Click HERE to see information the Department of Insurance has put on their website relative to changes to UM/UIM, SDIP and increase of mandatory minimum limits to 50/100/50 that take effect July 1st.
While the most significant state legislative news of the week was that the budget impasse between the House and Senate had prompted the General Assembly to adjourn, the highlight of the week was the firestorm prompted by the state Senate’s attempt last week to prohibit commercial fishermen from trawling for shrimp within the sounds on the NC coast.
Tuesday, the legislature was swarming with commercial fisherman, and as vehicles honking horns and bearing pro-trawling signs circled the Legislative Building they sought out every legislator they could find to tell them the impact on their industry from the proposed ban.
Wednesday, the House announced it would not take up the legislation, giving the commercial fisherman the victory they sought.
The General Assembly did wrap up business on Thursday, having passed a handful of conference reports (the compromise version of bills the House and Senate had differed on), but with no budget (or even a modest ‘mini-budget’ on essential state government spending needs), no attempted override of the three bills Governor Stein recently vetoed, and not even an agreed-upon adjournment resolution to determine when the legislature will return to work.
The Senate did adopt an adjournment resolution with planned three-day sessions once a month, reconvening on July 29th, and then again on August 26th, September 23rd, October 10th, October 28th and then finally on November 5th.
But the House did not vote to adopt that proposal, and House Speaker Destin Hall announced he would confer with Democratic Minority Leader Robert Reives to work out a plan how the House will proceed going forward.
So technically, the General Assembly is still in session for the time being (and state government continues to operate using the current state budget), with both chambers holding ‘skeleton sessions’ where at least one member is present but no business is conducted and no votes are taken, to abide by the state constitutional requirement the legislature convene at least once every three days when in session.
Some of the things that DID get done
The House concurred on the Senate versions of HB 737 that contains a number of insurance-related provisions, including IIANC legislative agenda items of requiring continuous liability coverage be maintain by those subject to the inexperienced operator surcharge, clarifying landlords must allow tenants to use the agent of their choice when obtaining coverage required under a lease, and elimination of the mandatory pre-licensing classroom instruction that was an initiative of NAIFA.
Passing both chambers was a conference report for S479 that brought together elements from both the House and Senate versions of bills establishing some new regulations on the pharmacy benefit management (PBM) business.
Sponsors of the legislation Representative Heather Rhyne and Senator Benton Sawrey in their remarks during the vote on the conference report in their respective chambers thanked the various stakeholders (that included NABIP-NC, who IIANC lobbyist Joe Stewart represents through a collaborative agreement) for their work on the compromise legislative package.
And, HB 1012 was approved by both the House and Senate to provide additional Hurricane Helene recovery funds, adding over $500M more to the $1.6B already allocated.
Raleigh Report will take a break after this week given the suspension of legislative activity, but once the House and Senate agree to a schedule for meeting again we’ll restart publication to keep you informed and updated on what’s going on at the NC General Assembly.
Also this week …
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