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As the General Assembly convened its annual session, state Rep. Chuck McGrady predicted that lawmakers will fund a raise for teachers and state employees, pass legislation that orders coal ash ponds to be closed and tweak two laws that are currently under challenge in the courts — teacher tenure and school vouchers.
But he warned that higher-than-projected Medicaid costs and a revenue shortfall caused by tax cuts the General Assembly enacted last year have created a hole that could jeopardize the pay raises for teachers and other state employees.
"While there is broad support for a teacher pay raise, the bigger question is how significant is the $445 million revenue shortfall and will that shortfall mean there wouldn't be teacher pay raises," McGrady said in an update he issued on the opening day of the General Assembly's 2014 short session.
The second-term Hendersonville legislator said later that it appeared Gov. Pat McCrory had found a way to fund his proposed pay plan for teachers and state employees.
The Legislature does most of the heavy lifting on taxes and spending in odd numbered years when it adopts a two-year budget. The election-year short session is theoretically limited to holdover bills eligible for consideration and tweaks of the budget. But that doesn't mean other priorities can't come up — chief among them coal ash legislation. The issue came to the fore when a coal ash dam breach caused a spill into the Dan River, in the district of the Senate's leader.
The coal ash fix has a major local connection. Sen. Tom Apodaca is the lead sponsor of the bill in the Senate and McGrady is a leader in the legislation in the House.
On Wednesday, Apodaca and Senate leader Phil Berger introduced a bill that incorporates the coal ash cleanup proposal of Gov. Pat McCrory. But that is likely to be just starting place in a process with huge cleanup costs and many questions about who pays, timing and cleanup technologies.
"It seems clear that there will be legislation to address the coal ash issue," said McGrady, a former president of the National Sierra Club and longtime supporter of land conservation. "That legislation will likely require the closing of active coal ash ponds, the dewatering of coal ash ponds, and the closure of all coal ash ponds and pits over the next decade. Less likely is a decision on who will pay for all of the coal ash-related costs."
Here is McGrady's assessment of other top-shelf issues on the Legislature's docket: