-
7/27/2019 August Legislative Newsletter from Senator Neal
Hunt
1/5
LEGISLATIVE NEWSLETTER
August 15, 2013LEGISLATURE
309LEGISLATIVE OFFICE BLDG.
300N.SALISBURY STREET
RALEIGH,NC27603(919)733-5850
[email protected]
15THSENATEDISTRICT
2600FAIRVIEW ROAD
RALEIGH,NC27608
(919)[email protected]
The long session of the General Assembly wrapped up on July 26
after numerous meetings lastingwell into the early morning hours.
Before 2010, North Carolina state leaders tried to tax and spend
ouway to prosperity. The mentality that government could somehow
magically solve all of our issues bygrowing government caused our
state to lose jobs, lose businesses, and struggle to compete.
Wevowed to create a new era of state government that focused on
fixing these problems. The voterselected us to move our state off
the highway to economic stagnation and instead onto the path
toprosperity.
Below is a summary of the many accomplishments the Republican
majority made during the longsession.
JOB CREATION
North Carolina had an archaic tax code last updated during the
Great Depression. According to theTax Foundation, our states tax
climate ranked 44 th most competitive in the nation. This abysmal
taxclimate has caused individuals and businesses to move elsewhere
with more competitive tax ratesand economies. We realized that
enough was enough. In order to bring jobs to the Tar Heel State,
weknew we had to make North Carolina more affordable for
businesses.
Heres a quick look at what ourtax reformdoes: It reduces the
state personal income tax rate from the current maximum of 7.75
percent to a
flat 5.8 percent in 2014 and 5.75 percent in 2015; It reduces
the corporate income tax from 6.9 to 5.0 percent by 2015. If the
state meet
revenue targets, it will then go down to 4.0 percent in 2016 and
3.0 percent in 2017; It caps the state gas tax at 37.5
cents/gallon; and It eliminates North Carolinas estate tax.
With the tax reform in place, the Tax Foundation now ranks our
tax climate as 17 th in the nation!
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]://ncleg.net/Sessions/2013/Bills/House/PDF/H998v8.pdfhttp://ncleg.net/Sessions/2013/Bills/House/PDF/H998v8.pdfhttp://ncleg.net/Sessions/2013/Bills/House/PDF/H998v8.pdfhttp://ncleg.net/Sessions/2013/Bills/House/PDF/H998v8.pdfmailto:[email protected]:[email protected]
-
7/27/2019 August Legislative Newsletter from Senator Neal
Hunt
2/5
In addition, we passed the Regulatory Reform Act of 2013. This
legislation will improve NorthCarolinas regulatory environment and
eliminate red tape that inhibits economic growth. The majochange is
that the over 22,000 state rules and regulations have to be
reviewed every ten years and inot deemed beneficial, the rule will
sunset.
I highly anticipate that our tax reform and regulatory reform
efforts will put North Carolina back in thegame for job creation
and will lower our unemployment rate.
FISCAL RESPONSIBILITYNorth Carolina Legislative Democrats over
the years believed in taxing and spending our way toprosperity when
they held the legislative majority. Their efforts led us to having
to manage a $2.5billion budget shortfall on top of a nearly
bankrupt state health plan, an underfunded retiremensystem, over $2
billion in debt to the federal government for an overly generous
unemploymencompensation program, and an array of government
projects with large appetites for our tax dollars.
To combat our states fiscal illness, we passed and Governor
McCrory signed a fiscally responsiblebudgetthat invests in North
Carolinas core priorities, strengthens public schools, creates a
culture ocustomer service in government, and grows North Carolinas
economy. The $20.6 billion budget thawe crafted safeguards our
states long-term fiscal health by shoring up rainy day funds and
savings
reserves. It accomplishes this while cutting taxes for all North
Carolinians and spending over $1.5billion in additional state
dollars to fund the federally mandated out-of-control Medicaid
costs. Thisbudget also spends approximately $7.9 billion on K-12
education. Thats approximately $360 millionmore than was budgeted
last year. Incidentally, the press has really done a poor job in
reporting thathe Democrats claim that we have cut K-12 education
spending is absolutely untrue!
QUALITY SCHOOLS
Our actions prove that we stand committed in our efforts to
improve North Carolinas public schoolsNot only did we provide
additional money in the budget for public education, we passed
theExcellenPublic Schools Act, which will increase accountability
in the classroom by eliminating our statesoutdated teacher tenure
program. The current tenure program promotes mediocrity and
discourages
excellence in teaching by granting unlimited job security to
anyone who teaches. Our plan replacesteacher contracts that are
renewed based on job performance and funds an additional $10
million topay for these excellent teachers.
We can continue to throw money at our public schools with hopes
that it will somehow provide resultsbut until we have school
accountability, we will continue to see more and more students fall
throughthe cracks. Thats why we adopted an A-F grading system for
every public school in the state thaincorporates elements that are
important to parents, such as early grade literacy scores,
overalstudents academic gains, career readiness, and college
readiness. The new A-F grading system wiprovide parents with an
assessment that is comprehendible and easy to compare across the
state.
Republicans also took steps to maximize classroom instructional
time by reducing unnecessarytesting and requiring that End-of-Grade
tests be administered during the last two weeks of the
schooyear.
In Wake County, the General Assembly passed abill I
sponsoredthat would allow parents to havetwo representatives on the
Wake County Board of Education. Before this bill became law, I
listenedas parents from across the county criticized a lack of
responsiveness within the school board. Inmany of these cases,
parents live in one school board district, but send their child to
a school locatedin another school board district. In addition,
voter turnout in school board elections in odd-numberedyears has
been abysmal. Starting in 2016, voters will elect two
representatives to the school board inthe higher voter turnout
even-numbered years.
http://www.ncleg.net/Sessions/2013/Bills/House/PDF/H74v4.pdfhttp://www.ncleg.net/Sessions/2013/Bills/House/PDF/H74v4.pdfhttp://www.ncleg.net/Sessions/2013/Bills/Senate/PDF/S402v7.pdfhttp://www.ncleg.net/Sessions/2013/Bills/Senate/PDF/S402v7.pdfhttp://www.ncleg.net/Sessions/2013/Bills/Senate/PDF/S402v7.pdfhttp://ncleg.net/Sessions/2013/Bills/Senate/PDF/S402v7.pdfhttp://ncleg.net/Sessions/2013/Bills/Senate/PDF/S402v7.pdfhttp://ncleg.net/Sessions/2013/Bills/Senate/PDF/S402v7.pdfhttp://ncleg.net/Sessions/2013/Bills/Senate/PDF/S402v7.pdfhttp://www.ncleg.net/Sessions/2013/Bills/Senate/PDF/S325v6.pdfhttp://www.ncleg.net/Sessions/2013/Bills/Senate/PDF/S325v6.pdfhttp://www.ncleg.net/Sessions/2013/Bills/Senate/PDF/S325v6.pdfhttp://www.ncleg.net/Sessions/2013/Bills/Senate/PDF/S325v6.pdfhttp://ncleg.net/Sessions/2013/Bills/Senate/PDF/S402v7.pdfhttp://ncleg.net/Sessions/2013/Bills/Senate/PDF/S402v7.pdfhttp://www.ncleg.net/Sessions/2013/Bills/Senate/PDF/S402v7.pdfhttp://www.ncleg.net/Sessions/2013/Bills/Senate/PDF/S402v7.pdfhttp://www.ncleg.net/Sessions/2013/Bills/House/PDF/H74v4.pdf
-
7/27/2019 August Legislative Newsletter from Senator Neal
Hunt
3/5
THE GOOD ROADS STATE
North Carolina was once known as the good roads state, but any
driver can tell you that motto is nolonger the case. The General
Assemblystepped inand overhauled the North Carolina Highway
TrusFund to match projects with needs. This will significantly
improve our roads and interstates byinvesting in our states
critical infrastructure needs and taking the politics out of
constructiondecisions.
HEALTH CARE IMPROVEMENTSWe asked the executive branch to develop
a comprehensive plan for Medicaid reform over the nexseveral
months. Although Republicans have reined in most out-of-control
state spending, a recenaudit of North Carolinas Medicaid program
confirmed billions of dollars in cost overruns are divertingfunds
away from core priorities like education and public safety.
In addition, we opted out of participation in the costly
provisions of the Affordable Care Ac(Obamacare), including Medicaid
expansion and the implementation of a state-based
insuranceexchange. Many on the left continue to criticize this
action, but we realize theres no such thing as afree lunch. The
federal government receives its funding from you, the taxpayer, and
they continue todemonstrate fiscal mismanagement. Plus we
anticipate further shifting costs to the states when the
true cost of Obamacare becomes known.
Lastly, we passed major health care reform legislation to
improve medical billing fairness andtransparency, reduce health
care costs, and help consumers make better-informed decisions
aboutheir treatment. Now you will be able to go to hospitals
websites to comparison shop the cost ovarious procedures.
RESTORING INTEGRITY TO OUR ELECTIONS
An Elon University poll from earlier this year found that 72
percent of North Carolinians supporrequiring voters to provide some
form of photo identification before casting their ballot. We
listenedand we acted by passing common-sense legislation that
requires voters to show a photo ID to vote.
Theelections billwe passed guarantees that any North Carolina
citizen who wants to vote will havethat opportunity. It establishes
a list of valid government-issued photo identification voters can
presenat their polling places (i.e. drivers licenses, non-operator
ID cards, tribal and military IDs, passports)In addition, it allows
anyone without a photo identification to obtain one at no cost
through theDepartment of Motor Vehicles.
The bill also ends same-day voter registration and shortens the
early voting period while providing thesame number of early voting
hours. In my district, there were 57 polling places in the last
election andonly three early voting sites. Hopefully, the
additional voting sites will be more convenient and lesstime
consuming for voters.
This measure combats voter fraud. It is reckless to claim this
problem doesnt exist when we havenbeen looking for it. We want to
protect the integrity of the voting process, not hinder legitimate
votersIn fact, in states that have passed voter ID laws like
Georgia, voter participation has actuallyincreased because voters
feel that their vote actually counts. I anticipate the same will
occur in NorthCarolina.
PROVIDING JUSTICE AND PROTECTION FOR NORTH CAROLINA FAMILIES
Earlier in the year, we repealed the Racial Justice Act. Now
judges will be able to issue the deathpenalty to our states worst
criminals. North Carolina was the only state to ever have such a
law. Thepoor language of the Racial Justice Act allowed convicted
murderers to continue appealing decisions
http://ncleg.net/Sessions/2013/Bills/House/PDF/H817v10.pdfhttp://ncleg.net/Sessions/2013/Bills/House/PDF/H817v10.pdfhttp://ncleg.net/Sessions/2013/Bills/House/PDF/H817v10.pdfhttp://ncleg.net/Sessions/2013/Bills/Senate/PDF/S4v5.pdfhttp://ncleg.net/Sessions/2013/Bills/Senate/PDF/S4v5.pdfhttp://www.elon.edu/docs/e-web/elonpoll/030413_ElonPoll_voterID.pdfhttp://www.elon.edu/docs/e-web/elonpoll/030413_ElonPoll_voterID.pdfhttp://ncleg.net/Sessions/2013/Bills/House/PDF/H589v9.pdfhttp://ncleg.net/Sessions/2013/Bills/House/PDF/H589v9.pdfhttp://ncleg.net/Sessions/2013/Bills/House/PDF/H589v9.pdfhttp://ncleg.net/Sessions/2013/Bills/Senate/PDF/S306v5.pdfhttp://ncleg.net/Sessions/2013/Bills/Senate/PDF/S306v5.pdfhttp://ncleg.net/Sessions/2013/Bills/Senate/PDF/S306v5.pdfhttp://ncleg.net/Sessions/2013/Bills/House/PDF/H589v9.pdfhttp://www.elon.edu/docs/e-web/elonpoll/030413_ElonPoll_voterID.pdfhttp://ncleg.net/Sessions/2013/Bills/Senate/PDF/S4v5.pdfhttp://ncleg.net/Sessions/2013/Bills/House/PDF/H817v10.pdf
-
7/27/2019 August Legislative Newsletter from Senator Neal
Hunt
4/5
regardless of race.
One example of the failure of the Racial Justice Act occurred in
Gaston County. This law allowedthree white murderers to accuse the
local white district attorney of being a racist. Why? Because
thedistrict attorney had only put white people on death row. Under
this act, these criminals had anappealable case because the
district attorney has sought the death penalty more frequently
againspersons of one race than persons of another race. What
mattered in the Racial Justice Act was nocold hard facts and
evidence, but the experience rating of the location of the crime.
The repeal of this
act will bring justice to victims families and ensure murderers
are appropriately punished for theicrimes.
In addition, we continued our commitment to protecting the
Second Amendment rights of law-abidingNorth Carolinians by removing
the prohibition of the number of places that people with a
concealedcarry permit can carry firearms.This lawwill enable
citizens to protect themselves and their familiesas well as to
strengthen safety measures for the public and penalize criminals
who violate our gunlaws. We realize that criminals never follow the
law. They will continue to carry guns despite the lackof a permit
or even a legal gun. Its important that law-abiding citizens are
able to protect themselvesand their families.
CONCLUSIONNorth Carolinians elected us to make tough decisions
in order to put North Carolina back on the rightrack. I believe
that in the eight months of the long session, we have brought about
the actions thayou expected from us.
You expected us to create a competitive business climate to
lower our unemployment rate and to puour citizens back into
high-quality jobs; tax reform and regulatory reform will accomplish
this.
You expected us to be responsible stewards of taxpayer money;
the state budget we crafted isefficient, effective, and fully funds
our states core priorities.
You expected us to reform public education to improve student
performance; the Excellent PubliSchools Actwill help ensure that a
quality teacher is in every classroom.
You expected us to improve North Carolinas infrastructure; we
took the politics out of transportationdecision making.
You expected us to advance our states healthcare industry; weve
asked the executive branch tolocate Medicaid savings and bring
about medical billing fairness.
You expected us to restore integrity to elections; weve passed a
voter ID bill that will ensure youvote counts.
I think we have accomplished a lot in the short time we have
been in the majority. However, there isstill much more work to be
done. We want to continue improving our state so that we are
competitiveefficient, and effective. I firmly believe that North
Carolina will be able to serve as a success story fothe rest of the
nation to admire, as we have already started to see from theWall
Street JournalandForbes Magazine.
Im confident that with your trust, we will continue to bring
about the necessary changes that wiaccomplish our goal of putting
North Carolina onto the path to prosperity.
Thank you for allowing me to represent you in the North Carolina
Senate. As always, if you have any
http://ncleg.net/Sessions/2013/Bills/House/PDF/H937v6.pdfhttp://ncleg.net/Sessions/2013/Bills/House/PDF/H937v6.pdfhttp://ncleg.net/Sessions/2013/Bills/House/PDF/H937v6.pdfhttp://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323848804578609962088816412.htmlhttp://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323848804578609962088816412.htmlhttp://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323848804578609962088816412.htmlhttp://www.forbes.com/sites/travisbrown/2013/07/26/thought-its-best-known-for-nascar-north-carolina-takes-a-tax-reform-victory-lap/http://www.forbes.com/sites/travisbrown/2013/07/26/thought-its-best-known-for-nascar-north-carolina-takes-a-tax-reform-victory-lap/http://www.forbes.com/sites/travisbrown/2013/07/26/thought-its-best-known-for-nascar-north-carolina-takes-a-tax-reform-victory-lap/http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323848804578609962088816412.htmlhttp://ncleg.net/Sessions/2013/Bills/House/PDF/H937v6.pdf
-
7/27/2019 August Legislative Newsletter from Senator Neal
Hunt
5/5
questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Sincerely,
Neal Hunt
Connect w i th Senator Neal Hunt
For newsletter inquiries,CLICK HEREIf for any reason you do not
wish to receive future newsletters,CLICK HERE
mailto:[email protected]?subject=Newsletter%20inquirymailto:[email protected]?subject=Newsletter%20inquirymailto:[email protected]?subject=Newsletter%20inquirymailto:[email protected]?subject=Unsubscribemailto:[email protected]?subject=Unsubscribemailto:[email protected]?subject=Unsubscribehttp://www.twitter.com/SenatorNealHunthttp://www.facebook.com/SenatorNealHunthttp://www.twitter.com/SenatorNealHunthttp://www.facebook.com/SenatorNealHunthttp://www.twitter.com/SenatorNealHunthttp://www.facebook.com/SenatorNealHuntmailto:[email protected]?subject=Unsubscribemailto:[email protected]?subject=Newsletter%20inquiry
