Editorial: N.C. budget bill wasn't about money. Power grabs, attacks on citizen rights and more equal BIG problems

CBC Editorial: Sunday, Sept. 24, 2023; editorial #8877
The following is the opinion of Capitol Broadcasting Company

Some REAL and IMPORTANT numbers behind the North Carolina General Assembly, the enactment of the state budget and legislators’ duty to do the people’s business in an open and transparent way.

What picture do these numbers reveal? Much more than the number of pages in the budget bill has increased by 173% over the last 20 years or that the number of bills passed has dropped by better than 55%.

They vividly illustrate how much of what becomes law today is concocted and enacted outside the intended legislative process. The truth is there aren’t fewer laws being changed or less new laws adopted these days. It is just that now they’re hatched behind closed doors, connected together with verbal baling wire and twine then all crammed into a single piece of legislation that’s sprung on other legislators and the public in an unintelligible heap. It’s a take-it-or-leave-it deal.

That is not the way of a truly representative government. That process – taught to 4th graders in every state public school -- is supposed to provide citizens with information to hold elected representatives accountable for their actions and the product of their work.

Public introduction of bills, discussion and opportunities for public input through transparent disclosures and accessible consideration in committee meetings, floor debates in the state House and Senate – all this enables those of us who entrust legislators to act on our behalf to be assured they are responsive and responsible.

That is how a representative democracy – as intended by our nation and state’s founders – is supposed to work. It’s even in a booklet about the legislature produced by the University of North Carolina School of Government.

But as the sad story of the numbers above vividly illustrates – the democracy intended by the Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution and North Carolina Constitution – is being trampled upon.

We witnessed the latest stampede with this week’s passage of the inaccurately titled the “2023 Appropriations Act.” It is far less a bill about state spending than it is a legislative garbage truck – a vehicle for scores of non–spending legislation the leadership wants hidden from their constituents so there’s no discussion, debates or full disclosure.

The topics range from vaccine exemptions and how kids should learn to read to allowing judges to carry guns in courtrooms and setting up a secret legislative bureau of investigation that could act on the whim of Senate leader Phil Berger or House Speaker Tim Moore – without any other consultation or approval.

Berger and Moore have sweeping new powers to investigate the executive branch other state and local government agencies as well as private companies that receive state dollars. Further, those involved in the investigation are required to keep them secret. Those Berger and Moore might feel were not fully forthcoming or cooperative could be charged with crimes.

In this “budget bill” Information legislators create and obtain at the behest of their public service would become their personal property – not the publics' – for them to hide or dispose of as they wish. Legislators on a whim, not based on the law, will decide what records are public.

Gov. Roy Cooper has announced he will hold his nose – and his pen – to allow this rubbish pile to become law without his signature for the sake of getting long-denied health care to 600,000 more people in the state as well as help rural hospitals via Medicaid expansion.

That cannot be the end of Cooper’s actions concerning this horrible legislation. We urge him -- through his own mandates or via lawsuits – to work around and challenge elements of this legislative compilation that:

• Conflict with the state Constitution’s separation of powers mandate.
• Fail to uphold the state Constitution’s promise to give EVERY child access to a quality education.
• Jeopardize the state’s environment, health and safety.
• Neglect public employees and their ability to provide basic government services.

Legislative service is a privilege granted by voters to their elected representatives.

It is not an anointment to autocratic power for the imposition of impulsive whims.

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