Rough week for McCrory with Senate
Published February 14, 2015
by Chris Fitzsimon, NC Policy Watch and NC SPIN panelist, February 13, 2015.
Another week, another series of pointed reminders for Governor Pat McCrory from leaders of the General Assembly that he is not in charge of things in Raleigh these days.
The signals came in large ways and small ones. The Senate passed a gas tax increase that would force McCrory’s Department of Transportation to lay off 500 workers—and apparently passed it without consulting with McCrory, who issued a feeble news release after the fact, offering support for the tax provisions and raising concerns about the jobs that would be lost.
Senate Finance Chair Bob Rucho brought back a bill this week to restructure the state board that reviews decisions about unemployment insurance claims. McCrory vetoed the bill last session, calling it an infringement on his powers, but the Senate leaders are trying again with a similar proposal.
Rucho was asked if the governor supported the proposal this time and told a reporter that the governor “can speak for himself after we pass the bill.” Apparently Rucho is not too concerned with infringing.
That’s not normally the way things work in state government, especially when the governor and legislative leaders are from the same party.
It’s almost unthinkable that McCrory wouldn’t be involved in major legislation raising the gas tax and calling for huge job cuts at a department he controls. But it seems fairly certain that he wasn’t.
Senate leaders feel no obligation to consult with the governor on major policy decisions. Sometimes it seems they ignore him on purpose to make the point that they are in control of what happens in Raleigh.
McCrory spent most of the week attending media events across the state to build support for reinstating the historic tax credit program that the General Assembly allowed to expire last year—over McCrory’s objections.
McCrory clearly believes the credit is important for the state’s job creation efforts, and he’s right, but there’s something odd about his role in the campaign to revive it.
His remarks at the events are more cheerleading than advocacy. He rarely calls out legislative leaders or even encourages people to pressure their lawmakers to bring back the program. There’s an online petition for people to sign, but McCrory doesn’t talk much about that either.
It is as if he’s a local chamber of commerce member at the events, not the governor. McCrory is expected to include the historic tax credits in the budget he presents to the General Assembly in a few weeks, but that may not matter much.
McCrory pointedly asked lawmakers in the State of the State address in 2013 to reinstate funding for the drug treatment courts that had saved lives and money. He put funding for the courts in his budget but legislative leaders ignored the request.
McCrory also declared in the same speech two years ago that any tax reform would be revenue neutral. The plan passed six months later will cost the state at least $700 million this year.
And of course he hinted at Medicaid expansion in this year’s State of the State address that he delivered last week. But legislative leaders have already decreed that they see no reason to expand the program, and don’t seem too interested in even seeing the details of how the governor of their own party wants to do it.
McCrory’s call for a combined $2.5 billion worth of bonds to build roads and state buildings is also getting a lukewarm reaction in the legislative halls among people who are supposed to be the governor’s political allies.
They may all be from the same party, but there’s a clear hierarchy in the Republican ranks in Raleigh these days and this week made it clear again that while he may be the governor, McCrory’s not at the top.
