Lawmakers wrap up marathon (Charlotte Observer)
After N.C. House and Senate finish crammed session at 5:30 a.m. Saturday, both parties claim victories.
RALEIGH — After all the bills, motions and votes of this legislative session, it’s time for N.C. legislators to go home and explain themselves.
Democrats, who were the majority, will talk about saving teacher jobs in the face of a disastrous economic situation. They’ve already started telling voters about tax credits and other programs meant to lure business and spur job growth. They’ll claim the mantle of reform because of an ethics and good-government package that was one of the last items approved.
“We have a good platform to leave on,” said Senate Leader Marc Basnight, a Manteo Democrat.
Republicans have a lot to say about the things that didn’t get done. They say the Democrats had low ambitions and put off important decisions – such as how to deal with an expected $3 billion shortfall next year. As it is, the current $18.9 billion budget delays until January cuts that will be necessary because Congress is unlikely to send to the state $500 million in Medicaid money.
“They were trying to do the least harm they could,” said Rep. Thom Tillis, a Cornelius Republican. “You saw bills that were carefully crafted to do the best they could to help themselves in November.”
Like schoolchildren with a project due, legislators crammed throughout the final week. In the last 24 hours, sessions were stop-and-start affairs that carried on until 5:30 a.m. Saturday. After a marathon week of pushing final bills, committee meetings and debates, the House and Senate wrapped up with a traditional ceremony – hugs and well wishes that looked an awful lot like the end of summer camp.
Republicans cleared out of the chamber. They may have good reason to look toward the fall. Because of a national mood that appears to be tilting against incumbents, especially Democrats, Republicans believe they have the advantage heading into this fall’s elections, when every seat in the legislature will be before voters. Democrats now control both chambers, but it’s not certain who will be in charge after November.
It is unlikely that voters will pick their senators and representatives based on how they voted on a particular amendment or whether they made the best floor speech. Instead, campaigns will focus on, and voters will respond to, big themes or hot-button issues.
“The Democrats, it seems to me, didn’t give Republicans any real ammunition like a tax increase,” said Gary Pearce, a longtime Democratic consultant and strategist.
Given how bad the fiscal situation was, the Democrats did a pretty good job handling the political situation, Pearce said. “It seemed to be a political version of the Hippocratic oath. Do no harm. And they didn’t.”
But Democrats did raise taxes last year to cope with a budget shortfall that was as large as $4.6 billion.
“They’re going to have to defend that,” said Dallas Woodhouse, state director of Americans for Prosperity, a libertarian advocacy group. “It makes it harder to pass things like taxpayer-funded elections.”
Woodhouse was referring to a proposal that was originally attached to the Senate’s ethics reforms. The provision would have included a broad expansion of publicly funded campaigns for statewide elected officials. The provision died almost immediately after Woodhouse’s group had former Charlotte mayor and Republican candidate for governor Pat McCrory record a robocall against it.
Woodhouse can also claim credit for swiftly watering down a bill that dealt with nutrition standards in day cares.
Republicans said the bill was a step toward “a nanny state” because it would have prohibited serving chocolate milk and juice boxes to children. Democrats argued the state already regulates nutrition and the bill followed the guidelines of a legislative task force that had studied the issue. Calls from Americans for Prosperity targeted conservative-leaning Democratic districts, and soon the bill was altered to only a set of suggestions.
Democrats in the Senate can crow about a ban on video sweepstakes parlors. The games rose out of the state’s ban on video poker, and Senate Democrats, led by Basnight, pushed a bill that sought to put the 900 parlors out of business.
“It would have been awful if North Carolina had allowed the growth of that sort of operation,” Basnight said.
The Senate forced the House to act. Democrats in the House, who were divided on video sweepstakes parlors, had previously agreed to not take action this session. When the vote came, several Democrats argued over whether killing the industry’s 10,000 jobs would hurt the state’s already struggling economy.
Speaker of the House Joe Hackney said Democrats can take credit for measures on jobs and ethics. They funded programs and provisions to stop waste, fraud and abuse in Medicaid. The budget includes provisions to save teacher jobs with the use of lottery money.
Democrats have already started campaigning on moves they said will save jobs and spur small business. Hackney noted that once the session ends, he intends to start campaigning in his own district, where he faces a Republican challenger.
On Friday, during a break in sessions, he deflected Republican criticisms of how Democrats had handled the session.
“I’ve found that political rhetoric has little or nothing to do with what goes on down here,” said Hackney, an Orange County Democrat.
By Benjamin Niolet
[email protected]
Posted: Sunday, Jul. 11, 2010
Read more: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/07/11/1555770/lawmakers-wrap-up-marathon.html#ixzz0tTsS8cvI
