NC Legislative Session Winding Down

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With NC Senate leadership hoping to end the long session this week, an event unlikely to happen because of a large press of business still outstanding, the Carolinas AGC reports several big bills are still looming. These include:

•Passage of House Bill 476, a major rewrite of NC’s underground safety/damage prevention laws, which currently are among the weakest in the nation. CAGC has been working on this top legislative goal for years and negotiating on this for months.

•House Bill 857, which like H476, currently is in Senate Finance. H857 (Public Contracts/Construction Methods/DB/P3) is another bill CAGC has been working on for months to ensure a level playing field for the construction industry at a time when a number of local design-build bills are introduced each year with few, if any, parameters. CAGC continues work on trying to eliminate a provision in H857 we oppose that would allow designers to be the lead on construction projects.

•Infrastructure Funding: While there’s good news for transportation with legislative enactment of a new highway funding formula sure to help boost jobs, CAGC continues work on infrastructure funding at a time when lawmakers work on a major tax reform package that certainly will include some tax decreases. CAGC is urging a legislative study be made to assess non-transportation construction needs, funding and funding sources.

•Other issues CAGC continues to work on this week include regulatory reform, legislative appointments, whether to allow some counties to be responsible for public school construction in their jurisdictions, immigration, open-shop and pro-employee legislation, taxes and the budget.  Read More.