Expect Short Session To Live Up To Its Name

This week’s “Daily Journal” guest columnist is Becki Gray (@BeckiGray), John Locke Foundation Vice President for Outreach.

RALEIGH — The General Assembly reconvenes Wednesday for its short session. Traditionally, legislators use this session to make adjustments to the two-year budget passed during the long session and to address any pressing or unfinished business.

With runoff elections in July and majority control at stake in legislative races, lawmakers want to get in and out of Raleigh without stirring up any controversial issues and back on the campaign trail as quickly as possible.

Legislative leaders have said it will be a very short short session, adjourning between mid-June and July 4. That leaves fewer than 30 legislative days to tend to the people’s business.

There will be budget adjustments. There will be no tax increases. The economy is still struggling, and money will continue to be tight. Any extra dollars may allow state employees to get a small raise and lawmakers to set aside more money in reserve.

Some state parks and attractions may be closed during off-peak hours to save money. Any cuts Gov. Bev Perdue includes in her budget will be considered; her tax increase proposals will not. Overall, government will get smaller.

Bills the governor vetoed that have not been overridden remain eligible for an override. They include the Energy Jobs Act, repeal of the Racial Justice Act, and the requirement that voters provide photo ID at the polls.

Two hundred eighty-five bills cleared one legislative chamber and crossed over to the other to remain eligible for consideration during the short session. They include setting up a health exchange to administer ObamaCare (if it survives U.S. Supreme Court review), establishing nutrition standards for food sold at schools, increasing accountability for publicly funded nonprofits, shortening the early voting period, restoring partisan labels in judicial elections, and analyzing and assessing economic development subsidies (i.e., crony capitalism programs).

In 2011, lawmakers amended forced annexation laws to give citizens a voice through a petition process. Several cities circumvented the authority of the legislature, filed a lawsuit, and got a Superior Court decision saying a petition of property owners was not allowed. In the short session, expect pending annexations to be declared invalid, and the petition process changed to a simple majority election, giving property owners a voice in annexation.

North Carolina’s ban on natural gas exploration may be lifted, but in its place lawmakers may impose a moratorium to continue studying whether North Carolina is ready for hydraulic fracturing. A recent study by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Department of Commerce indicated fracking could be done safely and with positive economic impact. Jobs, energy independence, and economic recovery seem to be good reasons to proceed.

A dental management bill that passed the Senate may get some consideration from the House. It would place additional restrictions on contracts between dentists and dental management organizations.

Opponents claim the bill is an overreach and would impose so many regulations that few management companies would be interested in coming here. Proponents claim the dental industry needs protection against corporations’ interests in maximizing profits and to protect patients’ interests.

Education will focus on kids and classrooms, with less attention to the demands of the teachers’ union. Issues on the table include providing tax credits for companies that underwrite scholarships for K-12 students, eliminating tenure for teachers, and stopping social promotions for kids who aren’t ready for the next grade.

With nine new charter schools opening in August, 61 new applications for the following year, and record numbers of families applying for the few openings that are available, look for more talk about the value of school choice and less on the (unfounded) argument that choice destroys pubic education.

Heavy lifting on issues like tax reform, natural gas exploration, unemployment insurance debt repayment, state government restructuring, sale of public assets, and additional regulatory reform will wait until 2013.

The short session should be noncontroversial and, well, short.