Governor’s Grand View May Be Obscured by Legislature

By Nelda Holder –

On the heels of an enthusiastic state-of-the-state address by Gov. Pat McCrory on February 4, the North Carolina General Assembly is finally set to get to work in earnest.

Part of that work will be deciding how the Republican governor’s goals match those of the Republican-led House and Senate.

McCrory’s support for physician-led reform of Medicaid in the state, for example, will butt heads with the goal of a system with oversight by managed-care companies—a tension that held back reform in the past legislative session.

Lawmakers already sound nervous, too, about the two bond proposals McCrory is pushing—one to “connect each other” through a $1.2 billion transportation overhaul; the other to overcome a “culture of apathy” by upgrading the state’s own inefficient, sometimes obsolete, buildings, to the tune of perhaps another $1.2 billion.

The governor’s business background spoke loudly through his plans, which he centered on the mantra: “Treat ’em as a customer.” That’s his goal for state services across the board, but some of his specifics included upgrading access to the Department of Motor Vehicles with extended hours and self-service kiosks, and making it easier for citizens to access the health care services they need.

He also announced proposals for two new departments in state government, one to address information technology and a second to address the needs of the active military and veteran presence in the state, through which he promised to “work with the unique needs of base communities” as well.

“My vision for North Carolina is to have the best of everything,” McCrory said optimistically. “We will be the role model for the rest of the nation of working together.”

But the unspoken answer to the governor’s challenge may come from his own party. “That’s more than we’ve been talking about and more than we had heard talked about up until now,” Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger (R) said regarding the state building upgrades, as quoted in the Feb. 5 edition of Raleigh’s News & Observer. And the proposal for health care expansion came amidst detractors in the legislative leadership as well.

Meanwhile, as the legislative docket began filling up with bills, many of the earliest proposals had the distinction of revisiting and sometimes reversing old battles. Democrats acted quickly to introduce legislation (HB 26) to restore the popular educational sales tax holiday that was repealed during the last legislative session. The same was true with a bill (HB 21) to restore the teaching fellows program that had provided financial help for aspiring teachers in the state.

Republicans were busy lining up support to bring back partisan elections for statewide judges (Supreme Court and Court of Appeals), which have been nonpartisan since 2004. There was also swift introduction of a bill (SB 2) to provide recusal for magistrates who do not wish to perform lawful marriages if they hold a “sincere” religious objection. This was sponsored by Berger in answer to last fall’s legalization of same-sex marriage in the state by order of the U.S. District Court.

On the bipartisan legislative front, two bills are early standouts. The first (HB 3) would amend Article 1 of the NC Constitution to state that “Private property shall not be taken by eminent domain except for a public use,” eliminating the current eminent domain stricture allowing eminent domain for “public benefit” as well. Western NC Rep. Chuck McGrady (R-Hendersonville) is one of four primary sponsors—two Republican and two Democratic. The bill is aimed to disallowing eminent domain for private profit. There are 65 co-sponsors of a bipartisan nature.

And a returning proposal, introduced a number of times over the years under both Democratic and Republican majorities in the Legislature, seeks to gain traction in the 2014-2015 session. The bipartisan bill would create an independent redistricting commission to take the decennial task of drawing electoral districts out of the hands of the legislators and into the hands of an independent redistricting commission. The House bill (HB 49) has 16 Republican and Democratic primary or co-sponsors (including WNC Rep. Brian Turner as co-sponsor), and a companion bill has been introduced in the Senate (SB 28). If passed this time around, the bill is slated to take effect commencing with the 2030 census.

Read Nelda Holder’s blog, www.politicallypurplenc.com