N.C. Republicans: No recorded votes at next session

By Gary D. Robertson

RALEIGH, N.C.

The announcement Wednesday by Republican legislative leaders that they won't hold votes on bills when lawmakers reconvene next week was greeted skeptically by Democrats following an after-midnight session and veto override last month.

House Speaker Thom Tillis, R-Mecklenburg, told fellow members that no recorded votes will be taken during the General Assembly's floor session Feb. 16-18. Senate Rules Chairman Tom Apodaca, R-Henderson, said he didn't expect any votes in his chamber either.

The announcement means the House and Senate chambers plan to have "skeleton" sessions in which only a handful of lawmakers will be obligated to attend.

"No matters will be taken up on the floor except for the unrecorded votes to adopt the journal and to adjourn," Tillis wrote in an email to House members. Barring committee work, he added, "there will be no need for you to attend the session."

Democrats, particularly in the House, appear to have little confidence that nothing will happen based on the last time they convened in the first week of January, apparently only to consider Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue's veto of a death-penalty bill.

"I don't trust anything (Tillis) says about plans for a legislative session," said House Minority Whip Deborah Ross, D-Wake.

Republicans deferred House debate on that bill and used parliamentary maneuvers to reconvene another work session at 12:45 a.m. to override the veto of another bill that would make it more difficult for the North Carolina Association of Educators to collect member dues. The NCAE has been critical of Republican education policies and spending cuts and is allied with Perdue. A judge has stopped enforcement of the law while constitutional challenges by NCAE are litigated.

The House Democratic Caucus plans to be well-represented at the Feb. 16 session to ensure they are ready in case Republican plans change. The caucus will hold a meeting before the scheduled noon session and will ask members to attend the session, said Bill Holmes, a spokesman for Minority Leader Joe Hackney, D-Orange.

The working relationship between Republicans and Democrats, including Perdue, was already frayed in 2011 as Perdue vetoed 16 bills and the new GOP majorities successfully overrode seven of them. The GOP's use of five mini-work periods since the budget-writing session ended last June has raised suspicions that other vetoed bills would be overridden when enough Democrats can't attend.

"They have abused our trust," Ross said.

Apodaca, whose chamber voted last month to hold the work session that the House used to override the veto of the dues checkoff bill, said his confidence level that no votes will occur is only as high as it can be when it comes to the business of legislating.

"One thing in politics is, nothing's ever certain," he said.

The Legislature last fall set aside the February meeting dates largely in case the Republican-penned redistricting plans for General Assembly seats and the state's congressional delegations had been challenged successfully in court. But there's no need to revisit them right now because a three-judge panel declined to delay the May primary elections for those races.

An adjournment resolution also said the Legislature could consider other vetoed bills and election-related legislation next week. The outcome of the January meeting shows lawmakers can broaden topic parameters.

The bipartisan North Carolina Coalition for Lobbying & Government Reform urged Tillis and Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, to give citizens for the rest of 2012 at least five business days' notice about what the Legislature will address in future sessions and committee meetings. Bills should be made public in advance and sessions held at "regular times" with advance notice, the group said.

"We know that you agree with us that legislative sessions need clear and precise calendars to encourage citizens to express their opinions and participate in their state government," coalition director Jane Pinsky wrote.

Wednesday's decision means lawmakers next week won't consider any gambling legislation that is needed so that a signed compact between Perdue and the Cherokee Indians in western North Carolina can be implemented and the tribe can offer live dealer gambling at its casino there.

The executive and legislative branches are still working on changes to address concerns of lawmakers about the process by which the state's school districts would get a share of revenues from the new games. The method set out in the compact signed in November appears unconstitutional, according to General Assembly staff attorneys. Perdue's office has disagreed.

"I do think that we are getting very close on the language," said Apodaca, predicting legislation to exempt the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians from some gambling laws wouldn't be taken up until this year's principal work session begins May 16.

Under the adjournment resolution, the Legislature's next scheduled mini-work session would be April 23.