Legislative pork parade the biggest since 1913
Wednesday, May 31st, 2006
By Chris Fitzsimon
Raleigh |
If there were a hall of fame for paperwork, the current N.C. General Assembly would be a shoo-in for membership.
Atop its application would be this fact: During 2005 and 2006, North Carolina lawmakers filed more bills than any Tar Heel legislature since 1913.
At last week’s deadline, members of the House and Senate had filed 4,929 bills, an increase of more than 50 percent from the 2003-04 session and the greatest total in 93 years.
We know these facts because of the research of Gerry Cohen, who heads up the legislative department that wrote every one of those bills for the lawmakers.
What’s going on?
In a word, pork.
The legislature’s Democratic leaders have decreed that this year’s budget process be transparent. Every special provision, budget request or pork-barrel project - choose your own euphemism - has to be submitted as its own bill.
In recent years, accounting maneuvers disguised where the money was going and who had asked for it. (more…)
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