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Top Stories
House
remains knotted over redistricting
as longest session drags into 10th month
Stymied
by the same factions that delayed adoption of a state budget,
the House continued struggling with redistricting after
laboring over the issue for more than a month. The major hold-up in the House over redistricting is
objections raised by five African-American Democrats who are
complaining that new maps proposed by the leadership dilute
black voting strength. The legislature’s delay in
approving new districts is causing increasing concern that new
maps won’t be in place and approved by the U.S. Justice
Department by next January, when the filing period opens for
legislative and congressional races. Read
that story.
 Myers,
several other NCCBI figures,
named to Economic Development Board
Gordon
Myers of Asheville (left), the Ingles Markets executive
and chairman of the AdvantageWest regional economic
development organization who is this year’s NCCBI chairman,
has been appointed by Gov. Mike Easley to head a revamped
North Carolina Economic Development Board. Several other NCCBI
members are among the individuals appointed by the governor
to the board, which was given a new, broader mandate by the
governor, including a charge to establish an aggressive,
future-oriented economic development plan for the state by
next spring. Read that
story.
Legislative
Actions
Bill
Lee Act rewrite sent back to first reading
After
another round of lengthy debate on the William S. Lee Act, the
House approved an amendment to delay reduced rates for most
industries that use large amounts of electricity in their
manufacturing processes. The amendment was considered
“material” and takes the bill back to first reading. The
latest debate centered primarily on the section of the bill
that provides lower sales tax rates for certain sales of
electricity. The amendment would delay the effective date for
the reduced rates until July 1, 2005, for most of the
state’s industrial users of electricity. Only companies that
use more than 1.2 million megawatts of electricity annually
would see lower rates beginning July 1, 2002. Read
that and other stories from the General Assembly.
 Public
Policy
North
Carolina falls
to 29th in tax burden
Despite
the assertions of some that North Carolina has become a
high-tax state, citizens here pay a smaller portion of their
incomes on state and local taxes now than they did a few years
ago, according to the N.C. Budget and Tax Center, a Raleigh
think tank. According to its analysis of Census Bureau data covering state
and local government finances for 1998 and 1999, the center
said North Carolina fell from 28th to 29th in the nation in
per-capita state and local tax burden and from 33rd to 35th in
tax burden as a share of income. Story,
chart.
Other key developments:
North Carolina retains
its Triple A credit rating but another crisis emerges
Appeals Court overturns
NCCBI-backed medical malpractice reform measure
NCCBI
News
Banks
pitch in to help
membership drive
Three
of North Carolina’s largest banks have volunteered to help
NCCBI with its annual membership campaign, pledging to deliver
165 new members over the next few months. Wachovia, Bank of
America and BB&T are volunteering the work of several of
their executives to assist in the membership drive. Read
that and other membership stories.
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