High Rage Threshold, for a Monday

 

Gov. Stein signed the budget last week

 

 

Dylan Halper, an intern at The Assembly, went through all 634 pages of the new state budget (so I didn't have to) and highlighted some of the earmarks, many of which don't offend me, like 

$31 million to the North Carolina Museum of History

$4 million to the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences 

$4.4 million to the North Carolina Museum of Art

$750,000 to the Museum of the Marine

$100,000 to the North Carolina Pottery Museum in Randolph County

I even smile about highly specific earmarks for very local gigs, like the $20,000 the budget gives to the tiny town of Fremont in Wayne County for its annual Daffodil Festival, which goes back to the late 1950s. I'm for supporting that because it's community-building and it spotlights flowers. This budget originated in the NC Senate. Buck Newton represents Fremont in the Senate. I can applaud Buck Newton if he funneled that measly $20k to the daffodils.

Intern Halper picked up on the tension between state-funded higher education and the GOP powers in the General Assembly and found in the budget what might be an anomaly: "The claws are not out for North Carolina State University. It will receive $20 million for its Commercial Leap Ahead for Wide Bandgap Semiconductors (CLAWS) Hub, which is researching a type of semiconductor technology that the university says could be more effective than traditional silicon." [italics added]

It's too bad that our Republican government continues to fund crisis pregnancy centers to the tune of $1.5 million. Those places are Christian propaganda mills that have been shown to push "inaccurate information" on desperate girls who don't know what to do. Another $3.3 million is going to a more interesting anti-abortion org with a "continuum of care," which pairs women experiencing unplanned pregnancies with a social worker to “help address the circumstances prompting her to seek an abortion.” On its face, that sounds helpful to me.

I like that there's a million dollars in the budget to protect the OBX wild horses and $50k to support the activities of a non-profit therapeutic horse-riding school. But the $100,000 going to UNC-Wilmington's all-female equestrian club gives me pause, especially after I spent some time on their Facebook page. It appears to be, in very frequent photo arrays, a mainly white sorority with one Black member. That 100k is for horse feed, I suspect -- the club actually owns 8 horses, according to Halper -- but that's still a lot of oats for a social club.

One budget entry that Halper found also stopped me cold: $90,000 for a pickleball court in the town of Godwin, population 128. Tom McInnis (R) represents Godwin in the NC Senate, where the budget bill originated. But Diane Wheatley represents Godwin in the House, and she might have had some influence. According to its demographics, Godwin is an aging, low-income, sedentary community of almost equal numbers of Black and white (over 45% Black), and any space for recreation can be a blessing.

It makes sense to spend $30 million on keeping the Greensboro Coliseum (which now goes under the name of First Horizon) up-to-date and up-to-grade, because of the general economic benefit of Atlantic Coast Conference tournaments held there once a year. 

And I can applaud the $109 million + that goes to expand the medical school at East Carolina State University (which I think probably accounts for the white coats you see arrayed behind the governor at the signing ceremony, photo above) and $15 million to the Methodist University Cape Fear Valley Health School of Medicine in Fayetteville.

Public School Teachers With the Most Experience Are the Most Underpaid

 

Depend on The Daily Tar Heel to do some first-rate reporting on the "smoke and mirrors" that the Republican leadership in the General Assembly hopes will pacify the state's public school teachers in lieu of serious salary adjustment:

William Brady, a physical education and health teacher at Smith Middle School in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools district, like many other teachers, needs a second job to make ends meet. Kelly Allen, a science teacher at East Chapel Hill High School, said as the price of food and gas has gone up this year, she’s seen her savings decrease.

Both have been teaching for over 20 years, and said their salaries have not kept up with inflation. Last Tuesday, North Carolina legislators negotiating the state budget announced that they had agreed on an 8 percent average pay raise for the state’s teachers next school year – but for veteran educators, like Brady and Allen, the raise will not be significant.

“It's nonsense,” Allen said. “I think my pay, with the current proposal, will go up by about $300 per month — of course that's pre-tax. What a slap in the face! I've given 27 years of my life to educating North Carolina’s children. That will probably give me a few extra tanks of gas each month.” ...

House Speaker Destin Hall (R-Caldwell, Watauga) said the proposed raises would be the largest average teacher pay increase since 2006. However, the North Carolina Association of Educators, a teacher advocacy group, said the proposal was “smoke and mirrors” and criticized the raises as being far below what’s needed to bring the state’s teacher pay in line with the rest of the country.

“Eight percent may sound like a raise — until you pay Duke Energy's skyrocketing electric bill, Aetna's ballooning insurance premium, and more at the gas pump,” Tamika Walker Kelly, president of NCAE, wrote in her statement. “Meanwhile, teachers are still spending more than $1,000 of their own money just to stock their classrooms.”

According to Kelly, the 8 percent raise is an average, meaning every teacher does not get the same amount. Teachers with less than 15 years of experience will see upwards to 17 percent increase in their base pay. Those educators with more than 16 years of experience will see significantly lower raises, at 5 percent or less.... 

Berger-Hall to Josh Stein: "Pound Sand"

 

Photo Galen Bacharier, NC Newsline

Reportedly, in its last enacted budget Republican state lawmakers shorted the Medicaid program by around $319 million for the current fiscal year. As a result, Josh Stein's Health and Human Services (HHS) has resorted to cutting Medicaid reimbursements 3% to most hospitals and clinics (and up to 10-12% to "specialty providers"). Primary care doctors, dentists, community care clinics, nursing homes are all dependent on Medicaid funding. 

On Nov. 6, Governor Stein called a special session of the General Assembly for Nov. 17 to deal with that funding crisis. The state constitution gives the governor the power to summon lawmakers back to Raleigh to deal with emergencies (and you see where parsing that word will end up in court, right?). At a news conference, Stein said legislators had “failed North Carolina and the people of North Carolina” by not addressing the Medicaid shortfall during their October session -- which was largely devoted to once again redrawing the state’s congressional districts to add an extra Republican to Trump's tote board.

Yesterday, in a joint letter to Stein, House Speaker Destin Hall and Senate boss Phil Berger said they would not convene a session on Nov. 17, and claimed that Stein’s call for a special session "is constitutionally invalid and politically motivated."

Politically motivated. I certainly hope so!

Both chambers of the General Assembly are controlled completely by the GOP. Same party, but two equally immovable factions, fighting over the lucre. Leaders in both chambers have acknowledged the underfunding of Medicaid, and both chambers have written their own budget solutions in separate versions of a bill that was supposed to be blended and amended into a single unified budget law months ago. That didn't happen. There is no budget. North Carolina is now alone among all the fifty other states in the absence of one.

Berger-Hall

Can Berger-Hall just refuse to convene? You know it'll be litigated, and it'll be nobody's surprise when the current NC Supreme Court under Chief Justice Paul Newby rules for the General Assembly. Newby's going to love Berger-Hall's argument that Governor Stein's HHS made premature cuts to reimbursements as a means of exerting political pressure on the General Assembly. 

Josh Stein fired back at Berger-Hall: "The Republican majority has made the time to damage our democracy with their gerrymander. But when it comes time to protect people’s health care? When it comes time to enact a comprehensive budget? They’re on vacation, and they’ll see us next year. All while North Carolina families pay the price."

As far as I'm concerned, of course it's political, and it gives Stein the upper-hand here, the high ground, the advantage, because he is taking extraordinary action to stave off major damage to health care in North Carolina, while Berger-Hall just look like jerks, self-serving and out of touch with reality. So rather than asking, "Can they do that-- just refuse to come when summoned?" I should be asking the other question, "Why would they want to do that?" Because refusing to deal with the shortage of money that goes to help a whole community of need just helps build the bad, bad Republican brand of failing its own struggling MAGA base. 

Dale Folwell Slams Republicans in #NCGA for Secrecy Provision

 

Dale Folwell, state treasurer and current candidate in the Republican primary next March for governor, denounced his fellow Republicans in NCHouse & Senate on October 10th for slipping the provision into the state budget that exempted them from the public records act. He published his statement about it on his official state treasurer website the next day. The act of removing themselves from accountability was so outrageously anti-democratic and prima facie evidence of corruption to boot, that a straight-laced puritan like Dale Folwell couldn't help but break ranks. Folwell wrote:

By allowing individual lawmakers to determine what records are public and what material can be destroyed without ever seeing the sunshine of public view creates a system without standards or accountability. It prevents the public from learning who and what influenced decision-making on their behalf.

In the interview Folwell gave to Dan Kane on October 10th, he emphasized how simple and easy a legislative task it would be for Berger and Moore to simply have their chambers repeal that secrecy provision right now, for the sake of democracy and for the sake of Berger-Moore's own reputations as honorable men. (It's so cute of Folwell to confuse those two with honorable men!)

As far as we can tell, Folwell's press release caused nary a ripple on the placid surface of Republican domination. That's how effective Folwell is as a challenger to Mark Robinson, or to anybody.

In his commentary for NCNewsline Oct. 19, editor Rob Schofield praised Folwell for doing the right thing, despite its effectiveness (lack of).

Some More Toys Berger-Moore Gave Themselves in the New Budget

 

Another provision slipped into the state budget follows the established theme: More power specifically for Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger and Speaker of the House X (whoever follows Tim Moore -- Destin Hall, a contender -- because Moore is retiring). In this case, it's power to operate what amounts to a secret police. That boils down to the Power to Torture. For reals! The following specific applications were compiled by Crooks and Liars -- bludgeons given to a committee chaired and controlled by Berger-Moore:

The Joint Legislative Committee on Government Operations (Gov Ops for short), is  empowered to seize “any document or system of record” from anyone who works in or with state and local government during its investigations. The rule applies to contractors, subcontractors, and any other non-state entity “receiving, directly and indirectly, public funds,” including charities and state universities.

Gov Ops staff will be authorized to enter “any building or facility” owned or leased by a state or non-state entity without a judicial warrant. This includes the private residences of subcontractors and contractors who run businesses out of their homes.

Public employees under investigation will be required to keep all communication and requests “confidential.” They cannot alert their supervisor of the investigation nor consult with legal counsel. Violating this rule “shall be grounds for disciplinary action, including dismissal,” the law reads. Those who refuse to cooperate face jail time and fines of up to $1,000. In the event that Gov Ops searches a person’s home, these rules mean that the person 1) must keep the entry a secret, 2) cannot seek outside help (unless necessary for fulfilling the request, the law says), and 3) could face criminal charges if Gov Ops deems them uncooperative.

The killer clause is the secrecy that a target of investigation is supposed to maintain. That's police state shit right there. They want you isolated from any help, let alone sympathy.

The Bastards in Raleigh

 

They're turning North Carolina into a shithole state.

Ray Pickett, House Dist. 93

Meanwhile, I'm trying to control the acid reaction to them now coursing through my own body politic. The big boys in Raleigh, last seen grubbing for even more unseemly power in the new state budget, put a heavy tax on our last nerve. They only want control of the voting process, control of the judiciary, control of the classroom, and control of their own nasty secrets. (The best run-down on all the bad stuff in the budget was written by Jeffrey Billman for The Assembly -- which is well worth subscribing to. NC Newsline also has excellent cumulative coverage.) I could have cried, "Told ya so!"

I knew when they caved to the governor on expanding Medicaid coverage but tied its expansion to the passage of a new budget -- didn't you know they would deliver a portmanteau of abominables in that budget? Of course you knew it, or else you're a spring flower unaware of coming frost or don't have a clue about the character of these "conservatives" because you didn't believe such cruelty and contempt for democracy could actually exist in modern American human beings. Especially the ones who say they follow Jesus.

Gov. Cooper surely knew and apparently resigned himself to the inevitable horrors the Republicans would visit on representative government. He wanted Medicaid expansion. He's getting it, with tons of stuff he didn't want -- none of us wanted! -- and letting it become law without his signature. Because, you know, Tricia Cotham (plus five other Democrats who haven't switched parties -- four Black and one white -- who also voted for this waste-dump of ideology run amuck).

Ralph Hise, Senate Dist. 47

In my House District 93, Rep. Ray Pickett voted for it. He's just a drone anyway. Under his brand name, he votes for whatever the brand wants. He must be defeated for reelection. Democrat Ben Massey will make the run in 2024. Winning will depend on whether the citizens of District 93 really do prefer pay-to-play, petty vindictiveness, and the scolding laws of men who don't trust women.

In my Senate District 47, Sen. Ralph Hise is the actual author of much mischief (including double-bunking himself with Sen. Deanna Ballard in 2022, to get rid of her). He's already mucho powerful and doesn't mind bending rules to benefit himself further. As Chair of both Appropriations/Base Budget and Redistricting and Elections, Hise has his foot on our necks. Without any doubt, he will run for reelection. So far there's no Democrat willing to carry the flag against him. Both this Senate district and House District 93 were gerrymandered to make them unwinnable by Democrats. How about Democrats and Unaffiliateds together?

NB: Of course all House and Senate districts are up for another round of partisan redistricting (promised for next month, as close as possible to the December filing period for 2024, so that Democrats have less time to recruit and field candidates). Supreme Court Chief Paul Newby decided partisan gerrymandering is the true American way. As I said, they own the highest court and they've taken new steps in the budget to create and control their own Superior Court judges. Holy crap!

These People Are Not What They Think They Are -- They Are What They Hide

 

"A legislator, while in office or after leaving office, shall not be required to reveal or to consent to reveal any document, supporting document, drafting request, or information request made or received by that legislator while a legislator." 

--A paragraph slipped into the new state budget (reporting of Travis Fain)

Because secrecy is next to godliness? 

The NC Open Government Coalition said of this particular provision that it "codifies a broad, sweeping legislative privilege that exempts members of the General Assembly from the public records law in its entirety."

Ah! Because secrecy is essential for authoritarianism.

The Republicans also erased an existing state law that makes communications behind redistricting decisions public once the process has wrapped up -- so voters can know which Democratic (or recalcitrant Republican) legislators were fingered for double-bunking or for simple elimination via partisan packing.

A pack of creeps in Raleigh mean to have it all their way. And they assume that the governor will sign the budget bill because he wants Medicaid expansion more than he hates the other shit, so Republicans take the opportunity to slip in all sorts of other mischief.

Bad Non-Budget Provisions Slipped Into the Budget

Indebted to Billy Corriher for highlighting bad partisan provisions in the new proposed state budget (HB 259), the latest one, the new compromise that drops consideration of gambling and restores Medicaid expansion. But it is far from a "clean" bill, for it contains plenty of real doozie time-bombs that Billy Corriher noticed. And in coming days there will likely be additional hair-raising discoveries -- like this provision that Corriher highlighted on how the Judicial Standards Commission will be constituted:

Paul Newby

Supreme Court Justice Anita Earls is currently fending off this same commission, which says it's investigating her because she criticized the court for a lack of diversity. Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Newby would get six appointments to the commission, hisownself, if you were wondering where the partisan advantage lay. Newby, operating on the high octane of self-righteousness, can be capable of purges. 

Billy Corriher predicts about this provision, "It’ll lead to more investigations of judges the GOP doesn’t like."

Corriher also points out that Paul Newby is specifically singled out for longevity in the budget bill: "[It] raises the retirement age for appellate judges. This’ll keep Paul Newby on the bench for a few more years, so he can continue to pack the Judicial Standards Commission to target Dem judges."

☻

Corriher: "The budget also allows lawmakers to pick 10 Superior Court judges for 8-year terms.... They’d control these judgeships forever, not the voters." Say what? Corriher supplies the evidence:

☻

Corriher: "The bill eliminates the right to appeal to the NC Supreme Court if there’s a dissent at the Court of Appeals."

 

"Here's How We Deliver for the Gambling Industry: We Get the Democrats To Pass It!"

 

Jason Saine

Because Berger can't get casino gambling past the Republicans in the NC House, the NC House leaders -- mainly Jason Saine, as the chief budget writer, who is also a loyal lieutenant to Tim Moore -- put forth a new "compromise" that ties the passage of casino gambling to the long-promised implementation of Medicaid expansion to hundreds of thousands, in a blatant attempt to seduce enough Democrats into voting for the gambling industry, since rank and file Republicans won't. (This is the only hard news source I've seen about this rogue and naked maneuver, and the article focuses more on Gov. Cooper's denouncement of the thing than the thing itself. Cooper called the bill "a brutally dishonest backroom deal.")

The casino plan and Medicaid expansion would then be in one bill together, separate from the actual budget, a source from both parties told CBS 17....

So far, Democrats have not received many details about the plan. The details they have seen were described as “garbled” by one Democrat who spoke to CBS 17 Saturday.

Rep. Jason Saine (R-Lincoln) who is a top budget writer in the House confirmed the proposal, rumors of which began Friday night. Saine also said votes for the budget and the combined Medicaid/casino bill would take place on Wednesday and Thursday.

So stand by for a coliseum spectacle if Democrats jump on board enough to give Phil Berger his wet dream.

The Raleigh Freedom Caucus -- Tough Gristle for Phil Berger?

 

A tweet this morning by Travis Fain of WRAL arrested my forward motion:

People who know aren’t saying it yet, so stay tuned, but today feels like the day a $30 billion state budget and massive healthcare initiative fall apart over gambling bills that no one outside the #NCGA has been allowed to read.

And here I had been thinking that House Speaker Tim Moore's statement last week -- that adding the legalization of more gambling casinos to the budget bill didn't have sufficient support among House Republicans to pass -- ended the matter for this term.

Apparently, not. Fain reported late yesterday afternoon:

Closed-door negotiations to expand legalized gambling in North Carolina continued at the statehouse Monday afternoon with no clarity on whether that language – which lawmakers have not released to the public – will be included in a $30 billion state budget that may pass the General Assembly this week.

The gambling issue has delayed that budget, which includes tax cuts and as-yet-undisclosed raises for teachers and state employees. Budget passage would also trigger Medicaid expansion, extending taxpayer-funded health insurance to hundreds of thousands of people in the state and representing a multi-billion-dollar boost for the hospital industry.

Leadership wants to add authorization for four new casinos, as well as statewide legalization for slot-machine-style terminals often called video poker machines. Including this in the budget would let lawmakers avoid single-issue votes on stand-alone gambling bills.

The key subject-verb: "Leadership wants." Especially Senate boss Phil Berger, who naturally welcomes what could be a $500 billion development bonanza for his county of Rockingham, with all the deep-pocketed influencers of legislation who would come along with the "development money," pushing piles of it themselves.

But who marches into Berger's office yesterday but the dozen-and-a-half Freedom Caucus members from the House, the most conservative and reactionary members of Berger's own party, who we have to speculate were telling Berger "no way" to legalizing casinos via the budget. They're part of the Republican caucus in the House that Speaker Moore has already said hates casinos.

Berger "has said repeatedly that the gambling legislation he supports will only move forward as part of the budget." Apparently, the Freedom Caucus isn't buying it, which perhaps led Berger to comment to reporter Fain after the meeting that the collapse of budget negotiations could inevitably also end porkpie projects in several districts of individual members -- and if you don't see that as a threat, you don't think like a politico (lucky you!).

When the Freedom Caucus members came out of Berger's office an hour after they went in, they were clammed up and unsmiling. They went immediately into a Republican House Caucus meeting, which Fain says started at 3:30 and was "still going at 6:00."

Photo Travis Fain

Update on Commercial Gambling in North Carolina

 

Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan reported today (italics added):

House Republicans had a nearly four-hour caucus meeting Tuesday to make final determinations on whether or not to legalize up to four new casinos and include that in the budget. It has been discussed by lawmakers as being part of the budget or a separate bill, but there doesn’t seem to be enough consensus in the caucus for it to pass. 

Moore told reporters after the House session on Tuesday that House Republicans are still counting the votes they might have in their caucus for legalizing casinos and other gaming issues.

Passing Obamacare in NC: A Republican Bug Zapper

 

People treated Republican leaders in the state's General Assembly like Moses down from the Mount when they finally agreed to pass Medicaid expansion to cover an additional 600,000 citizens who haven't had health insurance. The governor signed that law, and front pages everywhere celebrated with photos and headlines, and many people who don't actually read newspaper articles, or don't read to the end, thought the people had won one. Done. Delivered.

But hold on there. The Republicans had not suddenly gone soft on poor people. They were simply coiling themselves into a tighter fist, because they tied the implementation of their Medicaid expansion to the passage of the state's $30 billion budget. Their plan all along was to force Governor Cooper to accept a budget full of pain and grief for progressives, using the lives of 600,000 poor people as their pawns. So cool. So totally Phil Berger.

The state House of Reps published their proposed budget last week and plans to pass it this coming week. Some Democrats will help them, more's the pity. Then it will be the Senate's turn to fiddle with the House's brave new world, stuff such as this (indebted to WRAL's Travis Fain and Will Doran and to Jane Porter at IndyWeek):

** The initial budget draft includes language banning pro-environmental policies. 

Remember when the new Republican majority in the General Assembly passed a law (in 2012) that banned the state from basing coastal policies on the latest scientific predictions of how much the sea level will rise? Remember that, sports fans? It's about to get worse. And more directly spiteful.

The House budget specifically forbids Governor Cooper from entering a multistate agreement to cap the amount of carbon dioxide power companies emit. Governor Cooper has been working toward it for months, carbon reduction being one of his highest priorities.

Would also ban the North Carolina Utilities Commission, a body appointed by the governor that regulates Duke Energy and other utility companies, from ordering any cap-and-trade rules. That's a particularly egregious pay-off.

**Let's give millions of dollars to antiabortion groups like the crisis pregnancy centers, who use folklore in place of medicine. 

New language in the budget this year would ban the state from hiring any outside groups to help mount teen pregnancy prevention programs, if those outside groups also offer abortions. (They're talking about you, Planned Parenthood.) So we can expect plenty of "abstinence only" preaching and lots of new pregnancies.

**Continue the assault on public school teachers and further enable the know-nothing book banners.

The House's budget will require all public schools to post nearly all classroom materials to the internet -- not just books but prepared "hand-outs" and most particularly, day-to-day lesson plans that might be suspected of slipping a piece of historic reality into the fragile minds of school children. Huge addition to the workload of teachers. Because conservative ideology sorta demands the demonization of "liberal arts."

Funnels more money to private school vouchers for K-8 kids already enrolled in private schools; strips the state board of education of basic powers to set academic standards and decide on approval, renewal, or revocation of charter schools; extends and expands funding for low-performing virtual charters. (Jane Porter quoted Kristopher Nordstrom, senior policy analyst for the NC Justice Center's Education Law Project)

The House budget would also take the banning of printed materials from schools away from local boards and superintendents and give it to a new state mechanism, "media advisory committees," established to cover districts composed of multiple school systems; each regional committee to be composed of a principal, teacher, library coordinator, and parent each from a high school, middle school and elementary school in the district. Who will select these personnel?

Does not include the $300 million to boost teacher pay in daycares and preschools, which the state’s "business community" had pushed for. The money would have replaced pandemic-era federal subsidies that run out later this year, "and which are used now to boost salaries in an industry struggling to find workers." They say that more and more teachers are defecting to retail jobs, as that job sector raises pay for the same reason: the scarcity of workers.

**Would establish the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) as its own cabinet-level agency.

Taking the SBI away from the attorney general (vendetta much?). But the governor would still get to appoint the director and would still be able to fire that person, so maybe this is no big woop.

** Raises the mandatory retirement age for Supreme Court and Court of Appeals judges from 72 to 76.

So? Fain and Doran explain:

"That would allow Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Newby to stay on the court past his 72nd birthday, which is in 2027. And since court vacancies created by retirements are filled by the governor, the change would keep a Democratic governor — or whoever wins the 2024 election to replace a term-limited Cooper — from appointing Newby’s replacement. That would help Republicans defend the 5-2 majority they won on the state’s highest court in the November elections...."

Deanna Ballard Watch

 

Saw this headline in the High Country Press the morning after Thanksgiving, just in time for giving thanks: "Sen. Deanna Ballard Secures Critical Improvements for District 45." I immediately said out loud, "Oh she's definitely running for something."

To recap: She's double-bunked with Sen. Ralph Hise in what used to be her NC Senate District. What will she do? What will Hise do? (Hise is rumored to be considering running for the congressional seat -- CD14 -- as is Ballard.) Putting out an eye-grabbing press release like the one referenced above is evidence of a politician who intends to be noticed and of a comms team honed for the main chance.

The story in the High Country Press lists all kinds of special budgetary grants aimed at projects in Watauga and the other counties in Ballard's 45th Senate district, and I have no inside poop nor any reason to doubt the worthiness of any of those grants. I tend to support government funding of community-based projects, so good on Deanna Ballard. I do note that AppState is singled out for some $122 million, and I'm sure they can use it.

NC Republicans Show There's More Than One Way To Mess With Voting

 

Like, slashing the budget of the State Board of Elections.

Phil Berger's NC Senate budget calls for removing the SBOE's investigative division, the entity empowered to investigate allegations of election fraud, and for cutting the agency's staff by a third including almost two-thirds of its IT personnel.

Pat Gannon, spokesman for SBOE, told WRAL that the bill "greatly impedes the agency from addressing vulnerabilities and preventing attacks" and would more generally knee-cap its ability to monitor and ensure that voting equipment adheres to state and federal standards.

NC House hasn't yet signed on to Berger's version of the budget.

The only thing that can save the SBOE is a Governor Cooper veto upheld by the Democrats in the General Assembly -- in which case, I believe the last budget would stay in effect.

Statement from Rep. Ray Russell on the Core Dishonesty of Republicans in the NCGA

House Republican leaders intentionally deceived House Democrats, the press, and the public about a session held at 8:30 AM, September 11, 2019, and they rammed a vote on the state budget through the House.

At the end of a non-voting session Tuesday night, the House Rules Committee Chairman Lewis, who presided over the session, told Minority Leader Jackson that no votes would be taken in the 8:30 AM session Wednesday. The Minority Leader communicated this information to House Democrats via email.

Rep. Lewis also texted reporters that there would be no votes in the 8:30 AM session Wednesday. (Copies of the text have circulated widely in news reports and social media.) I presume the purpose was to keep reporters from being on the floor to cover what would happen.

To add context, the House has scheduled scores of “No Vote Sessions” since January. This is normal operating procedure to dispense with parliamentary procedures that do not require the presence of members.

Wednesday morning, 55 Republicans arrived along with only a handful of Democrats (who were there only because of 9 AM Finance Committee Meeting). The House Speaker rammed through a vote on two veto overrides in minutes, including the state budget. He refused to allow any Democrats to speak on the bill (which would have given time for most Democrats to arrive). A video of what happened is available on social media. [Click here for the video]

The veto override passed on a 55-9 vote—64 of the 120 members being present.

House Democrats have been incredibly vigilant in being on the floor and ready to vote on every occasion a voting session was called. Members have been there in spite of surgery, cancer treatments, family crises; they have missed vacations, family time, you name it. House Democrats have been here. Personally, I had NOT MISSED EVEN ONE VOTE since January until today when this deceptive vote was taken.

The two most contentious items have been House Bill 966 (the committee report on the state budget vetoed by Governor Cooper) and House Bill 655 (Medicaid Expansion). Both of these bills have been on the House Calendar since July 8. House Democrats have hung together tenaciously in favor of Governor Cooper’s compromise proposal. Neither vote has ever been called … until 8:30 AM, September 11, 2019.

In spite of intense pressure, House Democrats have held strong. The Budget impasse was mostly over five issues: Democrats favor covering over 500,000 North Carolinians with health care coverage, better pay for teachers and other state employees, better school facilities, more funding for public infrastructure projects, and adequate funding for the NC Division of Health and Human Services.

House Democrats could not be beaten in a fair, honorable process. Instead, House Republicans resorted to a level of deception unprecedented in NC History.

So the veto override goes to the NC Senate. NC Senate Democrats are committed to the same principles as House Democrats and will take up the cause.

Who loses because of today’s deceit? Democracy lost. The institution of the House of NC lost. Integrity lost. Honor lost. Honesty lost. But more importantly … people in the Medicaid Gap lost. Children lost. Teachers lost. Most state employees lost. Schools lost. Communities lost. And finally North Carolina lost in that House “Leadership” stooped to a new low get their way.

Remember, House Democrats received over 51% of the vote statewide in 2018. These 65 Republican are in control in spite of getting a minority of North Carolinians’ votes.

On what was supposed to be a Day of Remembrance, the actions of House Republicans dishonored the day and every person who has sacrificed for freedom and democracy. Their action was a sneak attack, dishonest at its core, and not worthy of the people of North Carolina.

North Carolinians deserve better.  As your representative, I will continue to work for a better state and a better House of Representatives.

Nine BIG Questions for NC House Speaker Tim Moore

Tim Moore

From ProgressNC:

As Republican leaders continue to stall and obstruct on their state budget standoff with Governor Roy Cooper, House Speaker Tim Moore has been hard to track down. Here are a number of questions we have for Moore, should he ever poke his head out to speak to voters on the budget:

1. Is it true that Gov. Cooper sent you a compromise budget proposal over a month ago that Republicans have refused to meet with the governor to discuss? 

2. 51 out of 55 House Democrats have promised to sustain Gov. Cooper’s budget veto. Even if all four of the remaining Democrats sided with the Republicans, you still don’t have enough votes to override the veto. Why are you still trying to override the veto if there’s no way for you to get enough votes to do so? 

3. It seems like Republicans have two options here: You can override Gov. Cooper’s budget veto, which you don’t have enough votes to do, or you can negotiate with Democratic leaders for a budget they can support, which you’re not doing. Why are you continuing to stall and obstruct? 

4. How long are you prepared to hold out before admitting you don’t have the votes and finally sitting down to negotiate with Democrats for a budget that works for everyone?

5. School is going to start in a few weeks for most students in North Carolina. School districts are being forced to set their fall budgets with no idea how much money they’ll be getting from the state. Teachers are being forced to buy classroom supplies without the pay raises they were promised. Why are you once again making things harder for our schools? 

6. Over 600,000 North Carolina would gain affordable health care access from Medicaid expansion. But every year we wait, there are an estimated 1,000 unnecessary deaths because people can’t afford life-saving treatment. How many people have to die before Republicans put people over politics and expand Medicaid? 

7. Tens of thousands of educators marched in Raleigh on May 1 with five simple requests for lawmakers. The Republican budget doesn’t meet any of them. How can you expect teachers to support you if you won’t even listen to them? 

8. When you adjust for inflation and enrollment, teacher pay and classroom funding is down compared to a decade ago. Politicians had to make a lot of hard budget decisions during the recession, but the recession is over. Why are Republicans forcing our schools to experience a permanent recession by refusing to restore education funding? 

9. You’ve described Medicaid expansion as “Medicaid for All” when you know full well that Medicaid expansion would bring healthcare only to people making less than 138% of the federal poverty level. How can you be trusted with your budget claims when your description of Medicaid expansion is so grossly exaggerated?

Dan Besse Running Again for NC House in Forsyth County

Many of the Democratic rising stars who made good showings but still lost in 2018 laid the groundwork for coming out stronger, wiser, more organized, and better funded in the 2020 races ahead of us. I'm talking here specifically about the outstanding army of progressives who rattled the doors on the NC General Assembly last year and are back already for 2020.

Dan Besse, on the right

Our friend Dan Besse came within 2,000 votes of beating incumbent Republican Donny Lambeth in NC House District 75. The 75th is entirely inside Forsyth County and largely suburban. It creeps along Forsyth County’s southern border with Davidson County, from Kernersville in the east to Clemmons in the west, with a finger reaching into southwest Winston-Salem, including the Ardmore neighborhood.

Dan is an attorney, a graduate of UNC Law School, and a five-term member of the Winston-Salem city council.  He's made good (and alternative) transportation a special focus of his terms in office, including safe streets, good public transit, and a growing network of safe biking and pedestrian paths, greenways, and sidewalks. (Dan takes full advantage of those paths, greenways, and sidewalks because he's a pretty damn impressive athlete, competing in bike rides and foot races in that Forsyth County heat). He also represents Winston-Salem in leadership roles on the urban area Transportation Advisory Committee, the Piedmont Authority for Regional Transportation, and the National League of Cities. I contributed to Dan's campaign in 2018 and have again for the 2020 contest.

In his law practice, Dan has sought out cases dealing with environmental law and public health, clean energy and utilities, and fair employment, housing, and health care access for working families. He has taught classes in environmental law and policy, and in government, at colleges from N.C State University to Winston-Salem State University and Forsyth Technical Community College.

So ... no surprise he recently posted this on his Facebook page:

I focus a lot of attention on the need to change some of the most egregious failures of this Republican-led legislature: its refusal to close the health care coverage gap or protect coverage for people with pre-existing health conditions; its disrespect for our teachers and failure to pay them what they deserve or fund a good public education for every child; its outrageous attacks on voting rights, civil rights, and human rights.

But there's another Republican legislative failure that is hurting the health of our people today and jeopardizing our future: its rollbacks of clean air and water protections, its refusal to make polluters pay to clean up their messes, its baffling attacks on clean energy development, and its willful ignorance in the face of impending climate disaster.

I've spent much of my public service career working to cut pollution and protect public health and our natural environment. I understand in detail just how much damage this legislature is doing to us all now, and to the prospects for a good future for our children and grandchildren. And I understand how to go about repairing that damage and getting our state back on track as a leader in clean energy and a clean environment.

Donny Lambeth

Meanwhile, incumbent Donny Lambeth won his seat in 2012 with people suggesting he'd be a "moderate." Whatever that word meant when applied to Republican office-holders pre-Trump, it's become something of a joke now. (To Trump, a "moderate" is a limp dick.) But, really, moderate? Lambeth recently tried to wipe out Dan Besse, his 2018 election opponent, as a Winston-Salem city councilman in a "local bill" to redistrict the council seats, double-bunking Dan with a Republican member, while also incidentally punishing the four African-American women on the council. That proposed redistricting bill produced a fire storm, and Lambeth quickly withdrew it.

Even more recently Lambeth played a more obvious "moderate card" as chief sponsor of an (ultimately doomed?) Republican-lite Medicaid expansion bill that suddenly passed a Republican committee last week. The timing's everything, with the Republican majority currently thwarted in passing a vetoed budget until they cave to the governor on Medicaid expansion. That Lambeth bill passed its committee but has yet to reach the House floor, and so far the Big Boss, Mr. Berger in the Senate, has shown no affection for it. Lambeth, who always looks like the act of smiling is physically painful, of course stuck a work requirement into his legislation, because why would a "moderate Republican" pass up an opportunity to further humiliate the already working poor.


SIDEBAR ON PARTISAN SOCIAL MEDIA USE
The day after the election last fall, Dan hinted on Facebook that he would run again: "This race was not the end of our efforts, but the beginning. You can look for more news over the coming month." If he ever made a formal announcement about running again in 2020, I can't find it. But he's obviously running. The post excerpted above about a new emphasis on the environment was prelude to inviting everyone to a fundraiser for the 2020 campaign.

Dan is currently very active on Facebook, has a Twitter account but doesn't use it. He needs to up his game.

He also needs a campaign manager, preferably one with experience. He needs boots on the ground, lots of them. He needs a strategy (based on data) for identifying those Republican voters who're weary of Trumpian conduct wherever it takes place.

FOOTNOTE
Forsyth County was one of the most under-performing urban counties in all of North Carolina in 2018. All Democratic candidates running in all races in 2020 need to hold a private summit and figure out why and what to do about it before 2020 actually dawns.

Rep. Ray Russell Supports Governor Cooper's Budget Proposal

Yesterday, Gov. Roy Cooper released his compromise state budget proposal. It includes healthcare coverage for nearly 500,000 working poor North Carolinians, a larger increase in teacher and state employee pay, more funding for school construction, additional spending for clean air and water, and restored funding for the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).

This offer from Gov. Cooper is an investment in our people and our future. We must devote resources to education, healthcare, and protecting the environment.

The proposal keeps the corporate and franchise taxes at their current low rate, and retains the General Assembly (GA) plan to increase the standard deduction on state taxes to help working families. The Governor’s plan includes $700 million for the Rainy Day Fund and $110 million for hurricane relief.

Gov. Cooper is being fiscally responsible with his compromise proposal. Under his plan the state would spend the same as the General Assembly proposed for this year, but it actually reduces spending compared to the General Assembly plan during the following year.

Some highlights of Gov. Cooper’s compromise proposal:

Local projects:

·      App State’s Wey Hall renovation funding restored.

·      Appalachian Theatre.

·      West Jefferson sign project.

·      Blowing Rock streetscape project.

·      Watauga River Paddle Trail.

·      Removal of Ward’s Mill Dam on the Watauga River.

Education:

·      Public school construction funded by an additional $500 million over the GA plan and would allow a referendum on school bonds by voters. Ashe County Schools would receive more than $11.5 million in funding ($775,000 more than the GA plan), and Watauga County Schools would get nearly $12.5 million (an additional $1.2 million over the GA proposal).

·      Smart Start would have increased funding by $10 million each year.

·      Statewide pre-K slots increased by 2 percent, phasing into 8 percent in the future.

·      Community college instructors would receive a 4 percent raise (compared to the 2 percent offered by the GA).

·      UNC system SPA employees to receive 5 percent raise (2 percent in the GA plan). UNC faculty receive a 1 percent raise.

·      Teacher pay increased by an average of 8.5 percent over two years with pay raises for all teachers (3.8 percent in GA plan).

·      Teachers with master’s degrees get higher compensation.

·      Teachers would not have to pay a fee to have a substitute teacher work for them when they take personal leave days.

State employees and retirees:

·      Retirees receive a 2 percent raise (compare to 1 percent in the GA plan).

·      Most state employees receive a 5 percent pay raise (non-certified personnel included).

Medicaid expansion:

·      Medicaid expansion would cost the state nothing while bringing healthcare to more than 500,000 North Carolinians.

·      Expansion would benefit Ashe and Watauga counties with $64 million in economic growth over two years starting in 2020. 

·      This is a life-and-death issue for some North Carolinians who can’t afford healthcare coverage.

Other:

·      Rural high-speed internet service would get a boost with a $30 million investment.

·      State agencies, including the Department of Environmental Quality, would see a restoration of $6 million in cuts from the GA budget

·      The Department of Health and Human Services would see restoration of funding cuts reflected in the GA plan. This is crucial as DHHS transitions to Managed Medicaid.

·      $800 million in funding for statewide water/sewer projects restored.

There is no good reason why all parties can’t come together and accomplish our goals. What we all want is a prosperous and secure North Carolina where our children receive the best education, our residents are healthy, and our environment is protected.