Barry Smith - In the Loop

The legislative process is slow, as supporters of the Jessica Lunsford Act have found out. The House approved the bill last year in the waning days of the General Assembly session, after the Senate had shut down its committees. Last week, the Senate approved the bill.

Jessica’s Law establishes a minimum sentence of 25 years for an adult who rapes a child younger than 13, requires lifetime GPS monitoring for those released for committing such crimes, tightens sex offender registry timetables and prohibits such offenders from going on the premises of places where children normally congregate.

The House finally got the bill back Monday night. Since the Senate made a few changes – mostly technically – the House has to give final approval before going to Gov. Mike Easley for his signature.

Most bills go directly to the floor for a final vote on whether the House agrees with the Senate changes. That’s called a “concurrence” vote.

However, occasionally, a bill gets sent back committee beforehand. That’s what happened to the bill containing Jessica’s Law. It got sent to a House Judiciary committee. That means its track to becoming law got a little longer.

Both major party nominees for governor were in the Legislative Building today. Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory, the GOP nominee, met with Republican legislators and joined their press conference before the session got under way. He said he would return next week to help push anti-gang legislation.

Democratic nominee Beverly Perdue was also at 16 W. Jones St. Perdue, the state’s lieutenant governor, gaveled the Senate session to order as the 2008 short session of the General Assembly got under way.

The 2008 short session of the General Assembly is under way. Among other things, legislators will be considering Gov. Mike Easley’s proposed $21.5 billion budget.

A few thoughts:

– Easley’s proposal to raise sin taxes (the cigarette tax and alcohol taxes) is sure to meet with resistance. House speaker Joe Hackney, D-Orange, said he doesn’t expect that to fly.

– There seems to be some concern about the disparity in pay raises for teachers (an average 7 percent) and state employees (4 percent). Both Democratic and Republican leaders in the House said that was unsettling.

– Transportation boosters seem a bit somber, with the economic downturn resulting in a forecast of lower revenues. They’re still pushing for a phase-out of the transfer of funds that go from the Highway Trust Fund to the general fund, along with money to supplement tolls to help build turnpikes.

A watchdog group is calling on boards of elections across North Carolina to be prepared for an onslaught of voters in the May 6 primary and at early voting sites which open across the state on Thursday.

“It’s like preparing for a hurricane and a week-long rock concert at the same time,” Bob Hall, executive director of Democracy North Carolina, said in an press release sent out by email. “Officials need to plan for every contingency, add extra personnel, anticipate where bottlenecks will happen and keep educating the public about changes in conditions.”

The admonishment reminds me of election night in November 1980, when, as a reporter for the Burlington Times-News, I was at the Alamance County Courthouse and learned that there had been a ballot shortage in Rockingham County. That was the election where Ronald Reagan defeated Jimmy Carter for president.

The ballot shortage was significant to us because, at the time, Rockingham County was in the same congressional district as Alamance County and there was a close race for the congressional seat between incumbent Democratic Rep. L. Richardson Preyer and Republican challenger Gene Johnston.

I ended up traveling to Wentworth, the Rockingham County seat, that night to get results from balloting and cover the ballot shortage. I spent the night in a Reidsville hotel and wrote my stories the next morning. We were an afternoon paper then, so that gave me time to get the full story in the paper the next day.

It appears that the turnout by the Reagan Revolution surprised the local elections board. Elections officials said that the ballot shortage was actually more of a ballot distribution problem. Ballots were redistributed and voters who had originally not been allowed to vote because the precinct ran out of ballots got to do so by the end of the day.

If my memory serves me correctly, sheriff’s deputies offered those voters rides back to the polling places if they needed them.

Should the General Assembly spending powers be limited? Americans for Prosperity-North Carolina, a conservative policy organization based in Raleigh, thinks so.

AFP-NC is pushing what’s called a “Taxpayer Bill of Rights,” also dubbed TABOR, which would limit the General Assembly’s authority to increase spending to the inflation rate plus the increase in population. Five gubernatorial candidates have signed on supporting that proposal.

Two that haven’t are the major Democratic candidates, Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue and Treasurer Richard Moore.
Supporting the spending restraints are Libertarian Michael Munger along with four Republicans, former N.C. Supreme Court Justice Bob Orr, Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory, Salisbury attorney and activist Bill Graham and Johnston County state Sen. Fred Smith.

It will take some constitutional discipline if such spending control is to become reality. State government doesn’t have the self-discipline to effect such spending restraints. Earlier in his tenure, Gov. Mike Easley tried to restrain spending to growth in personal income of North Carolinians. That hasn’t worked. During the 1990s, when the economy was booming, money was plentiful and Republicans held majorities in the state House, the General Assembly went on a spending spree.

The North Carolina population has also got to decide if it really wants a state government that’s fiscally tight-fisted. I haven’t seen that reflected in election results in recent years, to any significant degree. It is important to note, however, that voters did turn down land transfer taxes in referendums last fall. We’ll see in a few weeks if that trend continues.

In addition to limiting spending, the Taxpayer Bill of Rights would set up a budget stabilization fund, sort of like a rainy day fund, for surplus revenue. That money could be used during economic slowdowns to avert major budget cuts. Once money in that fund reaches a certain threshold, money would be rebated to taxpayers. It would also set up a mechanism for higher spending or tax increases, should there be a public demand for it. Those increases would likely require either a vote of the people or a supermajority in both the House and the Senate.

One state, Colorado, has a Taxpayer Bill of Rights. Dallas Woodhouse, AFP-NC’s state director, said that on occasion, spending increases have been approved on the local level.

What would you do during the spring if you didn’t have to file taxes? How would you spend your free weekends if you didn’t have to read those instructions or make sure you were placing an entry on the correct line?

Singer-songwriter Carla Howell ponders those questions in her song, “How Could I Live Without Filing Taxes?” Howell sponsored a 2002 initiative to end the income tax in Massachusetts. It is on the ballot again this year.”

Click here to listen to the song. Remember to turn your speakers up.

The House by a 109-5 vote has expelled state Rep. Thomas Wright from the House.

“A vacancy exists in the 18^th House District, House Speaker Joe Hackney, D-Orange, said after the vote. “The chair directs the sergeant-at-arms to escort former Rep. Wright from the floor.”

The vote came after the House turned back an effort for a lesser penalty, censure. That effort was introduced by Rep. Earl Jones, D-Guilford, who said that censure would be more practical.

Wright has asked the House not to take the action today, saying he will soon go on trial, which would make action by the House unnecessary.

Supporters of expulsion, including Rep. Rick Glazier, D-Cumberland, and Rep. Skip Stam, R-Wake, argued that expulsion was the only sanction to protect the integrity of the House.

The House has convened to consider expelling state Rep. Thomas Wright, D-New Hanover, for misusing approximately $340,000 in loans and charitable and campaign contributions.

If Wright is expelled, he would be the first member of the General Assembly removed from office by expulsion in 130 years.

The House rules adopted for the special session require that two-thirds of the membership will be required for expulsion, meaning 80 members must vote to expel him for him to be removed from office. Another possible result could be a censure of Wright.

Wright is attending the session, sitting in his first-row seat, along with two attorneys.

The N.C. Education Lottery won a victory today. The N.C. Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 decision, upheld the act that created the lottery.

One of the major issues has to do with the way the law was passed. Article II Section 23 of the N.C. Constitution requires that certain laws which raise taxes or raise money on the credit of the state be passed over a drawn out period. Such bills have various stages, called readings, in the House and the Senate. Each bill has three readings. In the case of bills raising taxes or raising money on the credit of the state, those three readings must all come on separate days, with roll call votes being required for the second and third readings.

That didn’t occur in either the House or the Senate. The question thus becomes, basically, is a lottery legally a tax? Apparently, the Court of Appeals doesn’t think so.

Since the ruling was a split decision, and not a unanimous one, the losing parties have an automatic right to appeal to the N.C. Supreme Court. Stay tuned.

Embattled state Rep. Thomas Wright could be expelled from the House as early as next Thursday.

House Speaker Joe Hackney, D-Orange, has asked Gov. Mike Easley to call a special session of the General Assembly to consider the allegations of ethics violations against Wright, D-New Hanover. A committee investigating Wright has recommended his expulsion after finding “clear and convincing evidence” that he misused $340,000 in loans and charitable and campaign contributions.

Wright is scheduled to go on trial in Wake County Superior Court later this month on similar criminal charges.

Hackney has asked the governor to call the session for Thursday, March 20, at 10 a.m.