ROCKINGHAM — With his first session in the books, Sen. Tom McInnis is ready for another round.
The first-term legislator announced late last week that he would be seeking another term in the North Carolina Senate.
McInnis, R-Richmond, defeated incumbent Sen. Gene McLaurin in last November’s election for the 25th District seat and set foot on the Senate floor in late January.
Being a statesman was easier than he thought it would be.
“It was a process that was easy to understand and the rules were not as complex as I thought,” he said. “I learned a lot, met a lot of people, gained a better understanding of the process and was able to help create and pass some important legislation.”
SERVING IN THE SENATE
During his first term, McInnis was the primary sponsor of 10 bills, seven relating to schools and education.
One of those was the School Safety Act, which would mandate registered sex offenders who intend to attend a community college to provide notice of their status to the registrar prior to enrollment. Sex offenders would also be barred from taking classes offered to early college students.
The freshman senator made statewide headlines when he filed a controversial bill that would require professors in the University of North Carolina system to teach at least eight classes per academic year.
The former Richmond County school board member told the Daily Journal in April the proposed legislation was prompted by conversations with parents and students who felt they weren’t getting their money’s worth with classes taught by student teaching assistants instead of tenured professors.
The bill sparked a firestorm of backlash from colleges and professors, including a March 31 editorial in the Daily Tar Heel, the student newspaper at UNC-Chapel Hill, which called the bill “daft” and predicted “a mass exodus of faculty at UNC and other UNC-system schools” if it were signed into law.
McInnis made revisions to Senate Bill 593, and it was moved from the Senate Education Committee and referred for study to the Legislative Research Commission.
The revised edition of the bill differentiates course load requirements based on the type of institution — research, doctoral, masters’ and baccalaureate — and course discipline — science, technology engineering and mathematics, or STEM, courses and humanities and social science courses.
In response to a teacher shortage, and the elimination of the Teaching Fellows Program, McInnis introduced a bill that would create a pilot program, directing the N.C. Department of Public Instruction to provide up to 30 four‑year scholarship loans to qualified teacher assistants in the Richmond, Scotland, and Anson County school systems who are preparing to teach.
“It would benefit rural North Carolina considerably more than metropolitan North Carolina,” he said of the program.
Although it failed to gain traction, McInnis plans to re-introduce the bill in 2017.
He also introduced bills to authorize school districts to install stop-arm cameras on buses and provide local boards of education within his district — which also includes Stanly and Rowan counties — with flexibility in adopting the school calendar.
“(The bus bill) was held up in the House by a single House member,” he said, although he’s confident it will pass during the short session.
McInnis said one of the most important bills he introduced would clarify who is responsible for a change order on a school construction project, who can authorize it to be paid and who has to have complete knowledge of it.
The “poster child” for the legislation was a change order for a roofing project at Ellerbe Middle School in 2006 when McInnis was on the Richmond County Board of Education.
He said the change order, in excess of $130,000, was approved by the superintendent and paid without debate or oversight from the school board.
Following that experience, McInnis proposed a policy that any change order be approved by a majority of the board, a policy he said still stands.
As for the proposed legislation, McInnis said it passed the Senate “but got bogged down in the House and we ran out of time.” However, he expects it to return during the short session, starting in April.
Another bill kept the current 15-point grading scale for an additional two years, rather than moving to a 10-point scale.
“If we change this in the middle of the A-F school grading system,” he says he told President Pro-tem Phil Berger, “we’re not going to have consistent data.”
Aside from education bills, McInnis also sponsored legislation on building code reform.
According to the senator, building codes should protect the property, as well as the health, safety and welfare of state residents.
“When it gets above that, it becomes restrictive, stifling (and) cumbersome,” he said. “Plus it becomes expensive.”
As with the grading scale bill, it was the House version of the building code reform that passed and was signed by Gov. Pat McCrory.
McInnis said he was most proud of his participation in the sales tax change that was included in the state budget.
“Every municipality, every city and every county (in the district) gets new revenue from this program without a tax increase,” he said.
The sales tax revenues can only be used for public schools, community colleges or economic development.
He also helped secure one-time budget appropriations of $25,000 for the Rankin Museum of American Heritage in Ellerbe and $58,000 for Discovery Place Kids in Rockingham, in addition to a $150,000 continuing appropriation for a truck driver training school being developed on a regional basis that includes Richmond and Stanly community colleges.
STILL WORKING
With the session ended, McInnis is back to work at Iron Horse Auction Company. But that doesn’t mean his legislative duties are over.
McInnis is meeting with local leaders, as well as those at RCC and UNC-Pembroke, to see what their needs are for the upcoming session. He will also be meeting with the state Department of Commerce and the Economic Development Partnership of N.C. to discuss opportunities throughout the district.
The recent passage of the industrial hemp bill, which McInnis supported, could lead to a boom in the region.
“Our land is suited for that,” he said. “That plant thrives in sandy soil.”
McInnis said he received calls from two farmers — in Richmond and Scotland counties — who said they thought they had a market for it.
“I believe it’ll be something that’ll be good for our farmers,” he said. “It has a myriad of industrial and commercial uses.”
If the farms get up and running, McInnis agrees that could spawn manufacturing jobs for the area.
“You gotta get something goin’ first,” he said.
McInnis said he looks forward “to continuing to represent the citizens of the 25th District with bold and decisive leadership,” and promises “to continue to be a strong voice for rural North Carolina.”
Democrat Reps. Ken Goodman and Garland Pierce both officially announced their intent to run for re-election in late September.
McInnis said Goodman and Pierce, along with the other House members in his district, have been “very good to work with.”
“We all work together for the betterment of the areas we represent,” he said, “from Rowan to Scotland (counties).”
As of Monday, no candidates had publicly announced plans to challenge McInnis, Goodman or Pierce.
McLaurin decided earlier this month to forego running for the seat again. Instead, he said he will focus his efforts toward Attorney General Roy Cooper’s campaign for governor.
Filing for the 2016 election begins at noon on Dec. 1 and runs until noon Dec. 21.
Reach reporter William R. Toler at 910-817-2675 and follow him on Twitter @William_r_toler.