This past Friday, the NC General Assembly adjourned for several months.  According to the adjournment resolution, the plan is for the legislators to return to Raleigh on November 27. Unlike many previous adjournment resolutions (see S.L. 2017-12 for example), this one does not place any limitations on the types of issues and bills that may be considered when they return. It appears that the door will be wide open for consideration of any and all matters of legislative interest at that time.

Note that the November session will not be considered a special or extra session.  Rather, it will be a continuation of the current regular session (the one we have historically referred to as the “short session” of the biennium).  See this post from last year discussing the different types of legislative sessions. Even though the short session is not technically over, we thought it would still be helpful to offer our annual Local Government Legislative Review Webinar this summer. Read on for more webinar details. 

The live program will be on Friday, July 20 from 1-3 p.m. and the recorded version will be available shortly thereafter. My colleagues will be discussing a wide range of topics, including:

• Elections and redistricting
• School finance
• Local government finance
• System development fees
• Emergency management
• Purchasing and contracting
• Public health

Registration information is available here. The draft, timed agenda is posted under the “Materials” tab on the course page. Times and topics may shift a bit but this is the general plan and we will do our best to stick to it. Group viewing is welcome and encouraged but please note that participants who would like CLE credit will need to register individually.  If you have any questions, please contact me (wall@sog.unc.edu) or the program manager, Gail Wilkins (wilkins@sog.unc.edu).

Also, just a reminder that you have two centralized SOG sources for legislative summaries:

• Legislative Reporting Service (LRS): Throughout the session, the SOG’s Legislative Reporting Service team (led by Christine Wunsche) digests every bill, amendment, committee substitute, and conference report. Each digest associated with a bill is kept together in our online system and can be read in sequence to see how a particular piece of legislation has evolved over time. There are lots of cool features on the LRS website, but the one I find particularly helpful this time of year is the collection of digests for every bill that actually became law.  For subscribers, just click on the link on the left hand side that says “Session Laws.” If you aren’t a subscriber, please subscribe!  It’s free for state and local government officials!!
• Legislative Summaries page: Every year, Christine Wunsche collects blogs and legislative summaries from SOG faculty and staff on this centralized website. These summaries typically provide more context and synthesis than the digests available through LRS. Faculty members often refer to these posts, handouts or bulletins during the update webinar or other programs.

You can find links to all 128 of the 2018 Session Laws on the legislature’s website here. One bill is still awaiting action by the Governor (H 335; Restore Last Saturday Early One-Stop). The Governor has a few weeks before he is required to take action (or not) on this particular bill. For more details on the Governor’s options, see this post.