Legislative leaders plot still more destructive power grabs

After having exercised seven-plus years of relentless, “take no prisoners” rule and with pollsters and pundits forecasting a tough election year for the allies of Donald Trump, you’d think that North Carolina’s legislative leaders might be in a mood to choose a slightly more moderate path during the upcoming legislative “short” session that commences May 16.

Think again.

The word from insiders at the General Assembly is that GOP House and Senate leaders have instead all but finalized plans to use the latter days of their endangered supermajorities to advance as many as three cynical and/or highly destructive state constitutional amendments during the session. The amendments would: 1) permanently cap the state income tax rate, 2) impose a new photo identification requirement to vote, and 3) establish a state constitutional right to hunt and fish. The apparent plan is to pass all three and place them on the November general election ballot.

From a substantive perspective, there are numerous strong reasons to be opposed to this agenda – especially the tax cap and voter ID proposals (more on those below). As a practical matter, however, the real hallmark of these proposals is not their substance (or lack thereof), but the anti-democratic cynicism that they represent.

Simply put, the state constitution in North Carolina is not designed to be a document in which to work out complex, highly technical and time-sensitive policy and funding debates. It is not the place, for instance, to negotiate the size of the state budget or to work out the fine details of election procedures.

Read more: http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/2018/05/01/heads-up-legislative-leaders-plot-still-more-destructive-power-grabs/