necessarily be police officers or sheriffs deputies, but they would have to meet certain training standards.
House Health and Human Resources (10 a.m. | 1228 LB): The committee is scheduled to take up a bill that prohibit doctors from providing any care related to birth control, STD prevention or substance abuse without parental consent.
Senate Commerce (11 a.m. | 1027 LB): Lawmakers take up a bill that would, in part, thwart undercover whistle-blower efforts at poultry plants and the like. It makes it a crime to get hired and then subsequently "create or produce a record that reproduces an image or sound occurring within the employer's facility, including a photographic, video, or audio medium record."
House Transportation (Noon | 643 LOB): Committee members are scheduled to vote on bills increasing the penalties for passing as stopped school bus and requiring legislative approval before the Department of Transportation can make a road a toll road.
House Judiciary B (After the House session | 421 LOB): The committee takes up an e-cigarette bill similar to the one in Senate Judiciary 1 and takes up a bill prohibiting the death penalty of the severely mentally ill.
MONDAY'S NEWS: Others stories we were following Monday included: