Jones Street Report - September

Ed Stiles, Wilson GOP Secretary

Where We Are and the Look Ahead

Budget Negotiations Move Forward…Finally
During the month of August, there seemed to be some hang-ups in the negotiations on the target numbers for which the Appropriations Subcommittee Chairs will be responsible for meeting. That logjam was finally broken just before Labor Day when the House and Senate Leadership finally came to an agreement on those targets.

The expectation is that the Appropriations Subchairs will finish their work by the weekend of September 18-19, and then the conference report will be voted on by both chambers. It must be noted that, in order to have veto-proof majorities on this budget, the House and Senate leadership need three of the nine House Democrats, and one of the four Senate Democrats hold true to their original vote.

That brings us to the ultimate question. What will Governor Cooper do? This is a rather important question when you consider two things.

First, Republicans have held the majority in the General Assembly for nearly eleven years now. During that time, we’ve held the Governorship for only four of those years. At no time, in those eleven years, when there’s been a Democrat Governor and a Republican General Assembly, has the Governor signed a budget.

Second (and probably even more important), Republicans are likely to retain the majority 2022, and possibly might regain veto-proof majorities for 2023-24 session.  For the last few sessions, the leadership in the General Assembly has been particularly generous in trying to fund projects in the east, only to be rebuffed by not only Governor Cooper, but by the very eastern Democrats whose districts would benefit. One example of this is the Brody School of Medicine at ECU. That area’s Senator, Don Davis (D-Pitt) voted for the budget in 2019. Davis was nowhere to be found when it came to a veto override, presumably as a result of Governor Cooper’s threat of a primary challenge if Davis voted with his constituents than with the Governor. If certain guesses are right, the legislative leadership is not going to grant too many more “bites at the apple” to legislative Democrats. This may be their last chance to see these projects come to fruition.

It is very likely that we could see a vote on the budget somewhere around the end of September or the first part of October.

Redistricting
The House Redistricting Committee and the Senate Redistricting and Elections Committees are holding a joint public hearing Thursday, September 16th at 3:00 pm at Pitt Community College.

Each speaker may speak for up to two (2) minutes. On-line sign up closes at 11:00 a.m., September 16th. Speakers may also sign up on-site at Pitt Community College.

To sign-up, click here.

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