RALEIGH – Wednesday, June 1 was an exciting one at the General Assembly. It was the start of the crossover deadline – the day that bills without a budgetary impact had to receive the first of two floor votes in a legislative chamber required to stay alive in the 2005 session. It was also, judging by the results, a very good day for liberty and good government in North Carolina.
On a list of controversial issues, lawmakers decided to do the right thing, or not to do the wrong thing:
· The House delayed an expected vote on a bill imposing a moratorium on capital punishment. Supporters argued that the criminal-justice system has so many inherent flaws that the death penalty is unfairly and unjustly applied. They wanted to halt executions to allow a study of the system. Ultimately, they wanted the executions never to resume. But they didn’t get what they wanted, at least not yet. The votes weren’t there, so Speaker Jim Black will wait and perhaps take another crack at it in a few weeks.
· The House actually took a vote on another hotly debated issue, a bill to require North Carolina restaurants to set aside half their dining space for nonsmokers. The legislation was originally far more sweeping, as it would have excluding smokers from restaurants altogether. When this was recognized as an extreme proposal, supporters amended it to require larger non-smoking sections than many restaurants already provide. It still didn’t fly, falling short on a 58-62 vote. Proponents may claim that “special interests” prevailed, but the real victory was for personal freedom and property rights.
· Also on the House side, lawmakers approved a bill to allow North Carolina’s new toll road authority to study as many as nine projects for implementation, up from just three under current law. Tollways, using new designs and technologies, are certainly the wave of the future, so perhaps for once our state won’t be bringing up the rear on a promising trend.
· There are high drama on yet another issue: a minimum-wage increase. Originally intended to boost the wage to $8.50, up from $5.15, the bill was amended a couple of times to make it more palatable. After the House Commerce Committee said “no” earlier in the day, it reconvened suddenly Wednesday evening and (on a questionable vote) got approval to head to the House floor. Fortunately for low-income workers, that’s as far as it got.
If you favored any of these ideas, don’t worry: the crossover “deadline” isn’t really that. The death-penalty moratorium stayed alive because it was redefined as a spending bill (the proposed study would cost a trifle). By that reasoning, virtually anything can be a spending bill. Remember, it’s the legislature, so the rules don’t really matter.
Still, not a bad day.
Hood is president of the Joh n Locke Foundation.