[quote]December 30, 2008

Dear Constituent:

Having just completed my 4th year of serving as your Representative in the North Carolina House, it is important to let my employer (you) know about some of the things that I’ve been working on. It is an honor to represent the 74th House District and I thank both you and my family for that opportunity. My approach has been one of concentrating on trees rather than the forest. I try to focus on specific legislation that will affect North Carolina positively by changing behavior and/or lowering the costs of living and doing business in our State.

During my tenure, I have introduced 17 bills of which 9 were passed and signed by the Governor. In ’05-’06 and ‘06-‘07, my colleagues voted 1791 (yes) 42 (no) and 59 (absent) for these bills. I not only thank them, but also some of you that gave me the ideas. My goal for this session will be to continue to find a way of getting more value out of things that taxpayers have already purchased. Below is a summary of all bills that were passed during the past four years and highlights the goals I have just stated.

Crime Prevention:

Ø H454: IDENTITY THEFT permits police officers to take pictures of people who are cited for not producing a license when requested. This will help protect citizens from identity theft and improve courtroom efficiency. A person who is stopped for a violation can give anyone’s name rather than their own. There has been no reliable way in the past to affirm who actually committed the violation- the guilty party or the person whose name was given. This legislation was passed in the 2007 session at no cost to taxpayers.

Ø H1401: CONCEALED CARRY BY LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS helps law enforcement officers serve and protect the public even while off-duty, by lawfully allowing them to carry concealed firearms in public venues (as long as they are alcohol free). This signals to the police officers of NC that we trust them both on duty and off!!

Ø H1404: SEIZURE OF DOCUMENTS AND PLATES enables officers to remove the tags, driver licenses and registration of motorists driving without basic liability insurance. There are 500,000 uninsured motorists on the roads today and in 2005, they were involved in 12,000 accidents and inflicted $85,000,000 in un-reimbursed property and medical damage on their victims. In the past, law enforcement could only write a citation (because the computer at DMV was not talking to Department of Insurance or police car computers) and the driver drove off (still with no insurance). I am pleased to report that this bill saves over $500,000 in postage and more importantly, your local and state law enforcement have pulled over 32,000 tags this year for lack of insurance at routine traffic stops. When you see cars on the side of the road without tags, you can think of me, but thank your police officers.

Ø H2880: NO PRAYER FOR JUDGMENT/BUS STOP ARM VIOLATION prevents any motorist who is guilty of passing a stopped school bus from receiving a Prayer for Judgment Continuance. And, according to an investigative report by CNN’s Paula Zahn, gives North Carolina the toughest stop arm law in the United States. Every school day in NC, 2300 people pass a stopped school bus. That is over 400,000 per year.

Education:

Ø H150: EVERY CHILD READY TO LEARN moves the kindergarten entrance age from October 16 to August 31 to help reduce as much as a two year age span among classmates. Such a wide age span often results in significant challenges to students and teachers because of cognitive differences and children being subjected to unnecessary humiliation. North Carolina had one of the “latestâ€