Turns out that a House committee vote yesterday to reject Sen. Dan Soucek's bill making Boone the only town in the state to lose developmental control over its Extra-Territorial Jurisdiction (ETJ) was a useless, pointless vote, according to the parliamentary ruling of a Republican lawyer who works for the Republican majority in the NC Senate.
"Senate special counsel Gerry Cohen said the bill wasn't actually dead after Monday's vote - just in parliamentary limbo."
Meaning that, if they could round up enough committee members who didn't vote yesterday, or if they could blackmail, bribe, or otherwise coerce those who voted "no" yesterday to change to "yes" today, then they can do whatever the hell they want and high water allows. Soucek's "Punish Boone to the Nth Degree Act of 2014" passed 18-16 in the same committee today that rejected it yesterday 15-12. When you can't win by regular order, go for the parliamentary trick.
If this passes the full House -- as it probably will -- the Templetons and other mega-developers will have finally succeeded in dominating the landscape around Boone, and Boone will be the new poster child of Republican extremism and overreach.
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
Senator Soucek Gets His Way. Boone's ETJ Residents Get Royally Screwed
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5 comments:
Apparently in NC, it is good politics to ignore the majority of your constituents. This is a very weird state with very unusual politics. Not clear why the state legislature feels emboldened to legislate a local issue.
NCGOP makes it clear once again that it has been bought by corporate interests. Clearly Soucek & Jordan are owned by the Templetons, not realizing that the charm and attraction of Boone will be destroyed by this family of voracious developers.
How can this happen when there is no support in the ETJ for this bill? Why only Boone? This is not over. Soucek and Jordan will pay.
"Small government" conservatives strike again! Can you imagine their outrage if, when the Democrats ran the state, they had passed a bill that only applied to a small conservative town like Newland or Yadkinville? They would have been screaming about the "evils" of big government!
One more thing - correct me if I'm wrong, but I was under the impression that Boone didn't annex areas or add them to the ETJ unless the landowners requested it. I thought that the people in the ETJ had requested to be in there. I know that the ETJ isn't a uniform 1 mile around town, since The Cottages are definitely within 1 mile of the city limits and they are not in the ETJ. I need to find a good map of the ETJ!
For what it's worth I'm not a Republican lawyer. -Gerry Cohen
I'm not sure what good attacking me as a partisan GOP hack will do you. I worked in a Democratic County Commissioner's campaign in Watauga County in 1972. I've known Lynne Mason for close to 40 years since the Carter presidential campaign, and Andy Ball's grandfather hired me at my current employer in 1977
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