NCGA Overrides Five Perdue Vetoes — Who Benefits?

Republicans claimed victory last week after waging a historic campaign to reverse Gov. Bev Perdue’s objections to several of their top legislative priorities, but experts say the political fallout isn’t so easy to explain.

With the help of a handful of conservative-leaning Democrats in the House, the GOP majority successfully overrode Perdue’s vetoes of five bills, including those addressing tort reform, abortion restrictions, and a regulatory overhaul. The bills now become law.

At the same time, Democrats warded off an attempt by the Republican majority to override Perdue’s vetoes of measures to require a voter ID, expand natural gas drilling off North Carolina’s coast, and eliminate an automatic dues check-off option for the 60,000-member N.C. Association of Educators.

Taking the session as a whole, both chambers of the legislature have overridden six out of Perdue’s record-breaking 15 vetoes. The General Assembly’s previous override was of the $19.7 billion budget.

Campaign issue

Of last week’s five votes, analysts say that the abortion measure — House Bill 854, Abortion-Woman’s Right to Know — could get the most play in the election next year.

“That’s an issue that both ways really motivates people,” said N.C. State University political science professor Steven Greene. “You’re looking at people being genuinely afraid of electoral consequences from both sides.”

Democrats will portray the bill as a Republican crusade to reshape the social fabric of North Carolina, said Michael Bitzer, an associate professor of political science and history at Catawba College in Salisbury.

“It is a useful and powerful campaign technique to sell ‘threats’ to one’s political base, and will probably be the main selling point that the Democrats will use in next year’s campaign,” he said.

H.B. 854, which takes effect in October, establishes a 24-hour waiting period before an abortion and requires physicians to inform women of abortion alternatives and offer them a chance to view an ultrasound image of their unborn child.

The veto override passed the House 72-47 after Rep. Jim Crawford, D-Granville, switched his vote. In the Senate, excused absences from Republican Sens. Richard Stevens of Wake County and Stan Bingham of Davidson County ensured the override’s passage in a 29-19 vote.

Bingham originally voted against the bill in the Senate, and Stevens did not vote. Their absence made a three-fifths majority — the requirement for a veto override — only 29 votes, which pro-life Republicans had.

Reg, tort reform overrides

When Republicans took over as the majority party in January, regulatory and tort reform were two of their top objectives. To meet the first goal, the legislature approved House Bill 781, Regulatory Reform Act of 2011. It largely reflected Perdue’s executive order last year easing burdensome rules and regulations on private businesses, but the governor claimed in her veto message that certain provisions are unconstitutional.

Lawmakers disagreed, voting 48-0 in the Senate and 76-42 in the House to overcome the veto and make the bill law.

Party faithful on both sides will pay attention to the regulatory reform bill, but voters who don’t keep up with the ebb and flow of Raleigh politics probably won’t, Greene said. “It’s not the sort of thing that’s going to be running in political ads or showing up in mailers next year,” he said.

In the second instance, earlier this year legislators navigated a tangled process that pitted lawyers against doctors to pass Senate Bill 33, Medical Liability Reforms. The bill caps awards for noneconomic damages at $500,000 unless the defendant can prove gross negligence and “disfigurement, loss of use of part of the body, permanent injury or death.” It also expands protections for emergency-room doctors who face malpractice suits.

Perdue objected because S.B. 33 doesn’t provide an exception for “catastrophic injuries,” but the Senate overrode her veto 35-12 and the House 74-42. The bill now becomes law.

The House succeeded in overriding two other vetoes last week — those of Senate Bill 496, Medicaid and Health Choice Provider Req., and Senate Bill 532, ESC/Jobs Reform.

“The overrides show the strength and power of a resurgent GOP in control of the legislature,” Bitzer said.

Left on the table

House Republicans fell short in their quest to cull enough votes to override vetoes on three other measures:

• Senate Bill 709, Energy Jobs Act: Would expand North Carolina’s ability to drill for natural gas off its coast. Includes provision allowing lawmakers to study hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” as a way to extract natural gas on land. Also asks Perdue to enter into a regional compact with Virginia and South Carolina on the issue. The Senate overrode Perdue’s veto, 31-17, July 13.

• Senate Bill 727, No Dues Checkoff for School Employees: Right now, dues to the N.C. Association of Educators are deducted from teachers’ paychecks automatically, unless they opt out. The bill would reverse the situation so that teachers must choose to join the NCAE. The Senate voted 30-18 July 13 to override.

• House Bill 351, Restore Confidence in Government: Would require voters to show valid photo identification at the polls. In a failed attempt to override, the House on Tuesday voted 68-51, four votes short of the needed three-fourths majority.

Except for the voter ID bill, Republicans steered clear of votes on the other two measures because they lacked enough Democratic support to achieve 72 votes. That leaves the bills in play when the legislature meets again later this year to pass constitutional amendments, or next year during the short session.

David N. Bass is an associate editor of Carolina Journal.