July 3, 2019

NC Legislative Update: July 2019

David Ferrell, Michelle Frazier, George Smith, III

Maynard Nexsen

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Nexsen Pruet, PLLC

As planned in their rules, the House took this week off for the Fourth of July holiday. The Senate was only in town for two days, and held committee and floor votes both days. Both chambers are scheduled to return to Raleigh next week, where leadership will have to choose to attempt an override of Governor Cooper’s veto of the budget, or begin negotiations on a compromise.

The House will be the first chamber to vote on the override, since the budget started with them. Unlike the Senate, the House did not pass the budget with a veto proof vote, and they are not expected to be able to flip enough Democrats for the required three-fifths majority needed.

While July 1st marks the beginning of the new fiscal year, North Carolina will continue to operate due to a law passed several years ago. Section 6.3.(a) of the 2016 budget specifies that if a new budget is not enacted at the end of the fiscal year, then the prior year’s budget continues at the same recurring funding, however, non-recurring cuts do take place. This will allow legislators and the governor time to work on a deal without a shutdown, but pressure is expected to mount as non-recurring items, like disaster relief, will not receive additional funds until a new budget is adopted.

Before leaving town, the Senate took action to move many bills through committee, however, they removed a large number of those bills from the floor for votes and placed them on next week’s calendar.

2019 Session Laws

The following 67 bills have become law this session:

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DISCLAIMER: Because of the generality of this update, the information provided herein may not be applicable in all situations and should not be acted upon without specific legal advice based on particular situations.