It is likely that at some point this week, House and Senate leaders will come up with a final budget agreement they can live with and that Governor Mike Easley will sign, and the rush will be on to adjourn the session and get back to the campaign trail. [Continue Reading...]
Will the state Senate allow a vote on the Racial Justice Act?
Running a place like the North Carolina Senate is no easy job. The place if crammed with 50 oversized egos and surrounded by scads of staff, reporters, lobbyists and hangers on. In addition, the group is formally divided into two warring political parties and, less formally, countless other groups and alliances-each bent on group and individual self-preservation and, occasionally advancing an actual policy agenda.
We are faced with a fundamental challenge: How can we move to a low greenhouse gas emission economy that will stave off environmental catastrophe in a way that does not increase the ranks of the poor or make things worse for those already there? And how can the shift be made fairly, without creating winners and losers from the process? The path chosen to the new greener economy will have profound implications for North Carolina. [Continue Reading...]
