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Friday Fax – Legislative Update
It was a busy week at the North Carolina General Assembly and that's no April Fool's joke. Appropriations Subcommittees were in full swing meeting twice a day while legislators, lobbyists and legislative staff plowed their way through all of the bills filed in the Senate last week -- with one eye on the dump truck full of bills coming from the House in the next two weeks.
April 1, 2005
1) Methamphetamines
2) Bill Filing Deadline in the Senate – Update on Bills
3) ABC Permits
4) Violent Video Games
5) Lottery Vote Coming Soon
6) Identity Theft Package
7) Lobbyist Reform
8) Medco Confuses State Employees/NCRMA Takes Action
9) NCRMA Meets With the State Auditor on Prescription Drugs
10) Budget Update
1) Methamphetamines
NCRMA continued to make progress with members of the General Assembly this week to prevent an “Oklahoma style” bill. Senate Bill 686 – Meth. Lab Prevention Act would remove any cold medicine containing pseudoephedrine, (except for liquids and gel caplets) from retailers' shelves and require these items to be sold only from behind the pharmacy counter by a pharmacist. The stakes were raised earlier in the week when neighboring Tennessee approved strict regulations on cold medicine. Additionally, Representative Joe Kiser's (R-Lincoln) district was witness to a meth lab bust this week placing additional pressure on someone who had been a champion of the reasonable restrictions proposed by NCRMA.
The initial plan was for the Senate Judiciary II Committee to hear Senate Bill 686 in another week so that Attorney General Roy Cooper could have Oklahoma officials be present to explain how well their law is working to fight the meth problem in their state. This timing may be changing as Cooper's allies in the Senate may be cooling off a bit to his early campaign for Governor based on Cooper jumping headfirst into an investigation this week of discretionary spending by Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight (D-Dare), Speaker of the House Jim Black (D-Mecklenburg), and former Co-Speaker Richard Morgan (R-Moore). The Attorney General's office now seems willing to come back to the table to begin negotiations.
We are in the process of having a bill introduced in the House that would encompass what we believe to be a reasonable compromise. The bill will have four co-sponsors – two Democrats and two Republicans.
Many thanks to Teross Young and Denise McNeely of Food Lion for walking the halls a second week in a row all day on Wednesday with us to tell legislators about the effect this legislation would have on their company.
NCRMA has activated a grassroots campaign on this issue to alert legislators to the importance of Meth legislation to retailers. Call NCRMA at 1.800.662.7211 if you would like to get involved.
2) Bill Filing Deadline in the Senate – Update on Bills
As we reported last week, the Senate Bill Filing Deadline was last Wednesday. Below you will find a link to a report with a list of Senate Bills that are of interest, along with a link to the full text of the bill. These bills are placed in specific categories of: General, Workers' Compensation, Environmental, Grocery, Pharmacy, Identity Theft and Tax. Senate Bill Filing Deadline.
NCRMA made the rounds last week to follow-up with bill sponsors and Senate leadership about a few of the bills we reported on last week.
Senate Bill 923 – Mandatory Lunch Breaks – Senator Dan Clodfelter – This legislation would require all North Carolina employers to provide a meal break during the work day. Senator Clodfelter was intending to send a strong message to, as he said, “do the humane thing.” However, do not expect this bill to move very far.
Senate Bill 986 – Amend Motor Fuel Marketing Act – Senator David Hoyle (D-Gaston). This legislation seeks to change the “Below-Cost Sale of Gasoline” issue NCRMA worked on last session. We expect a companion bill to be filed next week in the House by Former Speaker Harold Brubaker (R-Randolph). Senator Hoyle told us that he did not expect any movement on this bill and to tell our members to lay low.
Senate Bill 1030 – Electronics Recycling and Job Creation – Senator Janet Cowell (D-Wake). This legislation would impose on retailers a new 1% excise tax on the sales price of televisions and computers sold in North Carolina. We told Senator Cowell this proposed legislation places brick and mortar retailers at a bigger disadvantage in competing with Internet retailers. Senate leadership has no stomach at this time to vote for a tax that would not make its way to the General Fund. The issue of computers and televisions overloading the landfill is a legitimate concern, but Senator Cowell's bill likely has no legs.
3) ABC Permits
NCRMA will meet today at 2:00 with legislative staff attorneys as we continue to try to find a workable solution to allow the ABC Commission to revoke the alcohol permits of bad actors without catching the legitimate operators in the same net.
4) Violent Video Games
We checked in yesterday with Senator R.C. Sole's office and this bill will not be heard in Senate Commerce on Tuesday. We may have pulled another ally – the Amusement Machine Association – into the fight this week.
5) Lottery Vote Coming Soon – Maybe Next Week
The House Select Committee on the Lottery – made up entirely of Lottery Supporters -- will likely approve a bill on Tuesday and perhaps set up a floor vote on the House Floor by late next week. Lottery opponents cranked up their intense lobbying efforts this week with personal visits and phone calls from notable North Carolinians such as former Governor Jim Martin, Franklin Graham, Jim Goodman and Dean Smith. The Lottery failed 69-50 in a floor vote two years ago. While many are publicly saying lottery proponents are seven to ten votes short, others are quietly whispering that the vote is much closer. As one House Republican who is a lottery opponent told us this week, “Until the vote is cast, I don't ever count out Speaker Black.”
6) Identity Theft
NCRMA made the rounds this week with representatives from the Consumer Data Industry Council and TransUnion to educate legislators on why consumers being able to freeze their credit files is not only unwieldy, but is unnecessary. There have been a number of bills introduced in both the Senate and the House trumpeting stopping identity theft with Senate Bill 1048 -- a package bill encompassing most of these concepts. Of importance to retailers is the fact that many consumers do not understand that they may not be able to take advantage of instant credit opportunities if their credit file is frozen. File freeze laws come with a cost to retailers as credit bureaus are forced to expend large amounts of money to create systems to comply with file freeze laws and these costs eventually get passed onto retailers in the way of surcharges to access credit reports. Additionally, while four states have enacted file freeze laws, few if any people have signed up for this option. In California and Texas combined there have been only 1,700 people meaning increased costs to implement a file freezing system with little success.
7) Lobbyist Reform
Yesterday, lobbyists crowded the Senate Judiciary I hearing room to listen to the debate on Senate Bill 612 which would reform the way lobbying is conducted in Raleigh. Under this legislation, lobbyists, lobbyist principals and state government would be limited to expending $100 per legislator per year for gifts, dinners and entertainment. There were a number of interesting questions tossed about including whether Governor Easley inviting legislators to the Governor's Mansion for breakfast would count towards Governor's Easley $100 allotment per legislator. (The answer was yes.) Another question was whether a legislator who drove from Raleigh to Asheville to speak to a group could be compensated for their travels (the answer was yes up to $100 which did not sit to well with gas prices hovering at $2.15). Many see the Senate as trying to get this hot potato to the House and let the House be the bad guy in the media for watering down the bill.
8) Medco Confuses State Employees/NCRMA Takes Action
Medco takes over today as the Pharmacy Benefit Manager for the Teachers' and State Employees' Comprehensive Major Medical Plan. Contrary to what Medco promised NCRMA and legislators last November, Medco began an all-out push to move teachers and state employees to the mail-order pharmacy owned by Medco. NCRMA issued a press release on Wednesday to inform teachers and state employees that they can continue to get their prescriptions filled at their neighborhood pharmacies. NCRMA has been coordinating these efforts with the North Carolina Association of Educators, the State Employees Association of North Carolina and the North Carolina Governmental Employees' Association. Full-page ads ran throughout the state's major media markets with the same message in today's newspapers.
9) NCRMA Meets with State Auditor on Prescription Drugs
On Tuesday, NCRMA met with State Auditor Les Merritt for over two hours to discuss prescription drugs and the Medicaid program. The Auditor was interested in cost-containment methods utilized by North Carolina, as well as methods from other states that are not being utilized in North Carolina.
10) Budget Update
While Appropriations Subcommittees have been meeting twice a day for a number of weeks, much of this activity has been a “dog and pony show.” The full Appropriations Committee Chairs sent down the word to Subcommittee Chairs early this week that it was time to begin hitting target numbers which are over and above what was proposed by Governor Easley. Subcommittee Chairs then began asking the various Departments and Agencies to submit recommendations for additional cuts. Much to the legislators' surprise, Governor Easley's orders were that there would be no additional recommendations from Departments and Agencies. Look for sharp knives to begin cutting on Departments and Agencies next week to get the Governor's attention.
‘TIL NEXT WEEK
Fran Preston
Andy Ellen
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