silasraven
Well-Known Member
Two years have passed since historic anti-annexation legislation became law, and the Republican-led General Assembly still isn't finished trying to take the powers and clout of North Carolina's municipalities down a few more notches.
Several bills seeking to intervene in cities' affairs have been debated and passed at least one chamber during this year's session.
Senate Republicans have pushed through legislation that would end Charlotte's ownership of one of the nation's busiest airports and give it to a regional authority comprised of several counties. They also voted to cancel the state's lease with Raleigh that allows the building of a big-city park on the old Dorothea Dix mental hospital campus. Lawmakers want to renegotiate the terms for less land and more money.
"We're just stunned," Raleigh Mayor Nancy McFarlane said. "The fact that they think they can go back and undo a lease and then hold us hostage for more money sends a frightening message to the business community, to anybody who wants to do business with the state of North Carolina."
The House, meanwhile, has passed bills backed by home builders that restrict what kind of building inspections local governments can require and prevent local new-home design and appearance standards beyond what state law allows.
With moves also being considered to eliminate some of their revenue sources in tax reform and to phase out powers cities and towns use just beyond their boundaries, municipal leaders from both political parties are telling legislators they're frustrated and angry.
http://www.blueridgenow.com/article/20130331/APN/1303310602
http://www.wral.com/the-south-a-near-solid-block-against-obamacare-/12286261/
ATLANTA As more Republicans give in to President Barack Obama's health-care overhaul, an opposition bloc remains across the South, including from governors who lead some of the nation's poorest and unhealthiest states.
"Not in South Carolina," Gov. Nikki Haley declared at the recent Conservative Political Action Conference. "We will not expand Medicaid on President Obama's watch. We will not expand Medicaid ever."
In North Carolina, the Republican-dominated General Assembly and Gov. Pat McCrory backed legislation that blocked the state from expanding Medicaid or participating in the state health insurance exchanges created by Obama's health plan. McCrory signed Senate Bill 4 into law March 6.
"Our Medicaid system is broken, and I cannot expand a broken system," McCrory said in February. "It would be unfair to the taxpayers, unfair to the citizens currently receiving Medicaid and unfair to create a new bureaucracy to implement the system."
Widening Medicaid insurance rolls, a joint federal-state program for low-income Americans, is an anchor of the law Obama signed in 2010. But states get to decide whether to take the deal, and from Virginia to Texas a region encompassing the old Confederacy and Civil War border states Florida's Rick Scott is the only Republican governor to endorse expansion, and he faces opposition from his GOP colleagues in the legislature. Tennessee's Bill Haslam, the Deep South's last governor to take a side, added his name to the opposition on Wednesday.
http://www.wral.com/source-business-labor-get-deal-on-worker-program/12286141/
WASHINGTON Big business and labor have struck a deal on a new low-skilled worker program, removing the biggest hurdle to completion of sweeping immigration legislation allowing 11 million illegal immigrants eventual U.S. citizenship, labor and Senate officials said Saturday.
The agreement was reached in a phone call late Friday night with AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, U.S. Chamber of Commerce head Tom Donohue, and Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, who's been mediating the dispute.
The deal resolves disagreements over wages for the new workers and which industries would be included. Those disputes had led talks to break down a week ago, throwing into doubt whether Schumer and seven other senators crafting a comprehensive bipartisan immigration bill would be able to complete their work as planned.
The deal must still be signed off on by the other senators working with Schumer, including Republicans John McCain of Arizona and Marco Rubio of Florida, but that's expected to happen, according to a person with knowledge of the talks who spoke on condition of anonymity. With the agreement in place, the senators are expected to unveil their legislation the week of April 8. Their measure would secure the border, crack down on employers, improve legal immigration and create a 13-year pathway to citizenship for the millions of illegal immigrants already here.
Several bills seeking to intervene in cities' affairs have been debated and passed at least one chamber during this year's session.
Senate Republicans have pushed through legislation that would end Charlotte's ownership of one of the nation's busiest airports and give it to a regional authority comprised of several counties. They also voted to cancel the state's lease with Raleigh that allows the building of a big-city park on the old Dorothea Dix mental hospital campus. Lawmakers want to renegotiate the terms for less land and more money.
"We're just stunned," Raleigh Mayor Nancy McFarlane said. "The fact that they think they can go back and undo a lease and then hold us hostage for more money sends a frightening message to the business community, to anybody who wants to do business with the state of North Carolina."
The House, meanwhile, has passed bills backed by home builders that restrict what kind of building inspections local governments can require and prevent local new-home design and appearance standards beyond what state law allows.
With moves also being considered to eliminate some of their revenue sources in tax reform and to phase out powers cities and towns use just beyond their boundaries, municipal leaders from both political parties are telling legislators they're frustrated and angry.
http://www.blueridgenow.com/article/20130331/APN/1303310602
http://www.wral.com/the-south-a-near-solid-block-against-obamacare-/12286261/
ATLANTA As more Republicans give in to President Barack Obama's health-care overhaul, an opposition bloc remains across the South, including from governors who lead some of the nation's poorest and unhealthiest states.
"Not in South Carolina," Gov. Nikki Haley declared at the recent Conservative Political Action Conference. "We will not expand Medicaid on President Obama's watch. We will not expand Medicaid ever."
In North Carolina, the Republican-dominated General Assembly and Gov. Pat McCrory backed legislation that blocked the state from expanding Medicaid or participating in the state health insurance exchanges created by Obama's health plan. McCrory signed Senate Bill 4 into law March 6.
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@NCCapitol"Our Medicaid system is broken, and I cannot expand a broken system," McCrory said in February. "It would be unfair to the taxpayers, unfair to the citizens currently receiving Medicaid and unfair to create a new bureaucracy to implement the system."
Widening Medicaid insurance rolls, a joint federal-state program for low-income Americans, is an anchor of the law Obama signed in 2010. But states get to decide whether to take the deal, and from Virginia to Texas a region encompassing the old Confederacy and Civil War border states Florida's Rick Scott is the only Republican governor to endorse expansion, and he faces opposition from his GOP colleagues in the legislature. Tennessee's Bill Haslam, the Deep South's last governor to take a side, added his name to the opposition on Wednesday.
http://www.wral.com/source-business-labor-get-deal-on-worker-program/12286141/
WASHINGTON Big business and labor have struck a deal on a new low-skilled worker program, removing the biggest hurdle to completion of sweeping immigration legislation allowing 11 million illegal immigrants eventual U.S. citizenship, labor and Senate officials said Saturday.
The agreement was reached in a phone call late Friday night with AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, U.S. Chamber of Commerce head Tom Donohue, and Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, who's been mediating the dispute.
The deal resolves disagreements over wages for the new workers and which industries would be included. Those disputes had led talks to break down a week ago, throwing into doubt whether Schumer and seven other senators crafting a comprehensive bipartisan immigration bill would be able to complete their work as planned.
The deal must still be signed off on by the other senators working with Schumer, including Republicans John McCain of Arizona and Marco Rubio of Florida, but that's expected to happen, according to a person with knowledge of the talks who spoke on condition of anonymity. With the agreement in place, the senators are expected to unveil their legislation the week of April 8. Their measure would secure the border, crack down on employers, improve legal immigration and create a 13-year pathway to citizenship for the millions of illegal immigrants already here.
