Fitzsimon File

The controversy brewing in the General Assembly over a law sought by chiropractors and snuck into the budget in 2005 by former House Speaker Jim Black provides more than just a reminder of Black’s shocking and illegal behavior.

It illustrates again the problem with the culture of Raleigh’s state policy world and the attitude of many of the people who use their campaign contributions and well-heeled lobbyists to try to control it.

Black admitted in federal court that he accepted cash from three chiropractors in exchange for inserting a provision in the state budget that prohibits insurance companies from setting higher co-payments for chiropractors than for traditional physicians.

As a result of Black’s guilty pleas in state and federal court, there is now discussion in the General Assembly about repealing budget provisions and laws tied to Black’s corrupt behavior, including the co-pay provision for chiropractors.  

Chiropractors are working to keep the law on the books and that effort includes defending not only the new law itself, but amazingly, the way the law was enacted.

Not the cash in the bathroom part, the N.C. Chiropractic Association has publicly condemned the actions of the three members involved in Black’s crimes.  But the Association’s leaders are now arguing that it was perfectly proper for the provision that changes state law to be slipped into the budget.

Dr. R. Todd Shaver, the President of the Association, said in a letter to the editor in the News and Observer that the co-pay provision didn’t really create a new law, it simply amended a 1965 statute about consumer choice in health care.  So it is ok to amend an existing law in secret without public debate. The problem is just when you create a new statute.

More troubling was Shaver’s assertion that the budget provision was “fully discussed with all stakeholders, including Blue Cross and Blue Shield.” Mr. Shaver apparently believes that the only stakeholders in changing state law are the lobbying interests involved, not any consumer advocates, not the media that could report on the proposal to change the co-payment requirements, not the citizens of the state who might actually want to see their elected officials make decisions in a democratic fashion.

That’s not how it is supposed to work, that lobbyists get together with a powerful lawmaker and decide what will be in the budget without any public debate or discussion.

Slipping special provisions into the budget instead of passing bills through the normal legislative process is wrong, whether the result of cash exchanged in a Charlotte bathroom or a conversation between powerful lobbyists and a legislative leader in a Raleigh restaurant.

That’s why ending special provisions is prominent on the reform agenda of the North Carolina Coalition for Lobbying and Government Reform.

Regardless of the merits of the change in co-pays or the value of other laws made by special provisions, the process itself it undemocratic and ought to be stopped this year to protect the real stakeholders in every legislative decision, the people of North Carolina who lawmakers are supposed to represent.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 27th, 2007 at 5:35 pm and is filed under Fitzsimon File. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.