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Legislative Session
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Published: May 13, 2008
When the General Assembly convenes in even-numbered years, it inaccurately describes the meeting as the "short session."
What in the early 1970s was created to help legislators adjust the second year of the state's two-year budget has become a political ordeal complete with a full agenda of policy and spending initiatives.
The "short session" that begins today is no less full than others that have dragged well into summer. Legislative leaders are saying that the combination of a tight financial situation and a general election in November will spur them to be brief. But there is never as much money as the leaders would like to spend, and there is an election every even-numbered year.
Gov. Mike Easley outlined his priorities for his final session yesterday. With the state's $150 million surplus and lowered expectations for new revenues during the fiscal year that begins on July 1, Easley would have the state focus on a pay raise for public-school teachers and the expansion of his Learn and Earn program. Both, of course, should be priorities in the final budget.
The state must meet other priorities, too. House Speaker Joe Hackney is on target in proposing local anti-dropout grants. Learn and Earn is a good statewide program, but to solve this problem we need a great many initiatives tailored to the individual needs of our communities. North Carolina graduates only about seven of every 10 students who walk in the door as high-school freshmen. That is not a recipe for future prosperity in this state.
Over on the Senate side, Sen. Marc Basnight, the president pro tem, is pushing big infrastructure bonds for the university system and the state's roads. The UNC system must meet significant population growth in the coming decade, and the state's roads have been shortchanged for too many years now.
Improvements to the state's mental-health system are much needed, as are reforms to the probation and parole system. And while legislators are trying to fight crime, they should not overlook the state's growing problem with gangs.
For the past three years, legislators have been working gradually to clean up what has been a corrupt system of influence-buying in Raleigh. They're not done yet. Legislators must tackle the remaining questions related to fundraising by lobbyists. They should ban lobbyists from raising cash for legislative and statewide campaigns, and they should bar legislators from hitting on lobbyists for contributions to nonprofit and not-for-profit institutions. Legislative and statewide candidates should also be required to report the names of all the people who help them raise significant amounts of money.
Considering all of this work, a short session doesn't seem likely. (And, given space considerations, we have probably overlooked a dozen initiatives that are also worthy of legislative treatment this year.)
The obvious conclusion, therefore, is that legislators have a lot of work ahead in the next six to 10 weeks.
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N.C. Politics
Federal Politics
The Downtown Summer Music Series will begin on Thursday. Ed Bumgardner talks to some of the organizers of the Downtown Jazz lineup, in which a form of music known as "smooth jazz" will play a more prominent role this year.
Thursday's relish stories will appear in the Entertainment section.
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