Stay up to speed on all the juicy bits the NC Legislature is cooking up, and find out what we can do about it!

INCOMING: Guns and more guns,

(now with extra guns).

PLUS: We could have affordable housing protections-- as a treat.

Welcome to the first installment of New North Carolina Project's weekly digest (get it?) of legislative news in NC. Do you want to spend hours reading bills? Of course not! But do you want to know what's happening and how you can take action on the issues you care about the most? Of course, you do!

That's why I'll send a weekly roundup of legislative alerts, actions, and impact summaries. You'll be a virtual policy guru in the time it takes to have a cup of coffee. 

Let's get into it. 

In this week's news, we're seeing questionable parties working to move guns into schools, churches-- and, in all likelihood, the hands of domestic abusers. On the bright side, we have a shot at saving lives and helping homeownership hopefuls. Read on, and have a productive, inspiring week!

Stay powerful, 

Kristen Havlik

Policy Director

The overwhelming majority of gun owners and non-gun owners agree that things with bullets shouldn't be accessible to curious kids. With guns now killing more children each year than cancer,  we need to throw our backs into this. The Firearm Safe Storage Awareness Initiative (HB72/SB67) will provide funds to DHHS to provide training on properly securing guns in safes.

A VOTE IS HAPPENING TODAY.

We've made it EASY to push decision-makers to carry this across the finish line.

It only takes a few seconds to let your rep know you mean business. 

• THUMBS DOWN: HB49 - The old "good guy with a gun" talking points have been exhaustively debunked, yet "certain parties" are using their action movie fever dreams to justify a bill inviting concealed weapons into schools and churches. 
• THUMBS DOWN: HB50/SB40 - Do we really want everybody under the sun buying pistols? No? Too bad. This removes all background check requirements and makes it easy for bad guys, including convicted domestic abusers, to load up. 

HB50/SB40 and HB49: Likely to happen soon. Call your reps and stay tuned for mass mobilization.

A bill that will force sheriffs to hand detainees over to ICE for deportations- without trials- is moving forward to committee in the NC House. If passed, resulting deportations will constitute death sentences for those jettisoned back to countries overrun by poverty, war, and state violence. The bill further demands that local law enforcement turn in not only immigrants, but anyone whose immigration status "is unknown." Did you catch that dog whistle? We sure did.

Let's call HB10 what it is: a vile, unconstitutional political prop designed to enshrine racial profiling as law. 

The bill is so bad that sheriffs throughout NC are protesting, and Gov. Cooper has called it "unconstitutional." We think they're on the right side of history with that stance, don't you? Let's beat this one back into oblivion.

A hearing is scheduled for this Wednesday, February 22 at 10am in the Judiciary 2 committee. HB10 could move quickly through committee and come up for a vote in the House in the blink of an eye. Let's make sure they don't try to slide this one in when no one's looking. 

Tell representatives on this committee, "No one is illegal! HARD NO ON HB10"

Contact the legislators on the House Judiciary 2 Committee HERE.

This bill has all the racist authoritarian underpinnings you think it does. Never mind that aggressive school discipline measures have been abject failures in improving school safety. Never mind that they have consistently been used as pretexts for brutality. Never mind that the brutality disproportionately targets Black and Brown students who are already more likely to have undiagnosed learning challenges and trauma. If passed, your kids would be searched for "breaking school rules" or the mere suspicions of a "credible" accuser. While body cavity searches are barred, doesn't it say *everything* that they had to draw a line there? We have serious questions about the safety and civil rights implications of this, and we don't intend to stay quiet about it. 

GET LOUD. This measure undermines everything we thought we knew about safety and respect in schools. It destroys our children's expectations of privacy and due process. Let your representatives know that you're outraged, and let friends and parents know that their children are deeply compromised by this bill. 

Teachers' salaries in NC start at $37k, which clocks in below the national average. Proposed changes haven't yet been introduced by the legislature, but a state commission wants to switch to performance-based pay. On the upside, salaries bases would jump to $56-$71k. Unintended consequences: Performance based pay has been troublesome for communities of color in other states. Education inequality compromises student "performance" and by extension, puts educators in a lower income segment. Equity-committed educators take a pay cut for doing the right thing, and many of the best teachers are deterred from working where they're needed most. 

Let's keep watching this one and see if an equity-smart version hits the floor.  

Renters and first-time homebuyers have been knee-capped by skyrocketing costs and dwindling housing inventory. The culprits? Investors with deep pockets have been snatching up homes, edging out families with cash offers and driving inflation through the roof. The short-term rental craze fueled an investor gold rush, and it's a linchpin in the housing crisis. Lawmakers on the side of the angels are eying limits to mass purchases for non-residential use. This could be a game-changer that restores the American Dream for thousands of North Carolinians. 

Legislation was already intro'd by Dems on Valentine's Day- then referenced to committee, withdrawn, re-referenced. While it's in the wind for the moment, this is a big one to watch. If and when it resurfaces, we'll need all hands on deck to make it happen.

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