Surveying the damage

by Chris Fitzsimon, NC Policy Watch and NC SPIN panelist, July 26, 2013.

It is likely to take a while to figure out everything that happened in the last few days at the General Assembly.

Legislative leaders spent the last 48 hours literally making up new bills out of whole cloth, reading provisions in bills on the House floor that were actually in other bills, telling yet another local government what to do, giving authority to legislative leaders to intervene in lawsuits, and allowing garbage trucks to leak when they drive through your neighborhood.

Not to mention the most wide ranging attacks on voting rights and women’s reproductive rights in a generation.

And those are just some of the things that we know about. There’s plenty more that popped up in the middle of the night, much of it no doubt hidden in seemingly innocuous paragraphs in bills rushed through committees in meetings that were over before the notices announcing them were sent out.

All this from legislative leaders who promised open and transparent government and instead launched a surprise attack on women’s rights in a motorcycle safety bill.

We will learn more in the next few weeks about everything that happened on Jones Street as the bills are parsed and more troubling discoveries are made about the last minute ideological shenanigans.

In some ways, this legislative session is like a natural disaster. While the extent of the devastation is breathtaking on an initial review, even deeper structural damage to the state will be evident when the disaster area is more closely examined.

McCrory’s rough session and chance to be a leader

Among the many people who are glad that lawmakers are heading home is Governor Pat McCrory, who was reminded right up to the very end of the session that legislative leaders see him as a junior partner in their far-right crusade, not the leader of North Carolina or even the most powerful official in their own political party.

McCrory came to the legislative building in the other day, reportedly to build support for ending the state’s moratorium on fracking, which House members have been unwilling to do. One media account said McCrory and his entourage ended up sitting awkwardly in the library in the Legislative Building.

And his lobbying didn’t work. The House rejected McCrory’s pleas and it’s not the first time. McCrory couldn’t even muster the votes from his fellow Republicans to delay legislation affecting the airport in his hometown.

The budget that McCrory will sign in the next few days completely ignores his proposal to restore funding for the state’s drug courts that he stressed in his State of the State address in February.

Lawmakers didn’t worry very much about McCrory’s promise to make any tax changes revenue neutral either. The tax shift legislation will reduce state revenues by $650 million a year when fully implemented.

None of this was a surprise after the first few weeks of the legislative session when McCrory asked the Senate to slow down legislation that refused to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act and provide health care to 500,000 low-income adults.

The Senate response to McCrory’s request was to completely ignore it and give the Medicaid bill final approval the same day McCrory sent his letter asking them to delay it. House and Senate leaders are running the state, not the governor.

McCrory does have one last important chance to stand up to lawmakers. All he has to do is keep his campaign promise not to sign legislation that further restricts access to abortion services. The sweeping attacking on women’s rights that passed the Senate the last night of the session clearly does that.

McCrory has said he plans to sign the bill, as any intimidated junior partner would do.

But maybe he can muster the courage to stand up for himself and keep his promise to the women of North Carolina. Maybe he can be a leader for a change.

The new standard for education funding

And finally, if you are worried about the additional cuts to public schools in the final budget plan, the firing of teacher assistants, the larger classes, the lack of a raise for teachers who must work 15 years to make a $40,000 salary, the creation of a voucher scheme that will siphon money away from public schools—relax.

Nothing to worry about according to Senator Jerry Tillman, who responded to criticism of the shameful education budget by saying “the schools will not close, they will operate.”

That apparently is the litmus for educational quality in this General Assembly, that the schools remain open.