|
LEGISLATIVE
SESSION IS FINALLY OVER
At 4am today,
Friday October 4, the legislature finally completed their business and
adjourned. The technical corrections bill, which did many more things
of concern, took all night to negotiate and pass. Other bad bills and
one great bill passed this week. Here is a short list of what passed
with a few highlights and I will send more detailed analysis next week
when I have had some sleep.
•
Corporate
Subsidiary Dividend Cap (HB 1670) - Last year the legislature
closed a loophole regarding corporate subsidiary dividends. This year
the banks lobbied like crazy to get the amount they will have to pay
due to the loss of this loophole capped. Administration officials
and legislators said this was a good deal because 1) banks were having
to pay more than anticipated last year; 2) banks were challenging
the law passed last year and would not have to pay anything until
the legal challenges are resolved and 3) by passing this cap on bank's
tax liability they were willing to pay what they owe - without making
further legal challanges - within 15 days. This is the only such cap
on tax liability that we have ever heard of. It still leaves a bad
taste in my mouth, since individuals get no cap on their income tax
liability or their new sales taxes.
•
Business
Incentives Bill (HB 1734) - We fought hard to prevent passage
of this bill which gives out tax breaks and grants to businesses for
the next several years. While improvements were made, the bill did
pass on Thursday.
| Not
included are: |
|
1)
|
corporate
income tax rate decrease and |
|
2)
|
taking
money from tobacco trust fund for biotech center and cancer hospital. |
| The
bill does include: |
| 1) |
the
business incentive grants program limited to $10 million in grants
per year; |
|
2)
|
Film
Industry Incentive and |
|
3)
|
language permitting Community Colleges and Board of Governors
of UNC System to find their own money to initiate planning for
biotech centers and cancer hospital. |
Better,
but still not a good give-away only days after raising the sales tax
and cutting almost $1 billion in programs, staff and services.
•
Technical
Corrections Bill (SB 1217) - This long bill with over 90
sections makes changes to statutes or the budget allegedly to correct
"technical" problems. Unfortunately, some of those technical
problems are very substantive. More changes were made to the budget
language that implements stricter assets rules in Medicaid. The language
would likely allow Medicaid to apply the new asset rules to all aspects
of Medicaid, not just Personal Care Services as was the intention
in the budget. Medicaid says they do not intend to implement this
broadly, but we will have to wait and see. These rule changes should
go into effect in Jan. or Feb. 2003. More on this and other "technical
corrections" in the future.
(TOP)
|
|
THE GOOD BILL IS GOOD NEWS FOR UNEMPLOYED WORKERS:
BILL TO EXTEND UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS FOR N.C. WORKERS BECOMES LAW
Gov. Mike
Easley signed into law a bill (HB 1040) that extends unemployment benefits
for workers in North Carolina who have been displaced by the slow economy.
The additional infusion totals $125 million and will be paid with federal
funds.
The bill
allows for an extension of benefits in addition to those already approved
by the U.S. Congress in March and will provide up to 13 weeks of unemployment
payments to workers who have exhausted both their regular benefits and
the first period of extended benefits.
|
