Legislators join city council to talk priorities for 2016

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Today four of our local members of the general assembly were in the Port City to talk with Wilmington city council. The mayor and city council members presented our legislators with a number of priorities they have identified for Wilmington in the 2016 legislative session.

One major concern for the city is increasing the penalty for folks charged with possession of a firearm by a felon. In a presentation today Wilmington police said stronger punishments would hopefully act as a deterrent for repeat offenders and help put an end to some of the crime cycle.

But the priorities weren’t just centered around crime.

“You heard a lot about transportation today. There’s a great deal of concern about the design of some of these transportation projects and its impact on the character of our community,” said democratic representative Susi Hamilton.

“Of course the room occupancy tax was brought up about the fact that as you know a portion of that is used to help fund the convention center,” said republican representative Ted Davis.

Hamilton said she doesn’t know that they will be able to address all of the city’s concerns in the short session, but that they will try to take a stab at the top few to help move the city forward.

We also took this opportunity to talk with our representatives about House Bill 2.

“You can’t fix this bill. It’s discrimination through omission of one sector of our community. It’s wrong. It’s bad for business and hopefully the general assembly will come to its senses in the short session and do a full repeal,” said Hamilton.

Hamilton said she will be filing a bill for that full repeal next week.

But not all legislators were as outspoken.

“I’m not making any public comments about House Bill 2 because it’s a pending federal lawsuit going on and until that lawsuit’s over I’m not making any comment,” said Davis.

Davis added he would like to wait and see numbers showing the economic impacts this bill made if there were any at all.