Monday, November 30, 2015

The High Legal Cost of Low Legislative Motives

What bad laws coming out of Raleigh are costing North Carolina taxpayers...

At least $8 million over the next two years. That's the amount that Republicans in the General Assembly actually inserted into this year's budget bill.

According to the Charlotte Observer, the Gen'l Assembly's outside legal bills have totaled more than $3 million just since July of last year. Private lawyers are getting rich. Meanwhile, none of the GA's bad laws have been upheld in court.

Amendment One ... bad law, struck down repeatedly by federal courts, but the GA continued to spend money on private outside-state-government lawyers in trying to defend it (not counting all the money they spent on getting it passed in the first place by referendum).

The "Open Up Your Vagina, You Slut" ultrasound anti-abortion bill. Struck down.

The "Choose Life" license plate. Struck down by two federal courts and turned back by The Supremes.

Still being argued in court:
The Voter ID and Omnibus Elections Bill. How bad is that piece of bilge? So bad that a federal judge in Winston-Salem put a stay on several provisions, particularly voting out of precinct, and the General Assembly itself rushed to water down the photo ID requirement just in advance of the court trial last summer.

The gerrymandering of the state. There are three lawsuits on-going about that travesty.

Charlotte-Douglass International Airport. Who owns it, who controls it, who gets to pass out the goodies?

The Asheville water supply. Who owns it, who controls it, who gets to pass out the goodies?

We -- the taxpayers of the state -- are paying to run these lawsuits, and clearly the Republican Grandees in the General Assembly are budgeting for even more waste.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Town of Boone vs. Templeton....$$$