Red Clay Citizen

Who's in Charge?

Apparently, the voters have no clue.  This month, we asked voters which party, the Democratic or Republican controlled the NC House, NC Senate and the Governor's mansion.

Sadly:
- Less than half the voters know who is in charge of the General Assembly.
- Only 49% correctly identified the Democrats in charge of the House.
- 40% correctly identified the Democrats in charge of the Senate.

Strangely, though, a whopping 61% could correctly identify that the Governor was a Democrat.  Francis seems to think it has to do with his public endorsements of Hillary and then Obama, so people relate him to a Democratic presidential candidate.  I was hoping that maybe all the recent bad publicity had made people pay attention.  Unfortunately, I think Francis' theory is probably right.

Click here for the full results.

The Final Countdown?

cue cheesy 80's synthesizer pop song by Europe

Is this the last week of the "short" session of the General Assembly?

All signs seem to be pointing to yes.  Rumor abounds that the honorables will try to adjourn sometime late this week either Friday or early Saturday.

The big holdups?  Well, Governor Easley hasn't technically signed the budget yet, and the General Assembly isn't going to go home without him doing so.  Could the governor just be using the signing of the budget as a bargaining chip to push for his last legislative priority -- his drought bill?

Either way, expect a fast and furious week where members will be voting on bills that many will have never seen before or even read.  Stay tuned, something strange ALWAYS happens the last week.

Marriage Amendment Reintroduced

Recent court actions in California have led a bipartisan group of lawmakers to reintroduce a bill to add an amendment to the North Carolina Constitution that defines the union of marriage as being between one man and one woman at one time. 

Representatives Jim Crawford (D-Granville), Ruth Samuelson (R-Mecklenburg), Earline Parmon (D-Forsyth) and David Lewis (R-Harnett) are sponsors of the bill that, as of Wednesday morning, had 68 sponsors in the House.  The bill was unveiled at a press conference at the Legislature with Reps. Lewis and Samuelson, minority leader Skip Stam (R-Wake), Senator Jim Forrester (R-Gaston), John Rustin of the NC Family Policy Council, Monsignor Michael Clay of the Catholic Diocese of Raleigh and Reverend Mark Creech of the Christian Action League. 

Currently, North Carolina is the only southern state to have taken no action to constitutionally protect marriage.  Legislative leaders have stated that there is no need for the amendment since current North Carolina statute already defines marriage.  This, of course, is a weak argument because California had the same state law overturned by a liberal activist judge.  The law could also be changed by a simple vote of the Legislature, whereas a constitutional amendment requires a change via the constitutional process which requires voter approval.

Neighboring states have already passed similar amendments to their constitutions by wide margins.  Virginia's voters approved the protection of marriage by 57%, South Carolina by 74%, while Tennesee hit 81%.  North Carolina's voters have shown their support in polls on the issue.  As it happens, this very organization polls on the topic frequently and the May 2008 Civitas Decisionmaker poll of likely voters found that 71% support protecting marriage.  The poll also found even more support amongst African American voters at 86%.  Given that well over 85% of African Americans are registered as Democrats, protecting marriage enjoys widespread support across racial and partisan lines.

The irony is that, while the leadership has refused to give prior identical bills even a committee hearing, the House also voted yesterday to identify gays as a protected class by reinserting language into HB 1366 (School Bullying) that the Senate deleted last year.  So North Carolina will become the only state in the South to deny the people a vote to protect marriage while also defining homosexuals as a group with extra protections.

The Reverend Creech made the most poignant comparison of the day when he pointed out how much rhetoric legislative leaders have spewed in the past about the absolute need to allow voters to have a say in approving a lottery. Meanwhile marriage is not important enough of an issue to put before the voters.

Jeff Mixon

Bullying Bill Passes House

The House voted 60 to 56 not to concur with the Senate bullying bill. What this means is that the House bill, which includes language that provides special protection to homosexuals, will go to conference committee. By the reaction of the homosexual/ACLU lobby, it is very likely that the conference committee will preserve language that (for the first time in North Carolina law) recognizes sexual orientation as a protected class.

Supporters of the legislation, led by Rick Glazier (why is no one running against this guy?), framed the argument in favor of the House bill as providing protection for "all God's children." Among Republicans, Rep. Cary Allred was a vocal supporter of the House bill.

Opponents of the bill, led by Rep. Skip Stam, instead called upon the House to pass the Senate bill, which would have provided protection to all children, irrespective of their membership in a protected class. As Rep. Nelson Dollar argued, the House bill is divisive because it divides kids up into different groups. Dollar also noted that one of the country's leading experts on bullying, Brenda High, opposes bullying legislation that specifies protected classes.

Real ID: Small Price to Pay

Representatives Cole (D) and Coates (D) just filed a bill that would prevent North Carolina from participating in Real ID. The bill rightly refers to Real ID as an unfunded federal mandate, but then comically goes on to say that "compliance with the provisions of the REAL ID Act of 2005 will result in a fiscal cost that the State cannot afford."

Who are they kidding? The total cost to implement Real ID for North Carolina has been put at $20 million -- this represents 1/10 of the $200 million in pork barrel spending the General Assembly approved last session. Indeed, $20 million is 0.01 percent of the current state budget.

The Department of Homeland Security is providing $360 million to assist states in implementing Real ID. Moreover, identity theft costs U.S. citizens some $68 billion a year.

I encourage folks to have genuine dialogue over the merits of Real ID -- but saying the state can't afford the $20 million Real ID might cost is simply not true. What do you think? Is Real ID worth it?

Tony Rand -- Champion of the Free Market?

Earlier today, the General Assembly's Joint Study Committee on Automobile Insurance Modernization met to consider a proposal to change the way every North Carolinian purchases auto insurance.  Currently, those of us who have clean driving records pay a surcharge of 2.7% to fund a risk pool of those who make insurance claims.  Thus, us safe drivers are subsidizing bad drivers to the tune of $139 million this year.  (In some years, it's more, some years it's less).

Sen. Tony Rand as chairman of the committee asked if that was fair for safe drivers to pay higher rates for auto insurance and shouldn't we just let everyone be judged on their relative risk?  "Everybody should pay their own way. I should pay mine and not subsidize everybody else.  We should have some relative expectation that you (bad drivers) pay some fair share of the pool." 
Basically, his proposal would take one giant step towards deregulating and dramatically increasing competition in the auto insurance market.  (Some government insurance actuary stood up and argued that increased competition would increase rates -- I haven't figured that one out yet.)

Naturally, Insurance Commissioner Jim Long was opposed to the proposal. 

Will this proposal have legs when the General Assembly reconvenes in a few weeks?  I don't know, but it's one we'll sure be watching. 

And if we can apply free market economics to auto insurance, can't we also apply it to other insurance markets -- health, homeowners, etc.?

Point of Order

Can a majority party in a state legislature act with impunity, against its own rules? It appears the N.C. General Assembly has done so:

(Listen to the audio.)

Now, here's House MInority Leader Paul Stam on the matter:

The press has reported on the private athletic scholarships that were slipped into the conference report on the budget at the request of Senator Dannelly.  The News and Observer has editorialized against it (August 17, 2007).

Now the News and Observer reports (Under The Dome, August 17, 2007 [Aug 16th?]) that the Speaker believes the scholarship provision should have received a full airing instead of being dropped in the final budget.  “He doesn’t like the process” says his spokesman, Bill Holmes.

But the Speaker was not an observer of the process.  He was in charge.

I advised the Speaker and the House Democratic Leadership that if they tried to slip things into the budget in violation of House Rule 44(b) that I would raise that as a point of order.  Forewarned that I would do that, they slipped in dozens and dozens of items like this, some of much more importance, including an extra $400 million dollars of spending.

The audio of the point of order and the Speaker's ruling is attached and a list of many of the special provisions involved appears beneath my signature below.

Previously under the reign of Speaker Black the rules were generally ignored.  In 2007 the Rules of the House were generally followed, except with respect to the final budget in which the most important rule was obliterated, at great cost to the taxpayers.

Here is a compilation of last-minute items added to the budget without debate, against the rules of the House. Speaker Hackney says he sees nothing wrong with these actions. You be the judge.

(News & Observer update on just the athletic scholarships.)

Who needs a legislature?

Apparently not self-appointed King Easley.  Today, His Majesty decided not to wait on the Constitutionally empowered General Assembly to set a budget and fund government programs and used High Proclamation of his Royal powers to spend $114 million of confiscated funds of his plebes on his own pet projects.

$114 million on More at Four and class size reduction programs... Remind me again what the lottery is for?

His decree to spend money without the approval of the General Assembly seems eerily akin to taxation (and spending) without representation.

Maybe we should hold a tea party at Southport marina.

Self-serving?

Yesterday, the Honorables in the NC House passed HB 1687 by a vote of 104-4.  This bill would increase the mileage reimbursement rate for legislators to 48.5 cents per mile.

Now, everyone knows the story of Rep. Larry Womble and his new ride.  So would it surprise anyone when his comments to the Associated Press are, "Hallelujah, it's more than past time."

I guess he needs a bump up in the mileage rate to pay for all the gas he's burning in a car that gets about 10 mpg.

On the Calendar

Looking ahead to next week at the General Assembly, a few significant or significantly interesting bills are scheduled to be discussed in committee.

Tuesday:
House Judiciary II Committee looks at HB 598 by Rep. George Cleveland (R-Onslow) that would levy a 5% tax on wire transfers of illegal immigrants.

Wednesday:
House Science and Technology Committee will discuss HB 1837 sponsored by Rep. Earl Jones (D-Guilford) which would set as policy of the State of NC that embryonic stem cells can be used for research and appropriates $10 million towards research projects.

The Senate Health Care Committee will take up HB 973 the mental health parity bill.  Will the Senate try to remove the Charles Thomas Amendment that exempts businesses under 25 employees from the mandate?  Will the Senate try and put back in language requiring coverage of substance abuse?

Hook, Line, Sinker

You know the old saying about how if you repeat something enough times, no matter what the veracity, that people will start believing them?

Well, it seems to have happened with the Associated Press and their esteemed reporter Gary Robertson.

Note this quote from Rep. Paul Luebke (D-Durham) on Monday, May 7, 2007 regarding the NC House's budget continuing the $300 million in temporary taxes:

Without the extra money, "there's no way to meet the educational and health care needs of the state," said Rep. Paul Luebke, D-Durham, co-chairman of the House Finance Committee.

Now read this quote from the same reporter from yesterday when describing the differences between the House and Senate budgets:

The House's two-year budget approved earlier this month keeps a quarter-penny on the sales tax and a higher income tax bracket for the state's top wage-earners for another two years. Those moves add about $300 million to the government coffers next year to pay for education and health care needs.

Out of a $20.3 billion budget, the argument can be made that the $300 million in additional taxes could be used to pay for anything in the budget, so why does Robertson echo the words of Rep. Luebke and claim that the increased taxes are used for education and health care?

Minimum Wage Blues

Congress, in exchange for caving on war funding, must have struck a deal to get in their economically unsound minimum wage legislation that is sure to hit to small businesses particularly hard. I have argued elsewhere that this type of intervention in the economy is a bad idea for a number of reasons. Congressional lefties clearly don't understand the nuances of labor supply and demand -- clouded as they are by meaningless concepts such as "living wage." Alas, here we have another blow against the margins of businesses already plagued by the price of healthcare they've been saddled with the responsibility for providing due to our skewed tax code. Sigh. No joy watching these government circuses in our state and in Washington trying to fix and plan our economy like 'intelligent designers.'

Unemployment up

The NC Employment Security Commission reported today that the unemployment rate for April jumped from 4.5% to 4.8%.

Sure would be a good time for some good ole' economic stimulus.

Hmm... what do you think might be a good idea for that?

Maybe something like $300 million in temporary taxes we've been owed for 4 years?

Electing a President

Last night, the NC Senate passed SB 954 which would enter the State of North Carolina into a compact with other states that gives each state's electoral college votes to whoever wins a plurality of the national popular vote for President.

I'll save you all the "intent of the Founding Fathers'" and the urban v. rural arguments for another time and just point out two huge problems with moving to a popular election of President.

First, with North Carolina's  hugely restrictive ballot access provisions, it is theoretically possible for North Carolina to give all 15 of its electoral votes to a person who did not receive a single vote for President in the state.  For example, a headline in the Washington Times today: "Bloomberg poised to spend $1 billion to run for President."  Under a popular election scenario, Mayor Bloomberg would not need to campaign or be on the ballot in all 50 states.  He could strategically target the states that could get him a plurality of the popular vote and ignore other states.  If his poll numbers were horrendous in North Carolina, he could choose to ignore the state, not even attempt to gather the signatures to be on the ballot, and focus his time and money on states where he could gain the most votes.

Second, the potential for a nationwide recount and legal challenges.  Imagine what happened in Florida in 2000 on a nationwide scale.  That should be enough to scare anyone away from this proposal.

N.C. Budget Roundup

For a roundup of Civitas policy briefs on the N.C. state budget, visit here.