Politics can be ugly and divisive. Here are some NC bills that aren’t | Opinion
There’s a lot of bad legislation trickling through the North Carolina legislature right now. I’ve written about some of the worst bills, which include things like repealing immunization requirements for university students and expanding the availability of raw milk.
But that doesn’t mean that everything happening in Raleigh is bad, divisive or partisan. The bad ideas tend to draw more attention than the good ones, and sometimes that’s by design. Politicians know which issues will elicit a reaction from voters, and it’s reflected in their messaging.
But those issues represent just a fraction of the laws passed in any given year. It may feel like Democrats and Republicans are at odds with each other most of the time, but they’ve also come together to introduce good legislation that could make meaningful differences in the lives of North Carolinians. Those bills might be less contentious, but it doesn’t make them any less important.
One example is House Bill 774, titled “School Breakfast for All.” As the title suggests, it’s a bill that would provide free breakfast to all students in North Carolina public schools. It would also create a “farm-to-table” initiative to incorporate locally sourced and fresh ingredients into the universal breakfast program by encouraging schools to partner with local farmers. The bill’s primary sponsors are all Republicans, but around 30 Democrats have signed on as co-sponsors.
As far as education goes, there’s also Senate Bill 360, which would require local boards of education to ensure that each school in the district is staffed by at least one full-time, permanent school nurse, and appropriates funds for that purpose. Currently, the state’s public schools are facing a shortage of school nurses, with some nurses having to cover multiple schools. A 2018 report from North Carolina Health News found that 58% of schools do not have a full-time health professional on campus.
Several housing and zoning reform bills also have bipartisan support. There’s Senate Bill 497, which would expand what’s known as “missing middle housing.” That means denser forms of housing, such as multiplexes and townhomes, could be built in areas currently zoned for single-family housing. There’s also House Bill 627, which would allow people to build accessory dwelling units on their property and prohibit local governments from blocking them, restricting them or banning them for use as a rental. And House Bill 369, titled the Parking Lot Reform and Modernization Act, would eliminate off-street parking minimums for new developments. Not only would that help to make housing more affordable and cities less car-dependent, it also can reduce stormwater runoff that pollutes waterways.
Another good bill is House Bill 635, which requires large group health insurance plans to provide coverage for fertility treatments, including diagnostic services and preservation. The bill was introduced by two Democrats and two Republicans. A separate bill, House Bill 744, would create a fertility preservation pilot program at Duke University, UNC-Chapel Hill, and the Atrium Health Levine Cancer Center to assist cancer patients with fertility services.
Sometimes, it’s the most mundane bills that can make the biggest difference. House Bill 199 is one of those. It seeks to combat predatory towing practices and regulate towing companies. It would create a new Towing and Recovery Commission to issue permits to towing companies and establish maximum fees for towing and booting. Currently, there is not much oversight or accountability for aggressive towing in North Carolina, with some companies charging thousands of dollars to recover a towed vehicle.
Democrats and Republicans have also joined together to propose reforms to the state’s foster care system. House Bill 612, which has a long list of sponsors, proposes a wide range of reforms, including tightening procedures and deadlines for investigating reports of abuse and neglect. It also attempts to make the foster care system less decentralized and give more authority to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services to review cases at the county level. Currently, each of the state’s 100 counties operates its foster care program independently, with little oversight from the state.
Bad bills in North Carolina get a lot of attention — and for good reason. Those bills deserve to be put under a public microscope, especially when they have the potential to seriously hurt people. But it’s also true that those discussions can drown out good legislation on issues that might be mundane, but do have the potential to make a positive difference. It’s important we take the time to focus on both.
This story was originally published May 1, 2025 at 1:18 PM with the headline "Politics can be ugly and divisive. Here are some NC bills that aren’t | Opinion."
