RALEIGH, N.C.— Thursday was the end of this year’s main work session in the North Carolina General Assembly. They overrode Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s vetoes, put a constitutional change about citizens and voting on the November ballot, and sent many more bills to Cooper’s desk.
But after two months of work, the legislature, which is mostly made up of Republicans, failed to pass a complete budget adjustment bill for the next year. People tried to get more constitutional referendums on the ballot but failed. And bills that dealt with other controversial issues failed to pass.
“I wish we could have done more.” After the Senate passed a motion to end the session, leader Phil Berger told reporters, “I think if we had gotten more done, we’d have a little more to talk about.” Berger also said, “There was a lot of useful work that was done.”
From the start of the fiscal year on July 1, the two chambers couldn’t agree on how much more to spend. Some of the things that were talked about were whether teachers and other state workers should get raises that are bigger than what was planned in the second year of the state budget that was already passed.
The Senate and the House both agreed to set aside $67.5 million to help child care centers that might have to close after their federal grants ran out for six months. However, they couldn’t agree on how to spend close to $500 million on scholarships and other funds for K–12 students to go to private schools or get services. After the General Assembly removed income limits for Opportunity Scholarships this year, there were a lot more applications and kids on waiting lines. GOP leaders in both houses made getting the money a top priority to deal with the problem.
The Senate sent the House a separate spending bill for these private school programs. But, according to House Speaker Tim Moore, members wanted the private school money to come with higher spending on public schools as part of a budget bill. It looks like tens of thousands of families will miss out, at least for now.
As the day began, Moore told reporters, “It would be a real shame and a missed opportunity if we don’t get those Opportunity Scholarship dollars out.” We need to make sure we do everything we can for our public schools at the same time.
Moore said late Thursday night that he hoped the money would be approved in time for the start of the school year.
They will still have another chance to work on these and other issues. For the rest of the year, the General Assembly officially decided to meet again for short sessions from time to time. These sessions would mostly be for veto overrides and emergencies, but they would also be used to talk about bigger issues.
Thursday, the Republican leadership was able to override Cooper’s three vetoes so far this year. This continued a winning streak that began last year when all 19 of Cooper’s vetoes were overturned. The GOP has small margins in both houses, which means they can’t be vetoed. After the House voted on Wednesday, the Senate finished overriding bills that change the state’s rules on face masks, youth prosecutions, and billboard care.
The constitutional amendment that will be on the ballot wants to change parts of the state law that make it clear that only U.S. citizens who are at least 18 years old and meet other requirements can vote. It is already against the law for people who are not citizens to vote, but some supporters of the amendment say that the current wording in the constitution could be questioned to allow people who are not citizens to vote.
Other questions about amendments were only approved by one house. A literacy test for registering to vote was used for decades to keep Black people from voting, but the House passed an amendment that tries to get rid of it. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 made it illegal, and it has not been enforced since. A bill with two changes was also passed by the Senate. One changed the maximum income tax rate from 7% to 5%, and the other made it clear that photo ID is also needed for mail-in voting.
In the last few days, lawmakers did achieve other goals. They sent bills to Cooper that would break new laws against sex abuse and extortion and help stop the trafficking of people. The two houses also agreed on a joint bill that will allow criminal charges to be automatically dropped when they are dropped or when a person is found “not guilty.” These kinds of withdrawals had been put on hold since August 2022 while problems with carrying out the expunctions were fixed.
But the negotiators were not able to come up with a final bill that would require sheriffs and jailers to hold people who are thought to be in the country illegally when asked to do so by the federal government. Sen. Danny Britt, a Republican from Robeson County and a mediator said that the House and Senate couldn’t agree on what to do about a sheriff who still didn’t follow the rules.
The Senate also tried to make it legal for people to use marijuana for medical reasons, but not enough House Republicans supported it, even though it was attached to a bill that put strict limits on nationally legal hemp products.
Source: AP
