Constituent Update: NC Jones & Onslow Counties - 6th District

Senator Harry Brown CONSTITUENT UPDATE Jones and Onslow Counties- 6th District 521 Legislative Office Building 300 N. Salisbury Street Raleigh, NC 27601 Phone (919)-715-3034 Fax (919)-715-7586 E-mail harry.brown@ncleg.net

June 24, 2010 The legislative process this week has been quite a show. A perfect example of how the Democratic leadership bends the rules to make legislation pass was in evidence this week. The Pages got a first-hand look at how democracy should not work. On Tuesday morning we received an e-mail that had been sent the previous evening at around 11:30 PM stating that a Proposed Committee Substitute (PCS) had been drafted for an “ethics reform” bill. The bill was on the agenda for the Judiciary I committee at 10 AM on Tuesday. The bill, cleverly named “Government Ethics and Campaign Reform Act of 2010”, included a provision that allowed for voter-owned elections for the candidates running for Council of State offices of Secretary of State and Treasurer, for offices of Commissioner of Agriculture and Commissioner of Labor (in elections to be held in 2012 and thereafter) and to candidates running for the Council of State office of Attorney General in elections to be held in 2016 and thereafter. The bill received a favorable report from the Judiciary I committee Tuesday after over an hour of discussion and was then rushed through the Finance committee so the bill could be placed on the Senate calendar. The Finance chairs did not allow debate on the bill and called the meeting to adjournment before a fair vote could be called. News Flash Today, the Democratic leadership took the provision that allowed for voter-owned elections out of the bill. Thank you for all of your calls and e-mails letting the members of the Senate know that you don’t want to pay for these elections- you helped get this bill back to an ethics reform bill. The ethics part of the bill still needs some work and will probably be on the floor for a vote next week. Another hot topic of debate at the beginning of the week was House Bill 80, Ban Electronic Sweepstakes. The bill would ban the use of electronic machines and devices for sweepstakes purposes. The leadership made the vote on this bill difficult. Basically, we had to choose to either ban internet sweepstakes altogether or to allow them to continue to operate without any regulations. This left little choice on how to vote on the bill. The bill passed the Senate 47-1 on Monday night. During this year’s May primary, six candidates who are known felons ran for election as sheriff. Wednesday, we passed a bill that will no longer allow this to happen. House Bill 1307, No Felon as Sheriff, will be sent to the Governor to be signed into law. The bill will amend our state constitution to provide that no person convicted of a felony is eligible to be elected sheriff. This bill has been introduced in several sessions, and I’m glad it’s finally going to become law. House Bill 901, Honors Courses in Healthful Living Classes, passed the Senate today. The bill would require the State Board of Education to develop or identify academically rigorous honors-level healthful living education courses to be offered in high school. The healthful living honors courses would focus on assisting students in future careers in areas such as sports medicine, physical therapy, nutrition, and epidemiology. This is a good example of a high-level Career Tech program that I have been pushing for so long. On Thursday, in a rare joint session with the House, we honored Coach Mike Krzyzewski and the Duke Blue Devils for winning the 2010 NCAA Division I Basketball Championship. Coach Krzyzewski gave an inspiring speech on leadership and teamwork. I’d like to thank the White Oak River riverkeeper, Tess Sanders, and her board for visiting my office on Wednesday for Clean Water Day at the legislature. I would also like to thank Ron McElheney and the Jones/ Onslow Electric Cooperative Board for visiting on Tuesday. As always, if there are any topics or issues that you would like to discuss please do not hesitate to contact me. Have a great weekend!