Press Release
January 3, 2005

Here Comes the 2005 General Assembly!
Rep. Debbie Clary

The General Assembly session will begin with members taking their oath of office on January 26th. One new member, Rep. Bill Current will begin his first term while I, Rep. Debbie Clary and Rep. John Rayfield will return for their sixth term of office serving Gaston County .

One of the first pieces of legislation that will be filed is the ban on gay marriage bill. All three members of the Gaston House Delegation are co-sponsoring the legislation, being filed by Cleveland County 's, Representative Tim Moore. Senator Jim Forrester will file the bill in the State Senate. Forrester was the primary Senate sponsor of the bill in 2004.

In local legislation, the local delegation will continue to work with county officials on infrastructure needs and grants to help with money to expand water and sewer in the county. This has to be one of the top priorities for 2005. The accessibility of water and sewer makes the county more attractive to new industry and recruiting jobs to the area.

Of course, writing a balanced budget for 2005-2006 will not be an easy job. The state has continued to spend money that has come from one time resources. This will be a difficult year in that the one time resources have dried up, along with the sunset of two temporary taxes. According to fiscal analyst, the state is looking at approximately a 600 million to one billion dollar deficit for 05-06.

The State House is a conservative, not Republican, but conservative body when compared to the State Senate make-up. In other words, it will be up to Republicans and Conservative Democrats in the State House to stave off tax increases and to demand that State spending is within the revenue means of the existing budget.

There are some legislators discussing options in addition to new taxes that will create additional state revenue. Of course, the always present lottery discussions as well as escalating gaming options at the Cherokee Indian Reservation are two of such considerations. The Republican members of the Gaston/Cleveland Delegation have never sponsored this type of legislation in past years.

Personally, I feel there are better options in spending reductions that will balance the state's bloated budget. The state payroll is one clear example. The Departments are over funding on state payroll to the tune of 3-6 percent, depending on the size of their employment. The overages are always used by the Departments as a 'slush' fund with little to no accountability to the taxpayers or legislators. This measure could save upwards of 300 million dollars without putting state payroll in jeopardy.

There are a myriad of other suggested areas to reduce government spending. One of the most popular is taking a better look at the way non-profit organizations in the state are funded. Almost a billion of NC tax dollars are allocated to not for profit agencies to deliver services in the state. In 2004, more of those agencies fell under the mandated audit process. As suspected, audits are proving that a closer scrutiny of the tax dollars being appropriated to these organizations is warranted.

The session will be in full swing by the first of March, with a budget that must be ready by July 1 st . The last long session, in 2003 ended mid July with a budget sliding in under the wire on June 30 th . We can only hope for such good fortune in 2005!

You can always find out more about what is happening in the North Carolina General Assembly by visiting www.ncleg.net .

Rep. Debbie Clary
District 110
Gaston & Cleveland Counties