Letter from Jones Street: Plenty of disaster, not much relief

In the same week that Asheville residents finally saw their drinking water restored –  some six weeks after Hurricane Helene – North Carolina lawmakers shrugged off a chance to provide additional substantial relief to our devastated mountain communities. Instead, they created a disaster for the whole state with a blatant plan to strip power away from newly elected leadership.

Lawmakers approved a bill that gave short shrift to disaster recovery, allotting $252 million but requiring additional legislative approval to spend a fair part of it. The measure's main focus is a comprehensive attempt to undermine incoming Democratic leaders, particularly the governor and attorney general.

Legislative leaders denied their membership and the public any chance to amend or even fully review the bill, which began as unrelated legislation that was gutted and rewritten by a conference committee, then presented as a fait accompli for House and Senate votes – no amendments allowed. 

Some of the most egregious sections would:

  • Change environmental permitting and regulatory structures and further jeopardize neighbors of factory farms, entrench the use of pollution-causing fossil fuels, and delay adoption of clean, climate change-fighting new energy sources.
  • Shift appointment power for the NC State Board of Elections from the governor to the state Auditor; the newly elected auditor is a Republican.
  • Limit the governor’s flexibility to appoint judges on the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals.
  • Cut the governor's appointments to the NC Board of Utilities from three to two, handing one to the state Treasurer; the incoming Treasurer is also a Republican.
  • Significantly cut the state Attorney General's role in lawsuits and restricts the AG's ability to take action without legislative approval.
  • Strip more local government powers and transfer them to the General Assembly.

The bill now faces a likely veto from Gov. Roy Cooper, which could face an override vote when the General Assembly returns for a planned two-week session in December. Stay tuned as we develop plans for fighting this legislation.

Cooper, by the way, went to Washington this week to seek $25 billion in recovery aid from Congress.

In other legislative shenanigans, Cooper's veto of H10 was overturned. The measure, now law, requires N.C. sheriffs to provide greater support to federal immigration authorities, and provides a $463.5 million expansion of private school vouchers.