The Turning of the Wheel
Legislative News November 2016 –
By Nelda Holder –
November is upon us, and has begun with unusually warm days and nights and a thirst for rain here in Western North Carolina.
Asheville’s normal high temperature for the month of October has previously been calculated as 68 degrees Fahrenheit, with an average rainfall of 2.13 inches. In October of 2016, the high temperature average was 72.4, with a recorded .09 inches of rainfall. The Asheville area is currently listed as a moderate drought area, with a forecast that the drought will remain during November, both here and throughout Western NC.
The Southeastern drought-persistence forecast covers a wide swath of Tennessee, Georgia, and Louisiana, the entire states of Mississippi and Alabama, and sections of South Carolina, Florida, Kentucky, Arkansas, Texas, and Oklahoma.
Looking Eastward
Meanwhile, there are plans for a special legislative session in North Carolina, called by the governor, to address disaster relief for the effects of Hurricane Matthew and the resultant flood rampages of the rivers in the eastern part of the state. (It will be the second special session of this year, the first having been called by the legislative leadership for the purpose of enacting the still-controversial “HB 2.”)
The disaster relief session is expected to take place in December, before the 2017 regular legislative session, with its potential changes in membership and leadership, begins in January.
Gov. Pat McCrory’s initial requests for federal disaster assistance now include 38 counties and more than $61 million approved for individuals. The next request to aid towns and counties themselves is anticipated in mid-November and would need the approval of the U.S. Congress. Federal funds would have to be matched by state funds, hence the need for approval by the Legislature to spend money from the state’s current reserve fund of around $1.6 billion.
The governor previously named members to a Hurricane Matthew Recovery Committee (including former Gov. Bev Perdue) to tour areas affected by the hurricane and flooding, and help prepare the supplemental disaster assistance request. Initial estimates of flooding costs exceed $1.5 billion. Human costs have included 28 deaths and 2,000 people retrieved through rescue efforts, along with the loss of or damage to tens of thousands of homes and businesses.
Looking Inward
During this period of time, two particular civic losses to the state occurred with the passing of NC Rep. Paul Luebke (D-Durham) and the illness of former Superior Court Judge Howard Manning of Wake County.
Luebke, a 25-year Statehouse veteran who died on October 29, might best be saluted by a short list of the bills he sponsored in the most recent legislative session — items such as Restore Teaching fellows Program, Root Out Poverty, Child Advocacy Center Funds, Nonpartisan Redistricting Commission, Charter School Financial Accountability, Prohibit Discriminatory Profiling, UP Minimum Wage with COLA/Constitutional Amendment, Restore Early Voting Days, Healthy Families & Workplaces/Paid Sick Days, Expand Medicaid to All, Body and Dashboard Cameras Law, Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, Fossil Fuels Public Fund Divestment Report, Gun Safety Act, Young People Voting, Fracking-Public Disclosure Act.
Out of an incredibly long list of “progressive” or perhaps “idealistic” bill sponsorships, Luebke’s success rate in terms of passage was small in the recent years of Republican-dominated legislation. But his effect was large, both in the Legislature and as an associate professor of sociology at UNC-Greensboro. Luebke’s passing spurred tributes from many in the state’s leadership, but perhaps the most impressive one came from his son Theo, as quoted in The News & Observer on October 30: “My father showed me what it means to live in a loving community that fights for things that matter.”
Another fighter in the state of North Carolina, Judge Howard Manning, has recently had to step out of the ring due to illness.
Discussions of public education commonly circle back to something known as “Leandro.” That reference is to a landmark 1994 court case, Leandro v. State, filed on behalf of several low-wealth school districts and claiming that every child in the state had a right to a sound basic education under the NC Constitution. Judge Manning was appointed to monitor state actions following the case to assure that constitutional obligations were upheld. He did so with a tenacity and depth of attention that forged a lasting impact on state education.
Manning won the UNC School of Education’s Peabody Award in 2010 for “extraordinary impact on the field of education,” along with other well-deserved recognitions. Health issues over the past year caused him to request a replacement for oversight of the education mandate. Retired Union County Judge W. David Lee is assuming that responsibility.
Looking Outward
State issues, legislation, and leadership will be in at least some new hands as the election season rolls past us and a new General Assembly convenes in January. The state has been particularly engaged by and in presidential, senatorial, gubernatorial, and legislative campaigns.
Now comes the time when individual citizens watch for results — the season of accountability. Make a resolution right now to keep your newly elected representatives on their toes. Voting is an act of choice as well as obligation to the principles of our democracy. But that goes hand-in-hand with being an informed citizen who pays attention and makes her or his voice heard long past that visit to the polls.
And stay tuned here. We’ll be following the new General Assembly and its activities with an eye to just such activism on the part of you, the citizens.
Nelda Holder is the author of The Thirteenth Juror – Ferguson: A Personal Look at the Grand Jury Transcripts.
