Bring back deference to local legislation

Editorial by Rock Mount Telegram, May 14, 2015.

Not so long ago, the N.C. General Assembly followed a straight-forward, common-sense approach to local legislation. We can only wish lawmakers would bring back those good old days.

Local bills are important orders of business that usually affect only a particular town or county. A representative from Tarboro might introduce a local bill to authorize Edgecombe County to build affordable apartments for school teachers, for example. Such a proposal would not affect what happens in, say, Wilmington. But Edgecombe would have to receive special authority from the General Assembly in order to proceed.

Under an informal code of courtesy, legislators in previous General Assembly sessions deferred to local delegations on such issues. If all of the lawmakers representing Edgecombe County endorse a bill that would allow the county to build houses for teachers, then why should someone from Asheville or Charlotte object? With that in mind, local legislation usually passed, so long as it had the unanimous support of legislators representing the affected areas.

The important exception to that era of courtesy arose when one or more representatives of the affected area objected to a local bill. Under those circumstances, legislative leaders often tabled the bill in question. It wasn’t voted up or down. It simply languished until members of the affected delegation resolved their differences.

That was then. This is now. The courtesy policy is out the window.

Local legislation today doesn’t have to have the uananimous support of area lawmakers in order to become law. That’s how recent bills overhauling Greensboro City Council districts and Wake County school board representation have passed.

That change of policy also could spell the difference for a proposal to dissolve the Nash-Rocky Mount Public Schools system and send students on the Edgecombe County side of Rocky Mount to Edgecombe County Public Schools.

Never mind that such a proposal has the support of just four Nash County commissioners – Edgecombe County commissioners, Edgecombe County school board members, Nash-Rocky Mount school board members, Rocky Mount City Council members and three Nash County commissioners all oppose the idea. If the plan is introduced as a local bill, the rest of the legislature can do whatever it chooses to affect the operations of public schools in the Twin Counties.

You can describe that system in a lot of ways – fair or unfair, ideological or bold-face partisan. But the one thing it doesn’t seem is representative of the area that would be most directly affected.

It would be nice to see a return to the good old days of local legislation courtesy.

http://www.rockymounttelegram.com/opinion/our-views/bring-back-deference-local-legislation-2879619