Committe Meetings, Conventions, and Constituents

My interim between session continues to be filled with committee meetings, conventions, and meetings with constituents. 

On March 2, I had breakfast with the Nashville Town Council to listen to their concerns about potential legislation that could impact the town. After, Senator Buck Newton and I traveled to Middlesex to meet with Mayor Lu Harvey Lewis and John Gessaman of the Gateway Partnership. Together, we discussed how to attract industrial tenants to the park. Last session, I authored and pushed through legislation enabling Nash County to partner with Century Link to expand broadband services to this area, making the park more attractive to potential business tenants. It’s vital that the state is as attractive as possible to business tenants that could provide economic stimulation and job opportunities. 

Economic Development through our state ports was also on my agenda last week at an Economic Development Oversight Committee meeting. As the waterfront gateway to our state, our state ports need improvement to funnel business activity throughout North Carolina. 

This week I will be attending GOP conventions in Halifax and Washington counties. I never tire of applauding the yeoman work our GOP-led General Assembly did last year to balance the state’s budget and to begin to turn the tide toward making North Carolina a more friendly state in which to conduct business. 

Finishing the Job

This week, I filed for re-election to seek a second term in office. After years of Democratic mismanagement, my colleagues and I have made significant strides in improving our state government.

We reigned in the budget and found a solution to fully fund the state retirement plan. Several bills favoring individuals over government have been passed including new annexation laws that give property owners a right to petition when their land is being annexed and legislation giving tax breaks to businesses.

We've got to continue getting our fiscal house in order. The state owes close to $2.7 billion to the federal government after borrowing the money to pay for unemployment benefits. Our regulatory system needs to be amended to encourage economic development by enticing businesses to relocate to the state and create jobs. We still have a lot of necessary improvement to make and I want to help finish the job I started last term.

Stimulating Economic Growth

On February 2, I attended an Economic Development and Global Engagement Oversight committee meeting where my colleagues and I were briefed on the status of North Carolina’s commerce. Janet Cowell, North Carolina state treasurer, as well as directors of the International Trade Division of the N.C. Department of Commerce, spoke with us about the importance of stimulating international business with our state. Over the last ten years, international investment and job creation in North Carolina brought more than $9 billion in investments and 40,000 jobs to our state. 

While we could certainly stand to gain more international business, we could also stimulate our state economy by overriding Governor Perdue’s veto of Bill 709, the Energy Jobs Act. The bill would allow North Carolina to drill its natural gas deposits, creating thousands of jobs and generating millions in revenue. The bill also sets aside the first $500 million in revenue to an emergency response fund to pay for any damages that could be caused by drilling. In the upcoming short session, we must make it our priority to continue to improve our economy, create jobs, and stimulate growth. 

Education, Taxes, and Vetoes

More Taxes?

On Tuesday, January 17, Governor Perdue announced her proposed budget for next year will include an increase in sales tax for education. Out of all the states in the Southeast, North Carolina encumbers its citizens with the highest combined tax rate. The problem isn’t that N.C. is not taking in enough revenue or that it’s not taking enough of taxpayers money. The problem is the size of the government. I am against any increase in taxes.
  

Education can always be improved and the legislature made significant strides last year in spite of severe budget challenges. We assisted teachers by ensuring that their medical bills are paid and their pensions are funded. Some of the most frequent complaints that I have heard from teachers concern unnecessary testing, specifically tests that only the state of North Carolina required students to take. In response, we abolished those tests allowing teachers time to teach students more relevant and useful material. The limit on charter schools has also been eliminated. Now parents will have more options to provide their children with a strong education.


Fewer Vetoes?
On Thursday, January 26, Governor Perdue announced that she would not be seeking a second term, demonstrating the disarray within the Democratic Party in North Carolina. As Democratic legislators assume party positions that are much farther left from the views of the voters, they isolate themselves from their constituents and the general public. The Governor consistently voted against common sense and the will of the people in vetoing legislation that was supported by the vast majority of North Carolinians. We won't miss her veto stamp. 


As a member of the Republican party, I have strived to align myself with my constituents’ views while maintaining my personal beliefs and my party’s established ideology.

Taxes. Taxes. Taxes.

As the new year begins, individuals and businesses are preparing the necessary information they need to file and pay their taxes.  Citizens and business of North Carolina are paying much more than if they resided in different states. North Carolina has the highest combined tax burden in the Southeast and is one of the ten worst states in the nation for combined tax burdens. With such a high amount of money businesses and individuals must pay every year in taxes, N.C. is less attractive to companies and individuals who plan to relocate. Although the repeal of the extra 1 cent sales tax offers small relief, as legislators, my colleagues and I must continue to slash unnecessary taxes  that burden the citizens of North Carolina and prevent businesses and people from moving here.  

Finding a Solution for High Energy Rates

On Tuesday, January 10, Senator Buck Newton and I met with our fellow members of the Joint Municipal Power Agency Relief Legislative Study Committee to continue gathering information and weighing potential solutions for the high electric rates faced by Rocky Mount residents and other cities in the N.C. Eastern Municipal Power Agency. The N.C. Eastern Municipal Power Agency provides wholesale power to Rocky Mount and other participating communities.

In the 1980s, Rocky Mount and 31 other towns and communities banned together to buy into power plants.  During the process, they accumulated billions of dollars of debt. Now residents of member communities, including Rocky Mount, are struggling to pay off the $2.1 billion debt. On average, a monthly power agency electric bill is 35% more than the average monthly bill of Progress Energy customers. The power agency's rates are higher to help pay off the debt. Citizens cannot continue to pay these exorbitant rates until 2026, the year the debt is scheduled to be paid off.

By hearing from economic development and energy experts and listening to the experiences of town managers from Greenville and Wake Forest who have managed to keep their electric rates competitive, the committee and I are exploring every possible solution to lowering the electric rates plaguing member communities. Whether it's restructuring and refinancing the debt or selling asetts, we are determined to relieve citizens of high energy costs. The committee will be meeting again in the upcoming month and creating a report to summarize our findings and possible solutions.

Overriding Vetoes

On Wednesday, January 4, the governor called a special session, which lasted well after midnight and into the next morning. We successfully vetoed the Dues Check Off Benefit, ending the state government’s ability to deduct NCAE membership dues directly from public school employees’ paychecks. The government should not be involved in collecting membership dues for a private organization, a sentiment that is also shared by nearly half of North Carolina voters according to a May 2011 Civitas Institute Poll.


We also worked hard to override the governor’s veto of the Racial Justice Act but in the end, referred the matter to committee. This law is being abused by death-row inmates and their attorneys. I expect we will bring up the veto override again this spring.


The Joint Legislative Economic Development and Global Engagement Oversight Committee met last week during which we discussed the current economic status of the state and how the state could continue to improve economically. My position is that the state should continue to reduce taxes on businesses and consumers while reducing government red tape. In other words, our state should become more business and job "friendly". 


We will continue to work to improve the business climate to encourage job growth in our state.  


Please feel free to contact me at anytime with your questions or input.

Looking Ahead to 2012

Happy Holidays! I hope you had a great Christmas and are looking forward to a happy, prosperous 2012.

I would like to thank everyone for attending my birthday party before Christmas. Special thanks Dale Folwell, House Speaker Pro-Tem and representative from Forsyth County. We all enjoyed his talk on the much needed Worker’s Compensation reforms he helped enact.

I am looking forward to 2012. Though it will be a short session, there is much to do. One of my top priorities will be to continue to work to decrease the size and cost of the government in North Carolina. At it current state, it is too large and too expensive for our taxpayers to sustain. The Department of Transportation is also a costly issue. With high gasoline prices and consumption rates, raising the gasoline tax will be financially detrimental to citizens. We must find another funding source and lower the gasoline tax in our state. Municipal rates, especially in Nash County, also must be addressed. As the Chairman of the Municipal Power Agency Relief Committee, I plan to continue our work on possible solutions to relieve citizens of exorbitant rates. 

We return to session in May this year. Between now and then, there will be many committee meetings and work sessions on these and other issues. I hope to update you regularly in this space. Feel free to contact me at anytime when you have questions, comments or concerns.


Thank you.

A Budget We Can All Agree On

This week we took a major step forward by working together and completing a bipartisan budget. This is the product of countless hours of hard work and cooperation. The budget will move on to the Governor's office for her to sign it. There are many reasons why this budget is good for North Carolina and why Governor Purdue should support it, but here are just a few.


1.   It keeps her promise to end a nearly $1 billion sales tax hike. Gov. Perdue vowed two years ago to end the “temporary” tax hike. Our budget keeps her word.


2.      It closes a $2.5 billion budget shortfall. The balanced budget fulfills our constitutional mandate to balance the state’s checkbook.

3.      It fuels job growth. Ending the sales tax hike and providing a $50,000 tax exemption for businesses will return billions to the pockets of North Carolina citizens and businesses and help the private sector create thousands of new jobs, according to leading economists.


4.      It fully funds classroom teachers and teaching assistants. The governor’s chief objection to original House and Senate budgets was reduced spending for teaching assistants. This budget restores that funding – without raising taxes.


5.      It reforms public education. Instead of blindly throwing money at education and accepting graduation rates ranked No. 43 in the nation, our budget makes several improvements to public schools:

a.       It adds more than 1,100 additional teachers to grades 1 through 3 to begin reducing class sizes.

b.      It implements a performance pay program for teachers and state employees.

c.       It ensures students can read at grade level by fourth grade.

d.      It adds five days to the school calendar.

6.      The governor’s budget saddles counties with many expenses that ours does not. For example, our budget:

a.       Funds $56 million in school bus replacement.

b.      Provides more than $50 million additional dollars for school construction.

c.       Fully funds enrollment growth for K-12 and community colleges for the next two years and for universities in the first year of the biennium.

d.      Does not make millions in workers’ compensation and lawsuit costs local responsibilities.

    

      7.      It right-sizes state government. The governor says she’s serious about reshaping state government to make it smaller and more efficient. Our budget cuts more than $1 billion from last year’s spending level by consolidating and cutting waste and bureaucracy.

      8.      It extends unemployment benefits. More than 37,000 North Carolinians will retroactively receive unemployment benefits if our budget becomes law.

      9.      It adds millions to reserve accounts. The state’s Rainy Day and Repair and Renovation accounts are funded by millions more than the governor’s plan – clearly displaying the state’s fiscal prudence.

     10.  It’s a compromise. The legislature is meeting the governor more than halfway.  She should compromise.  North Carolinians deserve elected officials willing to reach across the aisle to get the job done. 

Annexation Reform for NC

For years, involuntary annexation has been a lightning rod in the halls of the General Assembly. Voices on both sides of the issue have fought for years with no substantive legislation on the issue. When Republicans won control of the North Carolina House, we committed ourselves to enacting meaningful annexation reform for the first time in recent memory. Over the past several weeks, House leaders have met with cities, towns, property owners, and various individuals with interests on both sides of the annexation issue. All stakeholders had a voice in the process that yielded HB 845, sponsored by Rep. Stephen LaRoque, undoubtedly the most comprehensive annexation reform legislation in recent history.

The bill was necessary to curb what has become, in some instances, a practice of aggressive forced annexation against the will of affected property owners. House Bill 845 stipulates, among other proposals, that municipalities will be required to cease any annexation attempt for 3 years if 60% of the affected property owners oppose the annexation. The bill represents a historic compromise on an issue that has been defined by controversy for over a decade. It passed overwhelmingly on the House floor, garnering 107 votes on the third reading. Such a bipartisan vote is a monumental victory, and I salute Rep. LaRoque and the House members who supported this important compromise legislation.

A Budget North Carolina Can Be Proud Of

The North Carolina House took the bold action of passing a budget that is fiscally responsible and economically sustainable. The House budget contains one of the largest tax cuts in North Carolina history, providing over a billion dollars in tax relief to the private sector. It reduces state spending in a common-sense way, and responsibly shrinks the scope of government. 

Many people have contacted me expressing concerns about how this budget will affect the teachers of North Carolina. As a former teacher myself, I recognize the vital role our teachers play in shaping the brilliant minds of the future, and they deserve our support at every level. Our budget fully funds every K-12 teaching position in the state.

Now, it's on to the Senate and then the Governor.

Rep. Jeff Collins

NC House District 25