Republicans spent a long time yearning for power in the state capital.
Now that they have it, they have no plans to waste it, or take their time using it.
When the General Assembly convenes this week for another lawmaking session, the Republicans, who now control both the House and Senate, plan to quickly parlay their 2010 election successes into changes in state laws.
Immediate plans include requiring photo identification to vote, lifting the 100-school cap on charter schools and passing budget amendments to limit spending in the current year, to make it easier to balance the next budget.
Rep. Paul Stam, R-Wake, the House majority leader, said consideration of those changes and others could come soon after the Legislature convenes on Wednesday.
“We’ll be busy the first day and first week and first month,” Stam said this week.
He said he believed there was enough support among Republicans in the House and Senate to make the changes, at least some of which will be strongly contested.
“I would hope and expect they’ll be passed,” Stam said.
Voter ID
For starters, the new GOP majority plans to seek a law requiring voters to present photo identification before voting.
“We want to make sure that the person who votes is qualified to vote and only votes once,” Stam said.
Rep. Frank Iler, R-Brunswick, said he planned sign on as a co-sponsor of the legislation. It would ensure that voters cast ballots in the proper districts, he said.
Iler deemed it an “additional safeguard … to ensure all votes are counted, but not more than once.”
A recent poll by the conservative, Raleigh-based Civitas Institute showed N.C. voters strongly support photo ID – such as a driver’s license or passport – requirements at the polls.
“The new majority in the General Assembly will be encouraged by these results and voters’ strong backing for reform,” said Civitas Institute President Francis De Luca.
But the idea has plenty of critics, who argue in part that the requirement could stifle already struggling voter-turnout numbers by discouraging those without a photo ID from going to the polls.
Bob Hall, executive director of Democracy North Carolina, questioned the validity of the Civitas poll, saying 99 percent of the respondents said they had a valid ID. Hall said he believed a much higher percentage of voters likely don’t have an ID with a current address.
Hall also pointed out that it’s already a felony to vote illegally and said voter fraud cases are rare in North Carolina.
He questioned Republicans’ motives, saying he believed that it would affect mainly voters who don’t typically side with the GOP, including minorities, students, people with disabilities and poor voters who don’t have a current ID.
“It’s about political power, tinged with racism,” Hall said in a prepared statement.
Rep. Susi Hamilton, D-New Hanover, who is beginning her first term in the 120-member House, represents a Wilmington-area district with many minorities. She said she agrees with critics who say the law would disproportionately affect poorer, older and minority voters.
“I think they’re targeting certain demographics and a poorer segment of our population and using taxpayer dollars to do it,” Hamilton said.
She also said that Republicans preach less bureaucracy and less government, but that requiring IDs of voters would seem to fly in the face of that.
But supporters of the idea say there’s little evidence to show that any segment of the population would be more affected by the change. And Stam said the legislation would allow voters to bring their voter card that they get from their local boards of elections as an alternative to a photo ID. It’s unclear exactly what changes will be proposed; bills can’t be filed until the legislative session begins.
Nine states now demand a photo ID, and 18 others require some form of identification to vote.
Republicans have also said they planned to introduce a bill that would repeal the authority of counties to hold referendums to enact 0.4 percent land-transfer taxes. Voters in more than 20 counties have voted down such taxes, and no counties have approved them.
Removing the cap on the number of charter schools allowed in the state is also on the GOP’s quick-hit list.
The N.C. Association of Educators, which has been fighting efforts to raise the limit on charter schools for about as long as the state has had them, has reversed its position.
President Sheri Strickland said this week that its OK with NCAE if the 100-school cap is lifted but that it should go up gradually so the State Board of Education and the Office of Charter Schools can provide the proper oversight.
“We understand lifting the cap on charter schools is a campaign promise the new leadership plans to fulfill,” Strickland said in a statement. “We support their efforts to lift the cap if it’s done to ensure every child in charter schools is given access to a quality eduation.”
Charters should pay their teachers more, Strickland said, and the state should require charters to hire more licensed teachers.
Such changes are part of a 10-point plan Republicans circulated during last year’s election season.
Meanwhile, Republicans plan to mark their rise to power with special gavels made by N.C. craftsmen using wood from the state tree, the longleaf pine.
“I was looking for something thoughtful to mark the beginning of a session that will see Republicans assume control of the General Assembly for the first time in nearly 140 years,” said Rep. Thom Tillis, R-Mecklenburg, who is expected to become House speaker.
Tillis will get a handmade gavel, as will Sen. Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, the presumptive president pro tempore of the state Senate.
By Patrick Gannon
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Published: Saturday, January 22, 2011 at 3:30 a.m.
