Weekly Briefing

Ten things lawmakers ought (and ought not) to do before heading home this summer

The 2008 "short session" of the North Carolina General Assembly convened yesterday. With Governor Easley in full-fledged lame duck status and state budget coffers anything but full, most analysts and observers are predicting a fairly quick and uneventful gathering. Monday's NC Policy Watch/Common Sense Foundation pre-session preview luncheon (in which a panel of veteran lawmakers offered their takes on the upcoming session) seemed only to confirm this prognostication. In general, legislators seem interested in getting in and out of Raleigh as quickly as possible so that they can get to work on the fall election.

And still, like it or not, a lot will happen in the state Legislative Building over the next two to three months. Lawmakers will introduce hundreds of new proposals, adopt a $21 billion-plus budget bill and wrestle with a several tough issues that can't be put off - from the ongoing meltdown of the state mental health/developmental disabilities/substance abuse system to the home mortgage foreclosure crisis. Here, therefore, are ten topics for the General Assembly's "must do" and "must not do" lists in the coming weeks.

Must do:

1. Compensate victims of eugenics. After years of study, award winning journalism, much heartrending testimony, and scores of personal tragedies at the hands of state government, here's how much North Carolina has provided in compensation to the victims of its reprehensible forced sterilization program that ended in the early 1970's: zilch, zero, nada. Last year, legislators even allowed a victim of the practice to be forced to testify about her tragic circumstances in the middle of a busy, late-session committee meeting in which only a handful of distracted members were even paying attention. It is well past time for this horrific injustice to be addressed. And to those who think it's simply too expensive to do anything, see the final item under "must not do."

2. Dramatically expand the state's investment in the award winning Housing Trust Fund.  Recent reports indicate that lawmakers are intent upon doing what they can to help spur the state's sluggish economy - perhaps via a $1.5 to $2 billion bond for transportation and infrastructure construction. Assuming that this is the case, it would be nothing short of absurd for lawmakers to go forward without making the Trust Fund a part of any such package. Fifty million dollars in the Housing Trust Fund would create as many as 3,000 jobs and 6,000 units of affordable housing for the state's most vulnerable citizens (including the poor, mentally ill, the disabled, victims of domestic violence and others). Unfortunately, Governor Easley's budget, like most before it, ignores the Trust Fund and the families who need help with housing. The General Assembly needs to go forward with or without the Governor's help.

2a). And if helping the economy in a way that targets people in need is a priority, lawmakers would do well to increase funding for the community college system (the institution best positioned to help retrain workers) and increasing the state earned income tax credit (the tax mechanism best positioned to put spending money in the hands of lower income working families). 

3. Address the mortgage foreclosure crisis. The national crisis in the subprime mortgage market continues to wreak havoc in North Carolina. Tens of thousands of families in the state face foreclosure in 2008. Though North Carolina has done a better job than most states in responding aggressively to this problem, at least two areas deserve swift action: a) a dramatic funding increase for foreclosure mitigation efforts (like the Home Protection Pilot Program, nonprofit mortgage counselors and legal services providers); and b) adoption of a package of reforms for the foreclosure process itself that will be advanced by the state Commissioner of Banks.          

4. Provide new help for our most vulnerable workers. Recent media attention has once again shined a spotlight on North Carolina's shameful treatment of workers in the food production industry - from the scandalous conditions under which poultry and meatpacking industry workers must subsist to the rampant pesticide poisoning and often-horrific housing conditions endured by farmworkers. At a minimum, lawmakers should act to approve Governor Easley's proposed appropriation of $1 million for enhanced worker safety and public health in the poultry industry and adopt a series of recommendations to enhance pesticide safety.

5. Address the inequities and unfairness of the death penalty. Despite the recent chaos surrounding the North Carolina's use of the death penalty, much of the state capital punishment machinery continues operate as if noting were amiss. Individuals with flawed convictions remain on death row and more individuals continue to be tried and sentenced to death. Now, more than ever, North Carolina needs a moratorium on executions so that the death penalty can receive a comprehensive, top-to-bottom review. At the barest minimum, lawmakers must complete work on a bill known as the Racial Justice Act that would address some of the most outrageous flaws in the system. The bill passed the House in 2007 and awaits Senate action.

6. Improve the environment in the public schools. Among the measures that demand action (and that are ripe for action) this session are a proposed anti-bullying bill that has raised the hackles of the far right because it dares to mention the forbidden words "sexual orientation" and a proposal to assure that children with special needs are not subject to discipline merely because of their disability.  

7. Expand Health Choice and Kids Care. The federal government may or may not come through with their share (President Bush and Senator Dole are opposed) but state lawmakers have it within their power to find the resources to cover almost all uninsured children in the state who need it with quality health insurance. There's no reason to wait.

Must not do:

1. Don't end the so-called Highway Trust Fund "transfer." Twenty years ago, when they were adopting a new tax to pay for urban freeways and "loops," state lawmakers decided as part of the political negotiations that a portion of the new revenue would be directed toward the General Fund in order to support other essential services. Unfortunately, this common sense arrangement came to be dubbed the "Highway Trust Fund transfer" by the transportation establishment and paving industry. Since that time, there have been repeated calls to "end the transfer" even as the efficacy of urban loops has come into question and the corruption and waste in the state Department of Transportation has grown. This year, despite lower than projected overall General Fund revenues, many, including the Governor, are proposing to end (or at least a phase out) of the "transfer."  This is a bad (or, at the very least, premature) idea that will rob millions from essential services to promote sprawl. It ought to be shelved.

2. Don't adopt a giant new "roads only" transportation bond. In conjunction with their plan to "end the transfer" the paving lobby is pushing hard for $1.5 to 2 billion in new bonding authority for road construction. While such a proposal might have some merit as an economic stimulus tactic, it would be far better for the state's long-term health if it were confined to fixing existing highways and bridges and underwriting the cost of expanded public transportation. The last thing North Carolina needs in an era of $4 per gallon gas and a rapidly faltering environment is more highway sprawl. 

3. Don't spend $15 million on an old hunting lodge. One of the more remarkable proposed appropriations in the Governor's budget is $15 million for the renovation of the Lake Mattamuskeet Lodge in Hyde County. While historic sites of this kind are no doubt helpful to tourism and deserving of public support, how can lawmakers possibly endorse such a figure - a number that exceeds the entire annual appropriation for affordable housing? Something similar should also be said for the proposed $2.7 million appropriation for a polar bear exhibit at the state zoo and $375,000 for a Department of Commerce office in China. Combined, these three proposals would also go a long way toward partially compensating victims of forced sterilization.  

 Email This Post  Print This Post

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 14th, 2008 at 9:03 am and is filed under Weekly Briefing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.