RALEIGH – The 2005 session of the North Carolina General Assembly appeared to wind down early Wednesday morning after an all-nighter, the passage of some key bills such as a welcome lobbying-reform measure, and a spirited lottery push that came up a little short.
But House Speaker Jim Black essentially said, “Hey, not so fast. We’re still working here.”
While the Senate worked past sunrise and then sent everyone home – for good, according to leadership – the House took a break for a little shut-eye and then reconvened Wednesday afternoon. Black said there were still bills he wanted to take up, and even to send over to the Senate for concurrence.
For example, Pitt, Lee, and dozens of other counties are seeking legislative permission for some sort of sales-tax increase to fund school construction or other needs in their communities. Either because he agrees on the merits or because he hasn’t quite given up yet on the lottery bill he worked so hard to enact in the House earlier this year, Black said he thought it was critical that the Senate approve the sales-tax legislation because “[u]ntil we get a lottery or some other kind of funding for schools, we ought to give these counties another way.”
This is a spurious argument, really. Under the amendments already enacted within the 2005-07 budget bill, only 40 percent of the annual proceeds of a government lottery would go to help fund school construction. The revenue flow wouldn’t be enough to build many schools in fast-growing counties, and no county commissions that I know of took the position that their push for more sales-tax authority was conditional on not getting a state lottery through the General Assembly.
They’d want the authority, anyway. Sales taxes aren’t as visible as property taxes to most people, making them less unpopular to hike. Plus, the need for legislative permission for a sales-tax increase muddies up the lines of accountability in ways that many politicians see as helpful, regardless of how much they grumble about it publicly. Local officials can say that “the legislature has already approved this higher sales tax, so we are just implementing it,” while lawmakers can say that “all we did was give local governments the authority – they are the ones deciding whether your taxes are going up.”
Senate leader Marc Basnight had an interesting take on the session’s disputed end, saying that he believed that House members kept approving legislation while the Senate went home because “nobody wants to stop.” Well, maybe nobody in the House leadership wants to stop, but I can’t believe that most North Carolinians closely watching the process from the outside would agree. There is nothing left on the legislature’s plate this year that can’t wait until next year. The budget, bloated as it was, is done. Lobbying reform, which needed to get into place as soon as possible, is done. Greater access to public records on economic development got done, sort of and with too long a wait until implementation, but still there was progress. Gubernatorial appointment of judges? Maybe a good idea, but it can wait.
On the rest of it – minimum wage increases, local tax increases, a death-penalty moratorium, and the like – I’m rooting for inaction. Please stop the General Assembly before it legislates again.
Hood is president of the John Locke Foundation.