August 31, 2007
As of 2 p.m. Friday, August 31, 2007, 20 bills remain on the Governor’s desk for action by the midnight Saturday deadline. Any bills not signed or vetoed by then become law Sunday, September 2, 2007. We plan to process Saturday and Sunday the last days of bill signings. Any bills signed Friday evening will be posted on this site around 3 pm on Saturday. Any bills that might become law without the Governor’s signature might not be processed until after the Labor Day holiday, however.
Our “pending on the Governor’s desk link” might still show those 20 bills until Tuesday, but the “laws enacted in 2007″ link will update as soon as the bills are processed here.
The current list of bills pending appears after the jump:
Read the rest of this entry »
Leave a Comment » | 
2007 bill signings | 
Permalink
Posted by gercohen
August 31, 2007
As of 10 a.m. Friday, August 31, 2007, 34 bills remain on the Governor’s desk for action by the midnight Saturday deadline. Any bills not signed or vetoed by then become law Sunday, September 2, 2007. We plan to process today, Saturday, and Sunday the last days of bill signings. Any bills that might become law without the Governor’s signature might not be processed until after the Labor Day holiday, however.
Our “pending on the Governor’s desk link” might still show those 34 bills until Tuesday, but the “laws enacted in 2007″ link will update as soon as the bills are processed here.
The current list of bills pending appears after the jump:
Read the rest of this entry »
Leave a Comment » | 
2007 bill signings | 
Permalink
Posted by gercohen
August 31, 2007
The North Carolina General Assembly has never overriden a gubernatorial veto. Don’t say we didn’t plan ahead, however. G.S. 120-29.1(c), enacted along with the veto constitutional amendment in 1995, states:
“(c) If the Governor returns any bill to the house of origin with his objections, the Governor shall write such objections on the measure or cause the objections to be attached to the measure. When any such bill becomes law after reconsideration of the two houses, the principal clerk of the second house to act shall, below the objections of the Governor, sign the following certificate: “Became law notwithstanding the objections of the Governor, ________.m. this ________ day of ________, ________”. The principal clerk of the second house to act shall fill in the time. The enrolling clerk shall deposit the measure with the Secretary of State.”
Being an efficient bureaucracy, we ordered a rubber stamp for this in 1997, which has lain unused in a drawer for a decade.
Leave a Comment » | 2007 vetoes | Permalink
Posted by gercohen
August 30, 2007
Governor Easley has vetoed House Bill 1761, the Job Maintenance and Capital Development Fund. The bill has been returned to the House of Representatives for further action.
A copy of the veto message is here.
Unlike the United States Constitution, there is no pocket veto, the Governor must call the General Assembly back into session to allow it consider overriding the veto. The Governor must reconvene the 2007 Regular Session to start no later than Tuesday, September 11, unless by that date a majority of members in each house sign a petition declaring the a reconvened session is not necessary to reconsider passage of the bill. At a reconvened session, the only bills that can be considered are those that have been vetoed.
The Constitution requires a vote of three-fifths of the members present and voting to override a veto. The House acts first, the Senate only gets the bill for action if the House votes to override. Article II, Section 22(1) of the North Carolina Constitition provides:
“[A]ll bills shall be read three times in each house and shall be signed by the presiding officer of each house before being presented to the Governor. If the Governor approves, the Governor shall sign it and it shall become a law; but if not, the Governor shall return it with objections, together with a veto message stating the reasons for such objections, to that house in which it shall have originated, which shall enter the objections and veto message at large on its journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If after such reconsideration three-fifths of the members of that house present and voting shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, together with the objections and veto message, to the other house, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered; and if approved by three-fifths of the members of that house present and voting, it shall become a law notwithstanding the objections of the Governor. In all such cases the votes of both houses shall be determined by yeas and nays, and the names of the members voting shall be entered on the journal of each house respectively.”
Information on past vetoes is here, more information on reconvened sessions here.
Read the rest of this entry »
Leave a Comment » | 2007 vetoes | Permalink
Posted by gercohen
August 30, 2007
The North Carolina General Assembly by local act has authorized 74 counties, 76 municipalities, two townships, and two special districts to levy room occupancy taxes. The staff of the Research Division has put together a 55-page compendium of the acts relating to those 154 jurisdictions, covering the name of the entity, date of enactment, the maximum amount of the tax, how the proceeds are allocated, the governing body responsible for the allocations, and a column for special notes. Included for each act is a hyperlink to the actual local acts or acts. The compendium is updated through actions of the 2007 General Assembly.
Due to the formatting style of the linked MsWord document, you have to do CTRL+mouse click to jump from the document to the actual local act.
Also, please see our development impact fee local act compendium post.
1 Comment | 
occupancy tax | 
Permalink
Posted by gercohen
August 30, 2007
I had a couple of calls today asking for a list of past vetoes, which our legislative library has helpfully kept. North Carolina was the last state to give the Governor a veto, the General Assembly approved a constitutional amendment and implementing statute in the 1995 session, voters approved it in 1996, and it became effective in 1997. Delaware had been the most previous state to have no veto, they granted their Governor a veto in the early 1900s.
Under the Dome has helpfully catalogued the past vetoes:
Making legislative appointments, changing mortgage lending laws, changing teacher certification, compensating billboard owners, changing teacher certifications, selling an airport site to Currituck County for a dollar and granting access to state buildings to employees associations.
Leave a Comment » | 2007 vetoes | Permalink
Posted by gercohen
