A useful new series of articles called “Power & Secrecy” in The News & Observer, one of North Carolina’s premier newspapers, digs into policies emanating from the current state legislature. As its name suggests, the series aims to shed light into veiled actions by the state’s legislative leaders meant to grow legislative power.
Spoiler alert.
The N&O leans left, so it is tempted to emphasize that the current state legislature, faults exposed, is a veto-proof Republican majority. Since seeking power is a party-independent endeavor, emphasis should be on the “veto-proof majority” part, not the “Republican” part.
Things that jump out unexpectedly from budgets and bills.
The North Carolina legislature is getting pretty good at inserting surprise policy into last-minute budgets and tacking unrelated items into bills. Some people call these “riders.”
By way of background. From the late 1980s to the mid-2000, operational rules of North Carolina’s House and Senate forbade tacking on new policy and spending in final versions of state budgets. In 2003, the Democrat-controlled state Senate started whacking off pieces of this prohibition. In 2011, the House, then Republican majority, started doing the same. Today, legislators are free to do both previously prohibited practices.
So, what’s the problem? Firstly, budgets are intended to be means by which legislators allocate funds to previously agreed upon rules, not means by which to create or modify rules. Secondly, there is no robust public debate on new policy inserted in budgets. Thirdly, legislators often pass budgets by way of conference reports, which require a Yes or No vote without possibility of compromise amendments. Fourthly, a tacked on unrelated rule to a bill also forces a Yes or No vote to the entire bill.
Lastly, the nature of riders is stealth, sliding by constituents.
An argument could be made that legislating by stealth saves time and contention. But, it also ignores a lot of constituents. Here are a couple of examples provided by the above-mentioned series of investigative articles:
- Ignoring environmental concerns.
North Carolina is a pro-business state. However, it does have its share of liberal cities with environmentally conscious constituents that wish to curb business practices they deem environmentally harmful. Pre-emptive budget and bill riders passed by the state legislature prevent that.
The cities of Asheville and Durham were considering regulating plastic bags and food containers back in September 2023. Legislators stepped in with a rider on the state budget prohibiting any North Carolina city or county from regulating or taxing retail packaging.
The piles of Styrofoam and other plastics covering streams and other waterways can get pretty yucky. There isn’t much one can do to prevent wind and rain from moving litter in landfills and streets into storm drains and waterways. And there are biodegradable alternatives, like sugarcane containers.
- Ignoring pollen, dust, smelly fumes…, and hard to trace campaign money.
Remember the Covid “guidelines” requiring that everybody wear a mask in public? Predictably, normalizing face masks prompted use by individuals who want to hide their identity – including rioters and demonstrators. So, in the usual first you create a problem then you try to solve it creating another problem, the North Carolina legislature passed House Bill 237, prohibiting public use of face masks. Sure, there are exceptions for people in seasonally-appropriate costumes, workers in unhealthy environments, and “Any person wearing a medical or surgical grade mask for the purpose of preventing the spread of contagious disease.” That’s it.
The “health exception” was placed when some legislators refused to sign the bill without the exception. But, apparently, in exchange, a campaign finance rider was tacked on to the mask bill. No, there is no connection between wearing masks in public and allowing political donors to give money to special federal political organizations, that then pass the money on to state and county parties.
Beware of mission creep.
As The News & Observer series on legislative power and secrecy continues, there will surely be much uncovered and placed in the public eye. Hopefully, voters will be watching.
The concern should be that without robust public input a legislature, regardless of stripe, becomes emboldened. It might also become less practical (i.e., being business friendly to grow the economy), and become more ideological (fill in the blank here with any ideology).
A recent article in the New York Times, picked up by several other publications, by columnist Nicholas Kristof wonders where have the majority-Democrat Party progressive legislatures in the West Coast gone wrong. He argues that “West Coast liberalism is more focused on the intentions behind its policies rather than its outcomes.”
A step beyond that would be more focused on personal ideologies than constituents’ wellbeing.
Picture: Micro plastics in the Neuse River. Plastic debris in waterways is not only unsightly, but disastrous. Most of it lasts for decades, and what decays ends up in fish’s stomachs and drinking water.
Just Vote No 