Boles, Blake Confident on Veto Override
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Moore County's two key legislators expressed confidence Tuesday that their respective chambers would easily vote to override Gov. Beverly Perdue's veto of the state budget bill.
"I am confident that, with votes by the five Democrats, the House will override the veto, and I expect it within 24 hours," state Rep. Jamie Boles said Tuesday morning. "We need all five Democrats to demonstrate that this is a bipartisan budget."
State Sen. Harris Blake was tied up in back-to-back committee meetings Tuesday and did not have time for an interview. However, he left a voice mail message advising that the Senate was expected to take its vote shortly after the House votes on the override. He was also confident of the vote.
The House did not convene until 7 p.m. Tuesday, but it was up to that chamber to take the first vote because the House was the source of the budget this year. The two houses alternate budget initiative from session to session, and it was the House's term this time.
Blake and Boles are Republicans. State Rep. Joe Hackney, whose district includes one and one half precincts in Moore County, is a Democrat and did not vote for the House budget. Hackney is expected to stick with the Democrats on the override vote.
Perdue, a Democrat, used her veto stamp Sunday. It was the first time that a governor has vetoed a budget since veto power was granted in 1997. With Republicans controlling both legislative houses, this was the sixth time she has exercised her veto power since the General Assembly convened in January.
"I will not put my name on a plan that so blatantly ignores the values of North Carolina's people," she said Sunday. "I cannot support a budget that sends the message that North Carolina is moving backwards, when we have always been a state that led the nation."
The $19.7 billion budget approved by both houses last week differs in several respects from the budget proposed early in the session by the governor. The legislative budget adds funds for 1,124 teaching positions but cuts $124 million in other areas, which critics say could lead to the loss of 9,200 other positions across the state.
Another objection raised by Democratic opponents centers on the shift of school bus replacement and workers' compensation costs from the state to counties. Most of the differences are found in public education funding.
Perdue wants to retain a sales tax scheduled to expire June 30 as a means of covering much of the state's revenue shortfall. The Republicans oppose continuation of the tax.
Republicans were quick to condemn the governor's action.
"The same governor who claims to champion job creation and public education has vetoed a bipartisan budget that does more for both causes than her own proposal," Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger said in a statement released Sunday, "The only explanation for this veto and her statewide media campaign is that the governor believes it is more important to energize her liberal base than to govern responsibly. By placing politics ahead of the public interest, she engages in obstruction of the worst kind, and we will act quickly to move North Carolina forward."
House Speaker Thom Tillis said he was disappointed in the veto.
"Gov. Perdue has had access to this budget for almost two weeks, and she should have made this decision days ago to help provide certainty to counties and school boards across the state," he said in a statement." She has shown no leadership on this issue and no willingness to work with the legislature, choosing instead to veto a budget that protects education and creates jobs. We look forward to overriding the governor's last-minute veto very soon."
Berger is a Republican from Rockingham County, Tillis a Republican from Mecklenburg County.
Although Republicans have majorities in both houses, the House percentage is not quite large enough for Republicans alone to override a veto. Democratic votes are needed to achieve the needed percentage for an override.
It's a different story in the Senate, where the GOP percentage is sufficient for an override without any help from Democrats.
State Rep. Dewey Hill, one of the Democratic defectors, made a statement on television early this week indicating that he intended to vote for the override. Hill lives in Whiteville.
Legislators were so confident of the override vote that plans are in the making to recess by Friday. They are working some late night sessions to pass the final bills on their agenda, and some of those bills likewise face a gubernatorial veto.
In a budget note of local interest, Boles said that he is still working to restore funding for Samarkand Youth Development Center at Eagle Springs. He is hopeful that the needed money can be returned when the technical correction budget is approved following adoption of the budget.
One other institution of interest here, the historic House in the Horseshoe, is included in the budget, albeit with extensive operating cuts, as is the case with agencies and institutions throughout the state.
Contact Florence Gilkeson at florence@thepilot.com.
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Comments
None 1 year, 11 months ago
12:05 AM. A strong police presence to repel protestors speaks volumes for the House of Representatives. Our own Representative Jamie Boles, who recently received a gift in the form of passage of his sponsored bill to allow funeral homes and their employees to snoop into insurance on a decedents. Now he has solidified his support of TEA Party or Patriots' or whatever they are calling themselves by slashing spending for education in North Carolina from local schools to colleges and universities. Moore County residents, voters, and taxpayers now know without a doubt whom Boles and Blake represent: their self-interests and the TEA Party. And ~ 5 democrats make their maneuver bi-partisan? Progressive education is now on a downward spiral until the next election. Perhaps, those staunch republicans will see that Indiana style voting only provides decimation of a industrialized democracy. While India and China are providing unprecedented educational platforms for engineering, math, and science students by investing in their countries futures and Americas’ as well…just not American children. Way to go Boles and Blake! The Tea Party has an award for you two.
None 1 year, 11 months ago
BigJohnny look up House Bill 664...I wrote a blog on his antics last week. It's not the government who wants drones - it's the republician party. Ever heard of Indiana Style voting?
None 1 year, 11 months ago
http://www.thepilot.com/weblogs/another-self-serving-politician/2011/may/27/politicans-who-use-their-offices-for-personal-gain/
Here's your link...
handyssc2 1 year, 11 months ago
Jamie Boles and Harris Blake should be ashamed of themselves. That budget is disgraceful! And even more so, in light of Jamie Boles self-serving sponsorship of the funeral-directors-access-to-your-group-insurance-policy-detail-so-I-can-take-care-of-those-pesky-financial-details-that-are-too-stressful-for-the-grieving-family bill. Talk about exploitation... is this not taking advantage of a vulnerable population? I can hear it now... now don't you worry little lady, you just let us at Lyon, Dewey and Cheatam take care of all those details. Don't you worry your pretty little head about it. WE will contact your insurance company and find out just exactly how much money we -- I mean -- you, hae to spend on your father's, mother's, child's funeral. Let me take you into our deluxe casket room... so you can browse while we make that call...
OldPilot 1 year, 11 months ago
Hope everyone remembers come the next election....
Arestorer 1 year, 11 months ago
I most certainly WILL......
None 1 year, 11 months ago
handyssc2 says... I must admit you have summed up my hours of research about the underbelly of funeral homes and shady practices. I couldn't have said it any better. My hats off to you ¿:0) I am never surprised at how low an elected official will go to circumvent honesty and ethical standards for personal gain. Once they are in there, they stay just like a bad disease. Just look at Congressman Weiner of New York...maybe not, there may be children in the room. Local and state politics are out of control. We have a sitting county commissioner who has benefited from county taxpayer funds for his company; Southern Software, Inc. Sits on the Sandhills Community College Board and makes financial decisions for introducing his companies software into a non-budgeted police force. Why? A showroom without any cost to SS, Inc. A huge 160,000$ taxpayer investment for personal gain. Is Larry Caddell gone yet?
Bflat 1 year, 11 months ago
This brings to mind, who will be the replacement for LC when his time is up the end of June? Also, in this economy, I hope everyone will pay more attention to the issues and to the candidates in the next election. Everyone is tired of self serving politicians that pad their own pockets at our expense. Just go up McNeill St(Hwy22) and look at the money pit that 3 commissioners ram rodded through with the limited obligation bond for the new federal sized JAIL/public safety building. Meanwhile the #1 school is closed because of a $500,000 budget shortfall. This causes leased classroom trailer to be set up at West Pine to absorb those students until its expansion is built. Spending money to save money is not the issues here. Just wait till the year round school is also ended. It will keep going and going and the education takes a back seat while certain commissioners are busy with their Jail project. What is wrong with that picture? Don't tell me to get over it, because this issue is only going to get worse !
None 1 year, 11 months ago
Thank you for your thoughts Bflat and targeting the real cause of out-of-control spending.
commonsense77 1 year, 11 months ago
This vote leaves the TEA party and their pledges of cleaning up corruption and openness a big joke.
None 1 year, 11 months ago
commonsense77 June 16, 2011 at 12:23 p.m. the TEA Nuts or Party Nuts haven't expressed interest in local politics. Not one word from Tea Dee on the Stimulus Spending around Lake Pinehurst or the 27.2 million on the Newer Detention Center. They only involve themselves all 15 members, in National Elections. O' I forgot, Bo-enh-er and the Congressional TEA's are forcing cuts to states education. Or did I miss something?
None 1 year, 11 months ago
BTW: Who voted in favor of using Federal Stimulus money for projects in and around Pinehurst. God knows they needed the infrastructure, however, Republicans voting to accept Obama money? What is this world coming to these days. And then vote to withhold federal moneys for county transportation for those who have physical dysfunctions. Was the first vote something like 4-1 with Commissioner Tim Lea voting to receive those monies that would have gone somewhere else? I wonder who is kissing up to the TEA Nuts or Party Nuts?