Bad Budget, Commissions Bill Advance

More bad legislative news came last week from the pro-polluter supermajorities in both chambers of the NC General Assembly. 

First, the NC House approved and sent to the Senate a bad budget bill which underfunds pollution control and public health, while containing special provisions designed to hamstring Gov. Roy Cooper’s clean transportation and air pollution control initiatives. 

Meanwhile, the NC Senate advanced a major overhaul of key executive branch commissions which would give pro-polluter legislators and secondary state executive officers (like the Treasurer and the Commissioner of Agriculture) authority to appoint a majority of the members of the Utilities Commission, Board of Transportation, Environmental Management Commission, and other boards. 

For example, the bill would take two appointments to the Environmental Management Commission away from environmental champion Governor Roy Cooper, and give those two appointments to the Agriculture Commissioner, a directly elected position which has been held by Steve Troxler since 2005. As noted by environmental reporter Lisa Sorg for NC Newsline, “Troxler has often taken an anti-regulatory stance toward environmental rules. He has added his office’s muscle to opposition to the federal hog nuisance lawsuits and ensured that the law allows most enormous poultry farms to operate without a permit — and in secret.” 

Cooper has attacked this and similar legislation as violations of the state constitution, which mandates separation of the legislative and executive branches and restricts legislative ability to take executive authority away from the governor. If enacted, the legislation faces a near-certain challenge in the courts.