A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to prohibit the sale of broughton hospital facilities until authorized by the general assembly and to appropriate funds for a study of potential future uses for the facilities to enhance economic benefits to the state and local governments.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  Notwithstanding any other provision of law, during the 2014‑2015 fiscal year and subsequent fiscal years, the State‑owned real property comprising Broughton Hospital campus shall not be sold, leased, rented, or gifted without the approval of the General Assembly.
SECTION 2.  The Department of Health and Human Services shall maintain Broughton Hospital facilities in the same condition they are in at the time this act becomes law. This requirement shall be deemed satisfied if, at the time the General Assembly authorizes the facilities to be sold, leased, rented, or gifted, the facilities are suitable to be used for another purpose without requiring major repairs or renovations.
SECTION 3.  There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Commerce the sum of four hundred thousand dollars ($400,000) for the 2014‑2015 fiscal year to study, in conjunction with the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Administration, the City of Morganton, the County of Burke, and Burke Development, Inc., potential uses for vacated Broughton Hospital facilities and potential development or redevelopment of adjoining State‑owned properties, to ascertain the economic benefits of use, development, and redevelopment. The study required by this section shall examine all of the following:
(1)	Potential uses of vacated Broughton Hospital facilities and development or redevelopment of adjoining State‑owned properties.
(2)	Benefits to the State, local governments, and the private sector of each potential use identified in the study.
(3)	Costs to the State, to the City of Morganton, to the County of Burke, and to the private sector of each potential use identified in the study.
(4)	Any other matters that the Department of Commerce deems relevant to this study of potential economic benefits in the use of vacated Broughton Hospital facilities and properties.
SECTION 4.  No later than December 31, 2014, the Department of Commerce shall submit an interim report on the study to the chairs of the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Health and Human Services, to the chairs of the Joint Legislative Committee on Economic Development and Global Engagement, and to the chairs of the Joint Legislative Commission on Governmental Operations. No later than June 30, 2015, the Department of Commerce shall submit a final report on the results of the study to the chairs of the same committee.
SECTION 5.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2014.