Following a week off for the Memorial Day holiday, the General Assembly was back in action this week.

While there’s no clear sign of progress in negotiations between the state House and Senate to resolve the differences in their respective budget versions, both chambers were busy this week handling other legislative proposals in committees and taking floor votes.

The conventional wisdom remains that the budget impasse will lead the legislature to shut down in a few weeks with the promise to return in late summer when hopefully the budget differences can be worked out, and an agreed upon taxation and spending packaged can be passed by both the House and Senate, and sent to Governor Stein for his signature or veto.

Among the items on the IIANC legislative watch list with action this week:

HB 434 was approved by the Senate Health Care Committee, passed in the Senate 42-3 and sent to the House. The original contents of the bill as it was passed by the House were stripped out, and provisions from other Senate bills inserted.

Among provisions included are a requirement hospitals provide info on what they charge patients for medical procedures, that out-of-network medical providers inform insured patients of the costs they’ll be personally responsible for prior to procedures being performed, and that providers cannot send unpaid medical expenses to collection agencies unless they have provided the patient a line-item bill.

HB 737 was also a ‘gut-and-replace’ of a bill passed by the House that was heard in the Senate Commerce and Insurance Committee this week, with a vote on the bill likely to take place next week.

Inserted into the bill were provisions including the removal of the required instructional component (the exam would remain) of the insurance producer pre-licensing process, amendments to the law governing the exchange of business between insurance producers, clarification of the rebating statutes that were updated last Session, and a requirement those subject to the inexperienced operator surcharge maintain continuous liability coverage throughout the duration of that status.

HB 199 was approved in the House Judiciary II Committee and now moves on to House Finance for a hearing.

The legislative seeks to impose stricter rules on non-consensual towing and towed-vehicle storage fees, and would create a statewide public database into which towing companies would be required to submit info on towed vehicles so owners have access to information on where their vehicle is located if it gets towed.

Also This Week

• Former US Senator Elizabeth Dole was honored at the NC General Assembly this week in advance of a section of I-85 near her hometown of Salisbury being named in her honor.
• Governor Josh Stein announced formation of a task force to look at whether greater regulation of THC-intoxicating hemp-derived products is needed, as well as examination of the benefits and perils of legalizing cannabis in North Carolina.
• With the June 1^st start of the 2025 Hurricane Season, Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey is leading efforts to promote disaster preparation awareness among North Carolinians.
• Also out this week was a new study showing coastal flooding occurs more frequently, and takes longer to recede, than previously thought.
• Governor Stein and business leaders expressed concerns this week that the amount of state funding going to repair Helene-damaged roads and bridges in western NC has the potential to diminish resources needed for usual road maintenance and repair, as well as other transportation projects, in other parts of the state.

Further exacerbating the situation is that storms hitting NC during the above-average predicted level of activity for the 2025 Hurricane Season might place a further strain on state transportation resource.

This comes in addition to a proposal contained in the Senate version of the budget for North Carolina cities to lose road repair funding from the state.