The Raleigh Report
From the Office of Cullie Tarleton
January 5, 2009
Before the 2009-2010 legislative session convenes on January 28, 2009, state legislators and other employees at the General Assembly must prepare for the upcoming session in a variety of ways. I thought this week I’d review some of the “housekeeping” duties that have to be handled.
Prior to the convening of session, Democratic and Republican members of the House elect their party leader and nominate their candidates for House Speaker and Speaker Pro Tempore. The House Democratic caucus elected House Majority Leader Hugh Holliman of Davidson County to a second term while the Republican caucus elected Rep. Paul Stam of Wake County to a second term as House Minority Leader. Rep. Thom Tillis of Mecklenburg County will be the Republican Whip. The Democrats have not yet elected their whips. That election will take place shortly after the session opens.
The House Democratic caucus nominated Speaker Joe Hackney of Orange County and Speaker Pro Tempore William Wainwright of Craven County for second terms. The election for the posts will be held on the first day of session.
The Speaker has several of these housekeeping duties in his job description. He must assign each member a parking space, an office and a seat in the House chamber. He must also approve the hiring of legislative assistants and approve how many hours they work. Much of that work will take place early in the session.
The President Pro Tempore of the Senate (Senator Marc Basnight has been re-elected to this position) and the Speaker of the House of Representatives must also appoint members to serve on the standing committees of each body. There will be a dozen or more committees for each body, and every legislator serves on several committees (I currently serve on 8). The work done by committees is very important, as every bill introduced will be studied by at least one committee in the Senate and in the House of Representatives and often several committees will review the same bill. To determine which legislators will serve on what committees, members of the House of Representatives go to the Speaker to make requests while members of the Senate go to the President Pro Tempore. The respective leaders appoint members based on who is the best fit for the work of the committee. I have already had a couple of preliminary meetings with Speaker Hackney on this subject. Basically, I’ve asked to remain on the committees I’m presently serving on. For instance, I want to stay on Agriculture for our farmers, cattle farmers and tree farmers in the district. I want to stay on Commerce and Small Business because most of the businesses we have in the district quality as small businesses plus tourism which is so important to us comes under Commerce. I want to stay on Environmental because clean air and water is so important to those of us who live in the high county. I want to stay on Education and Education Appropriations because of the importance of education. I can make similar claims for the other committees I serve on.
The most significant work of the Legislature every year is to develop a budget for the state. The process begins when the governor’s office submits a proposed budget to the General Assembly. This happens after legislative economists and economists for the governor settle on how much revenue they believe will be available. We’ll probable get the governor’s budget in early February. The two legislative bodies rotate each biennial as to which one prepares the first legislative budget. In the 07 session the House did the first legislative budget. This year (09) it’ll be the Senate’s turn. In all likelihood, we’ll end up with 3 different budgets (Governor, Senate and House) by the end of May. At that point, conferees will be appointed and they will hammer out the final budget. Last time, I served as an Education conferee.
Most members of the General Assembly have a role in the crafting of the budget. Appropriation subcommittees develop spending plans for their areas of interest and then submit those to a main committee that reconciles any differences. The committee also negotiates differences with the other chamber.
While this work takes place, legislators also must begin work on developing and introducing new laws or clarifying existing ones. There are several deadlines for introducing bills depending on the subject matter and type of bill, i.e. appropriation, local, etc. The timetable is developed after the start of session. I’m already at work on several bills that I’ll have ready to introduce the first couple of weeks of session.
The first few weeks of session promise to be exciting as we all settle into our jobs and prepare for the challenges ahead in the next several months.
If your child or grandchild would be interested in serving as a House Page during the 09 session, they need to act quickly as spaces are filling up. House Pages must be between the ages of 15 and 18 (or currently in the 9th grade) and be in good academic standing at their schools. If interested, please shoot me an email or give me a call and I’ll have an application sent to you or your child. Pages spend a week serving when the General Assembly is in session. It’s a wonderful experience.
Thank you for the opportunity to represent your interests in Raleigh. I look forward to working with all of you again. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if I can be of help to you. My home phone is 828-295-3353 and my Raleigh office phone is 919-733-7727. My email is culliet@ncleg.net.
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