It was a legislative version of a "Terminator" movie, with members of the General Assembly warning us, "I'll be back."
After a "short session" that mocked its own name, lawmakers decided to come back into session twice more this year. They'll slip into Raleigh later this month, in case they need to override vetoes by Gov. Pat McCrory. After the November elections, they'll return for more serious work: finding accord on issues they couldn't settle before adjourning last week.
At the head of the list are coal ash and Medicaid reform. The first is urgent. The second should wait until next year.
As Senate leader Phil Berger found out in his hometown of Eden last winter, Duke Energy's storage of more than 100 million tons of coal ash in unlined, open ponds is a disaster waiting to happen. When 82,000 tons of ash got loose from a storage pond at the Dan River Power Plant in Eden, it set off a chain of events that challenged environmental regulators and lawmakers alike. Legislators were nearly unanimous in agreement that those open pits at 14 power-plant sites were dangerous. But they never got much further.
The House and Senate were at loggerheads over the best way to regulate ash storage and make it safer. And at the 11th hour, some began backing away from any measure that would cause pain to Duke, the nation's largest electric utility and a lavish contributor to political campaigns.
So any further oversight, let alone cleanup of the ponds, is on hold at least until November, even as we learn more about the danger posed to public water supplies across the state.
The House and Senate also were unable to reconcile differing approaches to administering Medicaid, the federal-state health-insurance program for the poor. Funding shortfalls have plagued the system for years. The House wants to continue the Medicaid administration model in use today. It is guided by physicians and health care professionals. The Senate wants to hand Medicaid to private managed-care organizations that would run the system for a set fee.
Our Medicaid management system is widely admired and copied by other states. The Senate model might be better at cutting expenses, but it likely would cut the quality and quantity of care as well. It should be taken up by study committees and settled next year, in the long session.
But the coal ash is a clear and very present danger. It needs a solution. Now.
