10:32 PM EST on Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Associated Press

RALEIGH — The state Senate produced a mountain of measures Wednesday for this year's bill-filing deadline, including legislation to forbid human cloning, limit medical awards on pain and suffering and start a lottery.

Also among the more than 200 bills introduced were measures that again seek to regulate payday lending, rework the state's corporate tax incentives and restrict access to some government records. Measures also have been filed in light of current events.

Judges would be allowed to carry their lawful concealed weapons inside the courthouse while at work in a bill filed by Sen. Tom Apodaca, R-Henderson. A judge and three others were killed March 11 at an Atlanta courthouse. The shooting came a day after the judge asked for extra security because the shooting suspect had been found with crude knives hidden in his shoes.

Legislation Sen. Fred Goodall, R-Union, dubbed the "Terry Schiavo Act" would require lawmakers to study whether Division of Motor Vehicles examiners should help motorists to prepare a standard living will. The directive would lay out a person's wishes should they be critically injured or on life support.

Schiavo is at the center of a fight over whether the Florida woman's husband should be allowed to remove her feeding tube.

Schiavo suffered brain damage in 1990.

Senate Minority Leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, filed a bill that would make it a low-grade felony to perform human cloning in North Carolina or use public funds to do so.

Four senators filed a bill that would regulate the practice of payday lending in North Carolina. Past restrictions on the short-term loans expired in 2001 and weren't replaced, leading to a largely unregulated market.

Federal and state banking officials and Attorney General Roy Cooper have tried to clamp down on the practice, especially large payday lending chains who provide loans through an out-of-state bank.

The bill would limit these transactions to $500, or 25 percent of the borrower's gross monthly income, and limit lending fees to $75.

Sens. David Hoyle, D-Gaston, and Jim Forrester, R-Gaston, also filed a measure that would limit medical malpractice awards on non-economic damages to $350,000 per patient. The cap would be $500,000 if the negligence resulted in the patient being in a "persistent vegetative state" or death. Non-economic damages refer to items such as a patient's disfigurement or pain and suffering.

Hoyle and Sen. John Kerr, D-Wayne, are the authors of a bill that would replace the William S. Lee Act, the state's largest corporate tax-break program, with another credit system.

The Lee Act has been in place since 1996, reducing tax liabilities for companies that create jobs, install machinery and equipment and train workers in North Carolina. But Commerce Department officials have used cash incentives grants more in recent years.

The bill would divide all 100 counties into three tiers - instead of the current five - to determine the size of the job or equipment credit. The counties are assigned a tier based on how well the local economy is performing.

The bill would provide per-job credits from $1,000 to $12,500 and credits on business property investment from 4 percent to 7 percent of the eligible investment. The property credit could reach 30 percent if the company intends to create 200 jobs within two years and invests $10 million.

The measure also would extend the sunset on the popular Job Development Investment Grant incentives program from Jan. 1, 2006 to 2008.

A bill filed by Sen. Dan Clodfelter, D-Mecklenburg, states that documents, papers and recordings are not public records if they are in "draft form" held solely by their author and hasn't been distributed to anyone for the author's clerical assistants.

Clodfelter's bill also indicates that the volunteer records of a state agency or local government are not public records and can't be examined in most cases. The measure also clarifies that the attorney-client privilege would bar the inspection of communications between lawyers and clients who are local governments.

Among other measures filed Wednesday:

• Sens. Tony Rand, D-Cumberland, and Julia Boseman, D-New Hanover, filed bills that would create a state-run lottery. Boseman's bill would use profits to pay for local school construction and prescription drugs for older adults.

• Clodfelter would expand the voluntary public financing for appellate court judgeships to Council of State races, except for governor and lieutenant governor. The judicial public financing provides taxpayer money to candidates in exchange for fund-raising limits.

• The cigarette tax would increase from 5 cents a pack to 75 cents a pack while the counties' share of Medicaid costs would be phased out by July 2007 in a bill filed by Clodfelter.

• North Carolina residents would have to prove U.S. citizenship or legal immigration status to receive public assistance programs in a bill filed by Sen. Hugh Webster, R-Alamance.

• Someone who donates an organ or a part of an organ could receive a $1,000 tax credit in a bill filed by Sen. Robert Pittenger, R-Mecklenburg.

• The felony murder rule used by prosecutors in many capital murder cases would be eliminated if a bill by Sen. Jeanne Lucas, D-Durham, becomes law.

• North Carolina's official state cat would be the cougar, according to legislation filed by Sen. Andrew Brock, R-Davie.

• Sen. Don East, R-Surry, wants to remove any limits on the number of deer that hunters can kill during a hunting season.