Lingering lessons from a short but ongoing session

Published August 23, 2018

By Becki Gray

by Becki Gray, John Locke Foundation and NC SPIN panelist, August 22, 2018.

Environmental concerns are real and warranted, particularly when it comes to public health. The GenX chemical produced by Chemours has been found in water supplies and the impact on human health is still being explored. The company has installed carbon absorption units and promises a $100 million pollution reduction project. In the end, overall fluorochemical pollution will drop by 99 percent compared with 2017 levels, company officials report. However, there are now concerns that GenX is found in a Teflon-like coating on solar panels. Carolina Journal reported in July “GenX and its family of unregulated emerging contaminants are present in some of the solar panels increasingly dotting North Carolina’s landscape.” North Carolina ranks 2nd to California in solar production, thanks to very lucrative state subsides. There are 249 solar companies currently operating in NC with hundreds of thousands of solar panels found on farm land, on top of big box stores and on the roofs of houses. There are concerns about pollution leaching into the ground, long term effects on productive farmland and threats to public health. With a 15-20 year lifespan for solar panels, what happens as the panels wear out and have to be disposed of? How are they disposed of and who will be responsible for that disposal? What will be the long term health and environmental problems? Are they polluting now?

Are our privacy rights in danger? We saw a bill introduced this session that would regulate digital communications in elections with broad disclosure requirements. It didn’t pass but it did raise important questions about regulating political engagement and free speech on the internet.  Whether it’s mining personal data to use in electioneering, microtargeting voters or requiring public disclosure for engaging in political speech, privacy and free speech rights must be protected. Another bill to address the opioid addiction crisis would give law enforcement access to a tracking system of individuals’ pharmacy records, if they are part of a drug investigation, without a warrant from a judge.  Small steps to erode privacy rights, no matter how well intended, are a large step in the wrong direction.

A proposed constitutional amendment would give the legislature appointment powers over state boards and commissions, shifting that power away from the governor.  North Carolina has close to 400 boards overseeing a variety of state government functions; from the Acupuncture Licensing board to the Zoological Park Council.Legitimate arguments and even lawsuits have resulted from these separation of powers questions and rightfully so.  But the bigger question, in my view is why do we have so many boards and commissions of unelected and unaccountable individuals making decisions, passing rules and often imposing criminal penalties on citizens? Instead of worrying about who makes the appointments, we should be asking do we need the boards and commissions at all.

Another constitutional amendment would cap the personal income tax rate at 7%, down from the current cap of 10%. For reference the current rate is 5.25%.  But again, I think they missed the point. If the goal is to restrain government’s overreach, the better place to do that is to cap spending.  Without restraint on the growth of government, a cap on one taxing mechanism, just puts pressure on other taxing options. Cap the personal income rate and when the big spenders are back in charge, they’ll raise the sales tax or corporate tax or property tax or invent new ways to tax.  Cap spending and there’s no need to scramble for additional revenue.

The General Assembly has made a lot of changes to elections laws. Partisan labels for judicial candidates, expanded early voting hours, rearranged the Boards of Elections and made new judicial districts. Democrats accused Republicans of making change to their benefit. After 140 years of Democrats having the power and structuring election laws to their advantage, any changes made by Republicans would be to their benefit in comparison. Republicans would be wise to remember that the pendulum will swing back and they would be wise to structure any changes to make elections fair, accessible and equitable, not to garner advantage for the party in charge. Because one day, it won’t be them.

Budgets passed as conference reports, hastily called special sessions and behind-closed-doors decisions are not good government. Transparency, fair process and open government matter. The more debate and thoughtful consideration of a wide array of view points results in better outcomes. This is true in legislative committees, on the floor of the General Assembly, throughout the Governor’s administration, and within city council and county commission meetings. Everyone deserves to be heard and we are all better for it.

People want to work so let them.

Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.

Leave it alone.

Ideas matter.

They’ll be back. Probably a few times between now and Nov 27, the next scheduled date for the 2017-18 General Assembly to convene. Let’s keep talking because before you know it, it will be January 9, 2019 and time to start all over again.