The N.C. General Assembly’s short session may be over, but Sen. Gene McLaurin isn’t done discussing it yet.
McLaurin, whose district includes Rowan County, will have a roundtable discussion at 10 a.m. Thursday at Jimmie’s Restaurant. The restaurant is located at 614 Highway 29 North, China Grove, NC.
An announcement for the event asks local residents to bring any concerns or questions about the recently ended short session.
China Grove mayor Don Bringle said he was glad to hear that McLaurin planned to have an open meeting in the city.
“Gene has always had China Grove at interest and taken our concerns back to Raleigh,” Bringle said.
In an interview on Tuesday, McLaurin listed medicaid reform, teacher pay and transparency as some of his top priorities. McLaurin, who is serving his first term as a state senator after many years as Rockingham’s mayor, said transparency is one issue he had with the short session.
“I come from a local government background where we have public hearings, full openness and transparency,” he said. “I worked in a bipartisan way and reached across the aisle to find good, common sense solutions.”
One of his primary concerns during the short session, he said, was pushing for Rowan County’s coal ash ponds at Duke Energy’s Buck Steam Station to be included in a list of high-priority areas to be addressed by a newly created coal ash commission. Though, he was ultimately unsuccessful.
McLaurin sits on seven committees in the North Carolina Senate: finance; agriculture, environment and natural resources, appropriations subcommittee on natural and economic resources; commerce; insurance; pensions, retirement and aging; and state and local government.