S553 - Regulatory Reform Act of 2019. (Ratified)

Overview: Senate Bill 553 would amend several State laws as follows:

• Raise the dollar threshold for contracts exempted from the conflict-of-interest prohibition for public employees benefitting from public contracts from $40,000 to $60,000 for goods and services that are not medically related.
• Direct the Building Code Council to amend the Building Code and Plumbing Code for certain regulations concerning drinking fountains and water closets.
• Direct the Building Code Council to amend the Fire Prevention Code to allow certain doorstep garbage and recycling containers.
• Require all occupational licensing boards with continuing education requirements to study and report on any available options for online continuing education.
• Exempt Onslow and Rockingham Counties from the list of counties required to conduct vehicle emissions testing.
• Create a process for counties to permit temporary event venues in certain situations.
• Require NC Pre-K operators to provide parents with information pertaining to public and private school choices in their county or any other county.
• Clarify landfill life-of-site franchise requirements.
• Repurpose pre-regulatory landfill funds.
• Direct the Department of Environmental Quality to study and report on express permitting expansion for certain programs.
• Extend the deadline for Coastal Area Management Act Emergency General Permits authorized in response to Hurricanes Florence and Michael to October 12, 2019, with all work to be completed by October 12, 2020.
• Provide additional criteria for determining priority for grants from the Wastewater Reserve or the Drinking Water Reserve.
• Amend the septic tank site suitability determination process.
• Establish a process to identify and assess distressed public water and wastewater systems and create a Viable Utility Fund within the Department of Environmental Quality to be used to assist distressed systems to become self-sustaining.
• Expand the architectural license exemption for small commercial projects.
• Direct the Department of Revenue to provide information to the Revenue Laws Study Committee concerning the property taxation of outdoor signs.
• Require that electric membership cooperatives and their subsidiaries comply with applicable notice, safety, and permitting requirements when constructing or maintaining broadband lines.
• Authorize cities to require that manufactured homes be installed in accordance with certain standards, but prohibit cities from requiring masonry curtain walls or skirting being installed on manufactured homes on land leased to the homeowner.
• Authorize the Division of Motor Vehicles to issue a limited registration plate to a vehicle owner in certain situations.
• Require that the State Board of Elections certify voting systems only if a performance bond or letter of credit has been posted.
• Allow a dealer to sell, without a safety inspection, a salvage-titled vehicle in certain circumstances.
• Direct the Division of Motor Vehicles to study whether the laws governing salvage vehicles should be revised to protect consumers from unsafe vehicles.
• Allow the sale of alcoholic beverages at certain stadiums.
• Direct the Division of Emergency Management within the Department of Public Safety to study the needs of law enforcement and first responders to improve access to the interstate system.
• Make technical changes to the statutes governing the North Carolina Board of Architecture and the criteria necessary to sit for the architecture licensure exam.
• Add aquaculture to the uses that may be made of flood hazard areas without a permit.
• Clarify that proof of mailing is sufficient proof of notice for certain insurance policy or renewal cancellations by the insurer.
• Allow the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to use funds appropriated to it to provide a non-federal match for any project that has been or will be approved for funding by the USDA Emergency Watershed Protection Act.

This bill was vetoed by the Governor on September 20, 2019, has not been overridden by the General Assembly, and, therefore, has not become law.