MT Raleigh Report: The Legislature Overrides More Vetoes, and Some Good News

On July 27, Governor Roy Cooper vetoed legislation that alters state ballot language for the constitutional amendments voters will consider this fall. The legislation had been approved by the General Assembly a few days before. Cooper also vetoed legislation that prevents a Supreme Court candidate who recently switched his party affiliation from having any party label next to his name on the ballot.

Last week, the legislature returned to override the governor’s vetoes – in a single Saturday session.

And then, this week, Cooper announced his plans to go to court to stop two of the constitutional amendments voters are scheduled to consider in November. The proposed amendments would take away the governor’s authority to appoint judges, regulators, board members and other state officials, and transfer that power to the legislature.

In addition, Clean Air Carolina, the Southern Environmental Law Center and the NAACP filed a separate lawsuit to stop amendments on the ballot that they say threaten voting rights and restructure government by usurping powers intended for the executive branch. A spokesperson for Republican Senate leader Phil Berger called the lawsuits “absurd”, saying they are intended to take away a voter’s right to choose how they want to be governed.

Here at MountainTrue, we’re still wading through these arguments and weighing the impact of the amendments on WNC’s environment and communities. We welcome your thoughts about the amendments, and whether (and how) environmentalists should support or oppose them.

And Now the Good News

Remember the state budget? You know the one – $24 billion for the new fiscal year, which started July 1?

While education funding and a living wage for state employees – and GenX water pollution – got most of the attention during the budget debate, there were two items of particular importance to WNC that you may not have heard so much about. And both are items those of us at MountainTrue are particularly proud of.

First, the General Assembly earmarked $3 million for landslide hazard mapping in Western North Carolina. Knowing where landslides may happen can be a matter of life and death. For proof, look no further than the landslides in Polk County that killed three people earlier this year.

At MountainTrue, we made landslide hazard mapping part of our legislative agenda more than three years ago. Our hope was that after Hurricane Matthew hit eastern North Carolina in 2015 and fires raged in Western North Carolina in 2016, lawmakers in Raleigh would turn their attention to disaster preparedness and might be willing to restore funding for landslide hazard mapping that was cut in 2011.

Well, it took a bit longer than we thought it would, but the legislature finally came around this spring when lawmakers included landslide hazard mapping in their final budget. Big thanks go out to Rep. Chuck McGrady, who got behind this funding three years ago and helped us keep pushing it. (For the record, McGrady also opposed cutting the funding in 2011.)

The result: local governments, developers and homeowners will soon have crucial information that will lead to more sustainable development and, hopefully, save lives.

The other budget item is smaller but may be crucial to protecting WNC’s trout fishing industry, which is worth about $383 million annually to the region’s economy.

Whirling disease is caused by the microscopic parasite Myxobolus cerebralis; it damages cartilage and skeletal tissue in trout, causing them to swim in a corkscrew pattern. If you love to fish for trout in WNC – or make your living helping others who do – whirling disease is bad news. It’s been found in the Watauga, and there is anecdotal evidence that it’s in other WNC rivers and streams as well.

The state is doing an exhaustive study of the disease, but the final results won’t be in for several years. So this year, MountainTrue’s Watauga Riverkeeper Andy Hill – who also happens to be a former professional fly fishing guide – got to talking about trout and whirling disease with Sen. Deanna Ballard. Ballard represents much of the Watauga River basin and knows how much trout fishing means to her district’s economy and way of life.

With Ballard’s help, an appropriation of $20,000 got tucked into North Carolina’s budget for MountainTrue to do a study to see if the DNA of Myxobolus cerebralis can be found in WNC’s waters. If the DNA shows up, it won’t be definitive proof of whirling disease, but we think it would be a strong enough sign to convince lawmakers like Ballard to act now to combat the disease before it gets out of hand. Even better, the study can be done quickly – in time for the 2019 legislature to consider the results and act on them.

These examples are a great reminder of why MountainTrue has a permanent presence in Raleigh. Finding success in the capital requires a long-term commitment to building support for good ideas – like landslide hazard mapping – and enough familiarity with the people and politics in the legislature to take advantage of opportunities like the whirling disease study when they arise.

And of course, having legislators like McGrady and Ballard who are willing to help doesn’t hurt either!

MT Raleigh Report: Final Update on the Farm Bill

Those of you who receive MountainTrue’s legislative updates know that we’ve been mobilizing people across the region in recent weeks against the Farm Act, SB711. This legislation includes drastic new limitations on citizens’ rights to protect their homes and their health against large agricultural industrial operations like hog and chicken plants.

The GOP-controlled legislature approved SB711 along largely partisan lines a few weeks ago. On June 25, Gov. Cooper vetoed the bill, citing its impact on the environment and its limitations on property rights.

You can read more about the problems with this legislation here and here.

MountainTrue Co-Director Julie Mayfield states:

“With SB711, the North Carolina General Assembly has put the interests of large corporations above the interests of communities and homeowners. This has never been how things have been done in Western North Carolina.”

Despite overwhelming grassroots opposition to this bill, the legislature voted to override Cooper’s veto of SB711. Below is a list of WNC legislators and how they voted on the override. (Remember: those who voted FOR the override voted to support the bill. Those who voted AGAINST the override voted to oppose it).

We encourage you to take a moment to see how your lawmaker voted on this critical issue.

And a big thanks to all of you who helped us mobilize support against this bill – we hope you will continue to join us in speaking up for WNC’s environment and the health of the people who live here.

WNC Members of the NC Senate who supported SB711 by voting to override Gov. Cooper’s veto:

Deanna Ballard (R-Alleghany, Ashe, Avery, Caldwell, Watauga)

Jim Davis (R-Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Haywood, Jackson, Macon, Swain)

Chuck Edwards (R-Henderson, Buncombe, Transylvania)

Ralph Hise (R-Madison, McDowell, Mitchell, Polk, Rutherford, Yancey)

WNC Members of the NC Senate who opposed SB711 by voting to uphold Gov. Cooper’s veto:

Terry Van Duyn (D-Buncombe)

WNC Members of the NC House of Representatives who supported SB711 by voting to override Gov. Cooper’s veto:

Mike Clampitt (R-Haywood, Jackson, Swain)

Kevin Corbin (R-Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Macon)

Josh Dobson (R-Avery, McDowell, Mitchell)

Cody Henson (R-Henderson, Polk, Transylvania)

Tim Moore (R-Cleveland)

Jonathan Jordan (R-Ashe, Watauga)

Michele Presnell (R-Haywood, Madison, Yancey)

WNC Members of the NC House of Representatives who opposed SB711 by voting to uphold Gov. Cooper’s veto:

John Ager (D-Buncombe)

Susan Fisher (D-Buncombe)

Brian Turner (D-Buncombe)

Hugh Blackwell (R-Burke)

Chuck McGrady (R-Henderson)

MountainTrue Raleigh Report: The End (of the Session) is Near, CCA Goes to Raleigh & More

CCA members with just some of the legislators they’ve met with this week in Raleigh. From left to right: Holly Cunningham (CCA), Alan Rosenthal (CCA), Rev. Scott Hardin-Nieri (CCA), Rep. Susan C. Fisher, Sen. Terry Van Duyn, Rep. Brian Turner, Rev. Bill Garrard, Rep. John Ager, and Rev. Kevin Bates (CCA).

2018 Farm Act, Veto Overrides and Constitutional Amendments

The 2018 North Carolina General Assembly has started its slow march toward adjournment. Here’s a quick update about what to expect before legislators go home.

Last week, lawmakers approved a flurry of bills in anticipation of an expected adjournment later this month. Lawmakers plan to restrict their work during the remainder of June to local bills and constitutional amendments – which do not require the Governor’s signature – as well as veto overrides. Keep in mind that veto overrides require a three-fifths vote in both chambers, or 72 votes in the House and 30 votes in the Senate. A three-fifths vote is also required to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot.

On the veto override front, the two biggest environmental bills of the session – the 2018 Farm Act and the legislature’s annual regulatory “reform” bill – are now on the Governor’s desk. A veto of the Farm Act is widely expected. There are 74 Republicans in the House and 35 in the Senate, so a strict vote along party lines would override the vetoes. However, collecting the needed votes for an override is a very different game in each chamber. Expect the Senate majority to easily and quickly override any veto of these bills. In the House, however, the vote is likely to be much closer, with many environmental groups (including MountainTrue) and other opponents of the bill working hard to find the votes to sustain a veto.

Lawmakers are also expected to consider putting several constitutional amendments on the fall ballot – largely, it appears, in hopes of motivating certain groups of voters to get to the polls. Some of the proposals include a constitutional amendment protecting the “right to hunt and fish,” a voter identification requirement and a limit on personal income taxes.

Creation Care Alliance of WNC Goes to Raleigh

The Creation Care Alliance of WNC traveled to Raleigh this week to meet with legislators. Among the issues they discussed were clean and renewable energy, landslide hazard mapping and trout and hemlock tree protection.

Thanks for supporting MountainTrue’s advocacy efforts. Keep an eye out for our legislative alerts and opportunities to help us speak out for the environment in Raleigh.

MT Raleigh Report: The Good, The Bad and The Big Picture on NC’s New Budget

Last week, in a blur of committee meetings and debates on the Senate and House floor, the legislature completed its most important task of the 2018 General Assembly session – approval of the $24 billion state budget for the 2018-19 fiscal year, which begins July 1.

The budget is now in the hands of Gov. Roy Cooper who is widely expected to veto it. With veto-proof majorities, the GOP House and Senate will undoubtedly override Cooper’s veto. So while the budget process still has several weeks to go before completion, what we saw last week in the budget is basically what we are going to get for FY2019.

As is often the case in the sausage-making of the General Assembly, one has to consider what the General Assembly included (or didn’t) in the budget as well as how it went about its work. It’s also important to step back from the details of the budget and consider it in a broader context.

In this report, we’ll try to do a little of all three.

(And for you policy wonks who want to look at the budget itself, it’s divided into two documents – a budget bill and a money report, which lists all various expenditures made in the budget.)

What’s In the Budget for The Environment?

From an environmental perspective – and in comparison to previous spending plans approved since the current GOP majorities took control of the legislature in 2011 – this latest spending plan had some positive elements.

For example, the new budget includes a substantial, $3.6 million investment in landslide mapping for WNC counties. This funding has been a MountainTrue legislative priority for several years out of concern for public safety. We also support the mapping because it allows local communities and individuals to make informed decisions about development. It’s a sad irony that several people were killed in landslides in the region the same week the legislature approved this funding, leading to press reports exploring whether the fatalities might have been avoided if the legislature had not cut the program in 2011.

Many thanks to Rep. Chuck McGrady, who led the effort to fund the mapping this year, and who opposed the 2011 cuts as a freshman legislator.

MountainTrue is also pleased that the legislature chose to maintain or expand funding for the Clean Water Management Trust Fund, as well as trust funds that support state parks and farmland preservation. While these trust funds have not returned to their pre-recession funding levels, we are grateful that funding is increasing, even if slowly.

From the Every Little Bit Helps File, we also note that the legislature provided $225,000 to protect the state’s hemlock trees from invasive insects and $20,000 for a study of whirling disease, which threatens the state’s trout industry. The whirling disease funding was a legislative priority for MountainTrue, and we thank Sen. Deanna Ballard of Alleghany, Ashe, Avery, Caldwell and Watauga counties for getting and keeping that funding in the budget.

We are more ambivalent, however, about the General Assembly’s response to the clean water issues raised by GenX contamination in the Cape Fear River. While the legislature made very modest investments in the NC Department of Environmental Quality, the funding remains far short of the resources the Department needs to respond to GenX, as well as other water quality issues across the state.

The changes lawmakers made to the package of GenX appropriations and policies in the budget at the request of industrial polluters are also problematic. Even the General Assembly’s effort to get ahead of the emerging contaminant issue is a mixed bag. While lawmakers provided $5 million for statewide testing of drinking water supplies, they made those investments outside DEQ where they are best located and limited the testing to a narrow collection of compounds instead of testing for all “emerging contaminants.”

(To read MountainTrue’s GenX analysis, click here.)

A Behind Closed Doors Budget Process

That brings us to the how of the budget – the process lawmakers used to draft and vote on how to spend taxpayers’ money.

Unfortunately, for the average citizen and many legislators, there was no budget “process” this year. Lawmakers began meeting behind closed doors weeks before the session started on May 16. Last week, they released the spending plan and presented it at committee meetings, where amendments were not accepted. Then, legislative leaders put the bill on the Senate and House floors for one, yes-or-no, take-it-or-leave-it vote in each chamber – again without allowing any amendments or changes to the bill.

For the first time since at least the 1970s, the majorities in both the House and Senate approved the state’s spending plan without allowing any public comment on the bill or any amendment by any legislator, regardless of party. It was a breathtaking and disturbing display of raw political power that should leave all North Carolinians – whatever their political affiliation – concerned about their government’s commitment to basic democratic values.

The Bigger Picture

When considering the budget approved last week, it is important to think about the choices that lawmakers have made that impact how much money they have to spend on the environment and other critical needs. More specifically, since 2013, the General Assembly has approved roughly $3 billion in tax cuts, which have created a sense of scarcity in the General Assembly, where budget writers regularly report the difficulty they face in addressing the state’s pressing needs. The result is a budget process – and a budget – that unnecessarily pits education spending and salary increases for state employees, for example, against investments in clean water and clean air.

In our view, these are false choices, imposed on all of us by legislative leaders who are unwilling to have a broader debate about the state’s needs and how to meet them – or, this year, any debate at all.

MountainTrue Raleigh Report: The General Assembly, GenX and the Future of NC Drinking Water

May 16 marked the first day of the 2018 legislative session, and it took less than one day for lawmakers to begin making headlines about what is likely to be the biggest environmental issue of the session – the General Assembly’s response to the 2016 discovery of GenX, an “emerging contaminant” in the water supply of tens of thousand of people in the Cape Fear region and perhaps thousands more across the state.

(Click here for previous MT Raleigh updates about the GenX issue and its implications for WNC water supplies.)

Lawmakers in both parties, as well as Democratic Governor Roy Cooper, have been sparring over who is responsible for the GenX contamination and what to do about it for more than a year. The debate has raged in the media as well as in two special legislative sessions held earlier this year. In both sessions, GOP lawmakers in the House and Senate largely ignored Cooper’s demands but could not agree on competing GOP proposals.

The stalemate among Senate and House Republicans may have broken. On May 17, key GOP members from the Cape Fear region announced their agreement on what they call a “comprehensive plan to help ensure their constituents have access to clean, safe drinking water and to extend efforts to remove GenX pollution from public water supplies.”

Their proposal, which was introduced in both the House and Senate, provides $2 million to help extend municipal water lines to homes with GenX-contaminated wells. It also provides $8 million for university researchers to conduct statewide sampling and analysis of GenX and other emerging contaminants in public water supplies. And it earmarks $1.8 million to the NC Department of Environmental Quality to purchase a mass spectrometer and hire additional staff for water quality sampling and analysis and to address its permitting backlog.

The bill also makes changes to DEQ’s authority to regulate GenX. Some environmental attorneys say the changes may actually delay the Department’s ability to regulate GenX and similar compounds.

This is the third GenX proposal in recent weeks. Earlier this spring, Gov. Cooper proposed a $14 million GenX response plan, which includes large funding increases in the NC Department of Environmental Quality. The Governor, and all of the state’s environmental organizations, say new funding is needed after years of steep budget cuts made by the legislature. A third plan, offered by House Democrats, would make similar investments in DEQ while also expanding the Department’s regulatory authority.

So where is all this going? Right now it’s hard to tell. With the GOP in charge of the legislative and budget process, the GOP compromise bill is clearly the one to watch. Whether and how the legislature will debate the bill openly is still unclear. There is some indication that it may be placed in the budget lawmakers are working on and fast-tracked along without much, if any, public debate or even amendment.

For MountainTrue, we have two top priorities for legislative response on this important issue.

The first is adequate funding for state regulators to do the work of protecting our air, water and public health.

Clearly, the Governor’s proposal and the Democratic bill meet this important mark, including funding for DEQ, the NC Department of Health and Human Services’ GenX response as well as statewide testing of all drinking water supplies for emerging contaminants.

While the GOP compromise bill also includes funds for statewide testing as well as new funding for the NC DHHS, it does not fund DEQ sufficiently to meet the challenge GenX and other pollutants pose to our state. We are also worried about reports concerning the unintended consequences of the bill’s changes to DEQ’s regulatory authority.

Our second priority for legislative response to GenX is a simple one: we want a full and healthy debate of all of these proposals, with plenty of opportunity for the public to hear the debate and participate in it, and for the media to cover it for those who can’t come to the capital to hear it for themselves. We also want all legislators – no matter their political affiliation – to have the opportunity to comment on and offer amendments to these proposals. And we want the votes on these amendments recorded so the public knows where our representatives stand on this important issue.

In short, we want the legislature to do what it is supposed to do – take up difficult, important, complicated issues, debate them in public and then make and refine proposals and pass legislation that will make all of us safer and healthier.

If you agree, call your legislator today and demand that the General Assembly protect our water by investing in DEQ and by hearing all the GenX bills in a public process with amendments and recorded votes.

MT Raleigh Report: GOTV, DEQ Focuses on Enviro Justice, the Session is Coming

Get Out and Vote

Primary elections are being held across North Carolina today. Regardless of party, we encourage you to learn about the candidates and the issues and head to the polls. You can get customized voter information at https://www.vote411.org/.

DEQ Focuses on Environmental Justice

Last week, the North Carolina’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) announced the 16 members of its new Environmental Justice and Equity Advisory Board. The Board is charged with assisting DEQ in achieving and maintaining fair and equal treatment and meaningful involvement of North Carolinians regardless of where they live, their race, religion or income.

“These Board members have been tasked with working directly with me and DEQ staff to help us elevate the voices of the underserved and underrepresented as we work to protect the public’s health and natural resources,” DEQ Secretary Michael Regan said at the announcement.

Most consider North Carolina to be the birthplace of the environmental justice movement, born in Warren County in 1982 during a long fight against a state landfill. Community members protested against the landfill for releasing cancer-causing PCBs in their predominantly black community. Although they were unsuccessful, their efforts launched a national movement highlighting the fact that communities of color bear an unequal – and unfair – impact of industrial pollution.

To read more about the Board and the full list of members, visit DEQ’s website.

Session is Coming, Session is Coming

As the May 16 opening of the 2016 legislature’s short session approaches, the pace at the General Assembly is quickly accelerating. Senate and House budget writers have been meeting in hopes of approving a budget on a very expedited schedule once the legislature officially returns. If they stay on schedule, most of their work may be complete before Gov. Cooper releases his budget proposal – now scheduled for May 10.

Despite legislative leaders’ hopes for a fast and painless session, there are a number of environmental issues to keep our eyes on:

GenX: Will the General Assembly finally agree on funding to begin to address GenX and other emerging contaminants threatening our waters? Last month, Governor Cooper announced that his budget will recommend $14.5 million for DEQ and the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to address the safety and quality of North Carolina’s water and environment.
Land conservation: Will the General Assembly set aside more money to preserve open space? While the General Assembly made much-needed investments in the Clean Water Management Trust Fund and the Parks and Recreation Trust Fund last year, overall, these investments are down from the previous year – and have not reached funding levels achieved before the 2008 recession.
Energy: The clean energy sector continues to grow in North Carolina, but legislators have pumped the brakes on several policies to encourage new technology and even put a hold on wind technology. Will legislators reconsider incentives or the pause on wind?

In other news…