Several bills are on Gov. Josh Stein’s desk after passing both houses of the General Assembly.
The one that’s getting the most attention: A crime bill in response to the killing of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska.
It passed along party lines in the Senate, in large part due to a late amendment from Senate GOP leader Phil Berger that called for death penalty execution methods other than drugs, such as firing squads.
The following day, the House approved the bill with a strong bipartisan vote, with more than a third of Democrats backing the measure. Stein said he’ll act on the bill next week.
Regardless of what he does, it’s almost certainly going to become law. If Stein vetoed it, he couldn’t afford a single Democrat siding with Republicans to override him, and 17 Democrats supported the bill.
Lawmakers also nearly unanimously sent Stein a spending bill that provides $65.5 million for disaster relief and recovery in response to Tropical Storm Chantal and $1.5 million so that Raleigh-Durham International Airport can help oversee direct flights from Raleigh to Dublin starting in April.
A regulatory reform bill now on Stein’s desk includes a provision wading into a dispute between the city of Greenville and Camping World CEO Marcus Lemonis over a giant American flag.
A couple of measures that passed don’t require Stein’s approval. One notable political appointment: Joe Knott, the father of U.S. Rep. Brad Knott, was tapped to the State Property Tax Commission through June 2027. He fills the vacancy left by Ellis Boyle, who was appointed by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi last month to serve as the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina.
