North Carolina Speaker of the House Thom Tillis spoke to a small crowd in Daniels Hall Monday night about energy, Amendment One and his experiences as a politician.

When a crowd member asked whether low salaries promote the already wealthy to become representatives, Tillis was quick to respond.

“I’ve been blessed with a job and an opportunity and some level of independence, I’m by no means rich,” Tillis said.

Tillis said a proposed salary for legislature based on net worth would in turn discriminate against those who had earned money previously.

 ”At what point does North Carolina no longer want to be a citizen legislature?” Tillis said.

North Carolina’s legislature is theoretically citizen-occupied. Tillis said that isn’t really true.

A question and answer session prompted questions on students’ minds, among those issues was the upcoming Amendment One that would constitutionally ban homosexual marriage.

“It’s a generational issue,” Tillis said. “The data shows right now that you are a generation away from that issue.”

According to Tillis , researchers have predicted Amendment One will pass with approximately 54 percent, but Tillis , who voted to pass the amendment, believes it won’t remain long.

“If it passes, I think it will be repealed within 20 years,” Tillis said.

Ryan Thomson, graduate student in anthropology and active member of the Occupy movement, prompted Tillis about the Progress Energy/Duke merger that is still in progress.

Thomson said a program called CWIP could raise energy rates by 17 percent, but Tillis was not quick to agree.

“If you’re going to build a nuclear facility built in your state, you’re going to need CWIP ; if you don’t want it, you won’t want CWIP ,” Tillis said.

Tillis insisted increased pricing from CWIP was a “fallacy.” Thomson was not pleased with Tillis’ answer.

Tillis’ words on the University budget cited a relationship between taxes and tuition.

“We always have to strike a balance between a tax increase and a tuition increase,” Tillis said.

Tillis said the 9 percent tuition increase over several years is still set to be completed.

“I thought because he was a conservative, he would want to protect our wallets,” Thomson said. “We are not only looking at tuition hikes, we are also looking at CWIP passing.”

Several members of Young Americans for Liberty ( YAL ) attended the event, and had mixed reviews on the speech.

YAL members gave respect to Tillis , but held reservations on several of his points.

“When he was talking about Amendment One, that it was a generational issue, he was basically avoiding it,” Ross Bradley, YAL member and sophomore in chemical engineering, said.

Derek Spicer, YAL president and senior in history and economics, said Tillis was fairly concise with his answers, regardless of whether he agreed with them all.

“He didn’t dance around an issue,” Spicer said. “He got right to it.”

Most YAL members at the meeting gave respect to Tillis’ stance on marijuana decriminalization and for medical use.

Tillis said he would rather have a discussion on legalizing marijuana, than a discussion on whether it could be used medically. He believes often the “medicinal” drug in other states is purely a de facto legalization.

John Hader , YAL member and sophomore in meteorology, gave respect to his consideration.

“I like that [ Tillis was] at least willing to bring up the issue of medical marijuana,” Hader said.

Hader disagreed on Tillis’ perspective on voting, which involved voting for the party a person identifies with as a last resort.

“It shouldn’t be about what your party is doing,” Hader said.