Cooper Vetoes Weaker Health and Safety Rules
Last week, Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed the General Assembly’s latest regulatory reform bill, citing measures which weaken fire safety and clean water protections. Cooper’s veto message for Senate Bill 553 reads, “Provisions in the legislation allowing trash receptacles in exit corridors could pose a fire safety risk for residents and emergency responders. Also, this legislation […]
New Legislative Maps Head Back to Court
The North Carolina General Assembly delivered its proposed new state legislative maps before the court-ordered deadline last week. Now we’ll see what a state court has to say about legislators’ latest go. In early September, a three-judge panel struck down the legislative maps which were used in the 2018 elections, ruling they were extreme partisan […]
Legislature Starts Drawing New Maps
The district map-drawing ball is back in the legislature’s hands, and both the state House and Senate are scrambling to draw new maps under the court’s rules before the clock runs out this Thursday, September 19. Those rules made for an exceptionally open and publicly transparent process, in which private partisan caucuses and use of […]
Override by Ambush
In a move that shocked the world early last Wednesday morning, a narrow quorum of the state House voted to override Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of the anti-environment state budget. The vote occurred just after 8:30 a.m., almost exactly 18 years to the day after planes struck the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. Immediately after […]
Victory for Democracy
North Carolina’s state legislative maps are unconstitutional partisan gerrymanders, said a special three-judge panel last week, and must be redrawn immediately to fix that bias. Partisan gerrymandering is when districts are drawn specifically and systematically for the purpose of elevating candidates of one political party over all opponents. The case, Common Cause v. Lewis, challenged […]
Duke’s Rate Hike Scheme Stripped from Bill
Legislation which would have smoothed the way for Duke Energy to win electric rate hikes over multiple years with diminished public scrutiny has been amended to remove that provision. Senate Bill 559 contained a section which would have allowed Duke to seek several years of rate hikes in a single case. Right now, they have […]
Cooper Vetoes Bad Billboard Bill
The billboard industry is used to rolling over opposition in North Carolina. Now they’ve met a governor who won’t roll over. Last week, Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed House Bill 645, the billboard industry’s latest effort to pass a “wish list” of legal changes favoring their interests over local governments, scenic beauty, and safe driving. In […]
Bad Billboard Bill Heads to Governor
As discussed in last week’s CIB, a bad billboard bill which would strip local governments and state agencies of much of their authority to protect roadside trees and local scenic corridors passed the House, and was sent to the governor last week. NCLCV urged legislators to oppose House Bill 645 “in order to safeguard the […]
Enough Games. Time to Negotiate
Last week, 51 of the 55 Democratic North Carolina House members signed a letter pledging their commitment to sustain Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of the state budget bill, more than enough to squash Republican leaders’ attempts to override the veto. In a letter delivered to legislative leaders Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger and House […]
Hotlist 8/6/19: The Farm Act Rears Its Ugly Head
The 2019 Farm Act has been a hot topic this session, with a long war waged over how to regulate smokable hemp. But unfortunately, less attention has been paid to the bill’s continuing erosion of protections against hog and poultry pollution. On July 25th, the House Judiciary Committee reverted the bill to Sen. Brent Jackson’s […]
