State lawmakers filed adjournment resolutions and left Raleigh after passing and sending a $21 billion budget to Gov. Pat McCrory for approval Aug. 2.
The 2014-15 state spending plan is the product of weeks of negotiations on issues like teacher raises, film incentives and Medicaid reform. While the budget delivered on a promise to boost teacher salaries, other legislative priorities were left in limbo.
Both chambers agreed to reconvene in August and November. First, legislators must reconcile disparate adjournment resolutions.
The Senate resolution limits discussion for a session reconvening Aug. 14 to overriding vetoes and appointments to public offic.
Under the Senate resolution, coal ash cleanup and Medicaid reform could be addressed during a post-election Nov. 17 return to Raleigh.
The House, on the other hand, wants to talk about regulatory reform changes and economic incentives, including last-minute attempts on the House floor to include film incentives and historic preservation tax credits, during the August meeting.
A $10 million grant program to replace the 25 percent film incentive was included in the budget. Johnny Griffin, Wilmington Regional Film Commission director, said the state would see the industry shrivel under the program. He said $10 million can sustain about $40 million of production compared to the $265 million already underway in the state this year.
Griffin said until the legislature formally adjourns, he is hopeful that an amendment by Rep. Ted Davis Jr., R-New Hanover, will permit a pared-down incentive.
“As long as they are still there, we’re still in the fight,” he said during an Aug. 4 phone interview.
In the meantime, business is already suffering in Wilmington. Griffin said he used to receive between 15 and 18 production inquires per month, but inquires have dwindled to five per month.
George Edwards, Historic Wilmington Foundation executive director, said the lack of preservation credits in the compromise budget, revealed July 30, was a surprise. Unlike the film incentives, preservation credits were not a high-profile issue during budget negotiations, and both the House and McCrory included the credits in original budget proposals.
“We thought that we were going to see the tax credits survive, although they would have survived at a different level,” Edwards said during an Aug. 4 phone interview.
The state credits sunset Dec. 31, 2014, leaving only federal credits available for rehabilitation of income-producing, or commercial property.
Legislative leaders offered to consider a grant program to replace the credits during the 2015 session. Edwards said the preservation community embraces a replacement program.
“It’s a setback and we’ll deal with it. We’ll lobby and educate between now and whenever the legislature comes back, and maybe some kind of grant program can be created that works effectively,” Edwards said.
Although a coal ash management bill was the first bill to be filed during the 2014 short session, lawmakers were unable to agree on bills outlining steps to clean up more than 30 coal ash ponds at 14 Duke Energy sites across North Carolina.
McCrory issued Executive Order 62 Aug. 1, tasking the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to begin groundwater assessments of all coal ash ponds at Duke facilities and take initial steps to dewater ponds at four high-priority sites, including Wilmington’s Sutton plant.
The executive order also calls for resources to cover increased workload for DENR staff. No resources were allocated in the state budget for coal ash regulators.
While ponds at four sites will be on track for cleanup without a state mandate, coal ash wastewater in ponds at 10 other facilities could be left behind. The wastewater is laced with heavy metals like arsenic, selenium and chromium that can permeate through earthen walls of the ponds.
Senate Bill 729, considered but not passed during the short session, called for cleanup of all 33 ponds in the state by 2029, a timeline Duke officials deemed aggressive and even unattainable at some sites.
Duke officials estimated it could cost $10 billion to dewater all the state’s ponds.
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