LEGISLATIVE UPDATE Hugh Johnson, NC Association of County - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

▶
legislative update
SMART_READER_LITE
LIVE PREVIEW

LEGISLATIVE UPDATE Hugh Johnson, NC Association of County - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Sep 22, 2022 110 likes •402 views

LEGISLATIVE UPDATE Hugh Johnson, NC Association of County Commissioners Hartwell Wright, NC League of Municipalities NC International Personnel Management Association March 17, 2016 2 Outline Legislative Update (2015) Bills of Interest

slide-1
SLIDE 1

LEGISLATIVE UPDATE

Hugh Johnson, NC Association of County Commissioners Hartwell Wright, NC League of Municipalities

NC International Personnel Management Association March 17, 2016

slide-2
SLIDE 2

Outline

  • Legislative Update (2015)
  • Bills of Interest
  • Sales Tax Redistribution
  • LGERS
  • Recent LGERS Board Actions
  • 2016 and Beyond
  • Election year changes
  • Possible short session issues

2

slide-3
SLIDE 3

Demographic Change Driving State Issues

3

slide-4
SLIDE 4

Demographic Change Driving State Issues

4

slide-5
SLIDE 5

Legislative Update - 2015

Key Budget Items for Counties

Education

  • Funds teacher assistant positions but eliminates LEA flexibility to use these funds for
  • ther purposes
  • Final budget includes $100M to fund projected enrollment growth of 35K additional

students over the biennium

  • Continues $100M appropriation for school capital from lottery

Health and Human Services

  • Increases autopsy fees from $1,250 to $1,750 and medical examiner fees from $100

to $200 (earlier version had increases to $2,800 and $250)

  • Non‐parent relative income is no longer subject to formulas for child care subsidies

reducing barriers to receiving subsidies

  • Increases foster care age to 21 and provides $16 million to raise this age while

funding initiatives for children transitioning from foster care

  • Some expansions to public health and behavioral health programs; also reduction to

LME/MCOs targeted at entities with large cash balances Public Safety

  • Appropriates $22.5M recurring to fund the SMCP
  • Establishes $5M reserve for 2:1 matching grants to local and county law enforcement

to purchase body cameras

5

slide-6
SLIDE 6

Legislative Update - 2015

6

HB 154 - Local Governments in State Health Plan

  • Session Law 2015-112  effective June 24, 2015
  • Allows local governments to seek health coverage for

employees under the State Health Plan.

  • Limits the total number of local government employees

who can be moved into the State Health Plan to 10,000.

  • Any local government electing to participate must have

less than 1,000 employees and dependents enrolled in health coverage at the time the local government provides notice to the Plan of its desire to participate .

slide-7
SLIDE 7

Legislative Update - 2015

7

HB 616 - Local Governmental Employees’ Retirement COLA

  • Called for 1% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) increase

for LGERS pensioners.

  • The legislation was filed despite a decision by the

LGERS Board in January 2015 to provide a 0.625% COLA to retirees.

  • The .625% increase was the maximum COLA that could be

provided by relying solely on existing LGERS funds.

  • Increasing the COLA to 1% would mean an increase for local

governments’ contribution rate for general employees.

  • HB 616 was approved by the House, but not acted on by

the Senate.

slide-8
SLIDE 8

Legislative Update - 2015

8

HB 666 - WC/ Firefighters’ Presumptive Cancer

  • Would have created a presumption that certain types of cancer
  • ccurring in firefighters are occupations diseases and subject

to coverage under worker’s compensation.

  • The list of nine separate types of cancer under the list of
  • ccupational diseases had the potential to significantly

increase municipalities’ workers compensations costs.

  • The bill was reported “without prejudice” from House Pensions

and Retirement, but did not pass the House

slide-9
SLIDE 9

Legislative Update - 2015

9

SB 699 – Protect LEO Home Address/Other Info

  • Prohibits disclosure of LEO address, emergency contact

info, and personal identifying numbers like SSN

  • Also provides that government provided mobile phone

numbers are not public record when provided to LEO/emergency responders

  • Passed House 106-0 and Senate 42-0
  • Effective October 1, 2015
slide-10
SLIDE 10

Legislative Update - 2015

10

HB 44 - Local Government Regulatory Reform

  • Streamlines payment and pre-audit processes for

local governments by exempting debit cards and payroll from pre-audit certification

  • Removes a public health funding requirement

from 2012 that limited county budget flexibility

slide-11
SLIDE 11

Legislative Update - 2015

11

SB 423– Foster Care Family Act

  • Allows foster parents and county DSS to make certain

parenting decisions for foster care children

  • Will allow foster care children to participate in activities

like other children w/consent of foster parents or county

  • Also provides liability protection for foster parents and

counties for these decisions

  • Simplifies the process for foster children to receive

driver’s licenses and get auto insurance coverage

slide-12
SLIDE 12

Legislative Update - 2015

12

HB 318 – E-Verify/Food Benefit Waiver

  • Clarifies local government contracts for goods don’t

have to follow E-verify, only services

  • Follows changes from last short session streamlining

certain e-verify requirements for small local government purchases

  • Sanctuary jurisdictions prohibited
  • Prohibits DHHS from seeking waiver for FNS applicant

work requirements after January 1, 2016

slide-13
SLIDE 13

Legislative Update - 2015

13

SB 119 – Technical Corrections

  • Expands FNS applicant work requirements for all

counties beginning July 1

  • DHHS already planned to expand this for 23 counties on

January 1—legislation originally pushed for all counties

  • n January 1
  • Final bill requires certain adults applying for FNS to meet

work requirements in all counties beginning July 1

  • Added time and cost for processing applications
  • State received a grant from USDA to help with

work requirements

slide-14
SLIDE 14

14

SB 455 – Iran Divestment Act

  • Passed 113-4 in the House and 48-0 in the Senate
  • From a 2010 federal law allowing states and localities to prohibit governments

from investing/contracting with an entity investing in Iran’s energy sector

  • Directs the State Treasurer to compile a list of entities with investment activities

in Iran’s energy sector and prohibits State investment with entities on the list

  • Prohibits State and local governments from contracting with entities on the list
  • Does not apply to contracts valued at $1,000 or less
  • “Substantial positive action” exception
  • Good faith exception
  • Requires vendors and bidders to certify they are not on Divestment List
  • State Treasurer published Divestment List on 2/26/16

See more details in NCACC blog post: http://www.ncacc.org/Blog.aspx?IID=203#item & UNC School of Government FAQs: https://www.sog.unc.edu/sites/www.sog.unc.edu/files/articles/Iran%20Divestment%20Act%20FAQ.pdf

Legislative Update - 2015

slide-15
SLIDE 15

Sales Tax Redistribution

1.

Expands the sales tax base to repair, maintenance and installation services on tangible personal property (including motor vehicles)

2.

Combines this additional revenue from Articles 39, 40 and 42 ($67.2 million in FY 2017) with $17.6 million from state sales taxes

3.

Distributes the total ($84.8 million in FY 2017) to 79 counties according to a statutory percentage that the legislature will periodically review

4.

Must be spent on public schools, community colleges or economic development Effective Dates: Base expansion March 1, 2016 Distribution of revenue July 1, 2016

15

slide-16
SLIDE 16

Sales Tax Redistribution Allocation

16

slide-17
SLIDE 17

Sales Tax Redistribution Allocation

17

slide-18
SLIDE 18

Interim Committees

Environmental Review Commission

  • Oversight of environmental policy implementation
  • Per budget, convened a Solid Waste Authority Working Group to

study local government solid waste issues

JLOC on Health and Human Services

  • Oversight of HHS budget and policy implementation
  • Of note to counties, discuss behavioral health program funding and

changes

JLOC on Medicaid and Health Choice

  • Oversight of Medicaid reform implementation
  • HB372 – Medicaid Transformation and Reorganization

Numerous Transportation Oversight Committees

18

slide-19
SLIDE 19

Retirement Systems

  • LGERS Board met Jan. 21
  • Approved League-

recommended Employer Contribution Rate Stabilization Policy

  • Begins FY16-17 with base

rates of 7.25% for general employees and 8.00% for LEO

19

slide-20
SLIDE 20

Retirement Systems

3/4/2016 City and County Update

20

Employer Contribution Rates Fiscal Year General Employees/Firefighters Law Enforcement Officers

2016-17 7.25% 8.00% 2017-18 7.50% 8.25% 2018-19 7.75% 8.50% 2019-20 8.00% 8.75% 2020-21 8.25% 9.00%

* This table reflects the pension component of the contribution rates; death benefit contribution is in addition to these rates

slide-21
SLIDE 21

Retirement Systems

  • Employer Contribution Rate

Stabilization

  • Automatically increased or

decreased if annual required contribution is 50% higher/lower than stabilized rate

  • “Cushion” built in for retiree

COLAs from investment gains

21

slide-22
SLIDE 22

2016 and Beyond

  • Election Year:
  • Primary March 15 (included state bond)
  • 41 House members (22 R, 19 D) have no opponents
  • 13 Senators (9 R, 4 D) have no opponents
  • Another 16 House races, 2 Senate races decided after primary

– 43% of all races decided after primary in all

  • Primary Update: $2B Connect NC Bond passed; some races

close and could go to recount

  • Session begins April 25
  • Short session year

22

slide-23
SLIDE 23

2016 and Beyond

  • Election Year:
  • US Congressional Primary moved June 7
  • Following court ruling and new maps drawn during special

session

  • Other primary runoff races eliminated as a result
  • Possible statewide cost of almost $10M for a second primary
  • Filing reopens for new Congressional races on March 16
  • One day after all other primaries—March 15

23

slide-24
SLIDE 24

2016 and Beyond

Short Session Focus:

  • Budget adjustments 
  • Raise teacher pay 
  • No controversial items (?)
  • Short length (?)

What’s eligible?

  • Money bills – raise revenue or spend funds
  • Bills crossed over
  • Local bills
  • Bills originating in study committees
  • Constitutional amendments

24

slide-25
SLIDE 25

NCACC Short Session Priorities

  • PE-4 - Seek legislation to repeal the statutory authorized under

NCGS 115C-431(c) that allows local school boards to file suit against a county board of commissioners over county appropriations for education.

  • TF-4 - Seek legislation to authorize local option revenue sources

already given to any other jurisdiction.

  • GG-2 - Support legislation, regulations and funding that would

preserve local option and authority where needed to deploy community broadband systems and ensure community access to critical broadband services.

25

slide-26
SLIDE 26

County Tier System

  • General Assembly’s Economic Development

and Global Engagement (EDGE) Committee examining current tier structure

  • Program Evaluation Division has proposed phasing out county tiers by

2019 while creating a legislative commission to study and recommend a replacement system

  • Dept. of Commerce proposed indexing

system to replace

26

slide-27
SLIDE 27

Solid Waste Services

  • Environmental Review Commission working group looking at solid

waste services and local government authority in North Carolina

  • Cities, counties presented at first meeting

27

slide-28
SLIDE 28

Questions/Discussion

Hartwell Wright

Human Resources Consultant N.C. League of Municipalities HWright@NCLM.ORG 919-715-0352

Hugh Johnson

Government Relations Coordinator N.C. Association of County Commissioners hugh.johnson@ncacc.org 919-715-7659