The General Assembly will be back in session in about month. Here are a couple of recent news articles on some issues the legislature will be dealing with:
• The state budget. The AP reported yesterday that the state revenues are $190 million below projections through the first five months of the current fiscal year. Is that a big deal? We don’t know yet. As State Budget Director Lee Roberts put it: “We’re not saying that we’re not going to have a problem. We’re saying it’s too early to tell.”
• Medicaid reform. Tens of thousands of words have been about the possibility of Medicaid reform in North Carolina and tens of thousands of dollars have likely been spent lobbying on the issue. It may all not amount to much, as the state House and Senate each have strongly embraced very different visions of what Medicaid should look like. And neither side looks to be giving in. Carolina Journal’s Dan Way provides an update on the latest developments.
• And then there’s the issue of local government revenue. The privilege tax is going away and cities and counties want other revenue sources to make up for the lost revenue without raising property taxes. The League of Municipalities has endorsed giving city and towns the authority to levy a sales tax. Whether that idea has any traction remains to be seen but I kind of doubt it.
And at the county level, several state legislators are interested in fiddling with the way that sales tax revenues are distributed between counties. That’s code for saying that legislators from rural counties want a bigger share of the sales tax for their home district at the expense of places like Mecklenburg or Wake counties. The devil is in the detail in this one, but it’s a potentially dangerous move for the GOP leadership as it could hang Republican lawmakers from urban areas out to dry. There’s another danger: by definition this is a local issue throughout the state, so it will generate a ton of press attention and popular interest. Should the General Assembly not be able to come to an agreement on the issue, the session may be perceived at a minimum a disappointment regardless of whatever else gets accomplished.
