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Legislative News Letter

March 22, 2017



I realize I am a bit overdue for a newsletter. We have been very busy, although it seems relatively few votes have been taken so far, as we have been trying to beat the deadlines for submitting bill requests and filing bills.



The House did pass one of my bills already this year. It was a follow-up to Sheyenne’s Law, which became effective Dec. 1, 2016. HB 65, Require Active Time Felony Death MV/Boat, passed the House on March 6 by a vote of 84-32. This bill requires that if you kill someone by driving or boating while impaired, and the judge gives you alternative punishment, you must serve a minimum of at least one fourth of the maximum sentence in jail, up to 27 months. I was very pleased to get this passed in the House, and look forward to Sen. Paul Newton carrying it for me in the Senate.



Other bills I have filed include the following:



HB 62, Woman’s Right to Know Addition-Ashley’s Law: This would require that before an abortionist gives a mother the first pill in an RU486 abortion procedure, the mother must be informed that the process can be reversed, and must be given information about where and how to get help with that. It would also require that before the mother receives the second pill, she must be given proof that the baby is dead. I introduced this bill at the request of the doctor who devised the method for reversing the RU486 abortion process. Over 200 babies have been saved by this reversal process over the past ten years. I believe that if a mother changes her mind after taking the first pill, she deserves the chance to save her baby, and thus has a right to the information about how it can be done.



HB 69, Constitutional Carry Act: This bill would make the concealed carry permit optional in North Carolina, but keep the concealed carry permit system in place for those who wish to use it.



HB 309, Responsible Deer Management: This would create a wanton waste standard concerning deer and would require landowners and farmers who shoot deer because of crop depredation to adhere to that standard. It addresses a problem that has been brought to my attention concerning farmers or their employees going out at night and gut shooting large numbers of deer so that they will run off the property and die elsewhere and shooting does with little fawns, which leaves the fawns to starve to death if they are not also shot.



HB 329, Homeschool Education Tax Credit: This would provide homeschool families with a non-refundable tax credit of $1,250.00 per semester, or $2,500.00 per school year.



HB 407, Cabarrus County Commissioners Redistricting: This would provide for a referendum in 2018 for the citizens of Cabarrus County to decide whether to add two members to the County Commission, bringing the number to seven, and creating six districts and one at large seat on the County Commission. This would give people in each of the districts the chance to elect a commissioner for their district and one at large, so that the outlying areas of the County could have more direct and more accountable representation on the County Commission.



HB 408, Cabarrus County Commissioners Vacancies: This would restore the previous status of Cabarrus County as one of the many counties in the State where vacancies on the County Commission are filled by the Executive Committee of the County Party to which a Commissioner who leaves the Commission belongs.



HB 417, Actually Get Rid of Common Core: This would do what it says, actually get rid of Common Core. The Academic Standards Review Commission (ASRC), which was created by a bill whose title said the ASRC was being created to REPEAL AND REPLACE COMMON CORE, was actually stacked against fulfilling that purpose. Common Core was not repealed and replaced. It was merely renamed and slightly tweaked. This bill would correct that by requiring that the proposed math standards offered by the Math Work Group of the ASRC actually be adopted, and that the English Language Arts standards offered by Dr. Sandra Stotsky to the State, free of charge, be adopted. I have had numerous citizens, including many teachers, thank me for my efforts to get rid of Common Core and encourage me to continue fighting to do so. One principal even came to me out at the polls during last year’s election and told me that she and all the teachers in her school hate Common Core. I am the one who started the fight to set our children and families free from Common Core, and I intend to keep fighting it until it is gone or I retire from the Legislature, whichever comes first.



Other bills I am about to file include the following:



Children Affected by Parental Drug Abuse Act: This would address the problem of parents’ drug abuse causing damage to their children.



Justice For Rural Citizens Act: This would eliminate extraterritorial jurisdiction, thus prohibiting municipalities from exercising planning and zoning jurisdiction outside their corporate boundaries.



I have also cosponsored numerous bills, which I will not attempt to catalogue here. You can look on the NCGA website under my name and see all the bills I have introduced or cosponsored.



Please keep me in your prayers.



God bless,

Rep. Larry G. Pittman

Here is a relevant screengrab: Now the context. First came this post, from Representative Larry Pittman, R-Carrabus, to his constituents Then, a longish comment thread.And then this:In case you can’t read that, a commenter is calling Pittman evil from wanting to reinstate a ban on gay marriage, Pittman is saying it wouldn’t be a reinstatement, but rather “it would be upholding the law of this State in spite of the opinion of a federal court that had no business interfering,” which led to a discussion of states’ rights, which led Dave Flomberg to write: “The Civil War is over. The Fed won. Get over it.”And Pittman to respond, quote:We have reached out to Pittman’s office seeking comment but have not yet heard back.