As they grab for power before losing supermajority, NC Republicans show they have wrong priorities

Under the guise of Helene relief, NC Republicans pass a bill stripping power from incoming Democrats

Republicans are having trouble accepting that voters took away their supermajority and also rejected their MAGA candidates for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and superintendent of public schools. Knowing that their veto-proof majority is coming to an end in a few weeks, Republicans are using a bill for desperately needed Helene relief funding to change laws to entrench their power before they lose it. In typical NCGOP fashion, the 131-page bill was only made public an hour before the debate began on Tuesday, NC Newsline reported.

Senate Bill 382 is supposed to be the third round of relief funding for western North Carolina, but the bill mainly focuses on shifting power within the state government away from incoming Democratic officials. The bill allocates $252 million for hurricane relief, but most can only be used after the legislature appropriates the funding – and there’s no timeline for that.

The bill places new restrictions on the governor’s and attorney general’s offices, limiting their authority before Gov.-elect Josh Stein and Attorney General-elect Jeff Jackson, both Democrats, take office. Several of the powers being stripped away, such as appointment authority for some state boards, will be redirected to other state offices that Republicans will soon run. It also makes numerous changes to different state laws regarding absentee voting, ballot counting, highway patrol and the courts.

The bill passed the Senate on Wednesday by a 30-19 vote, a day after it passed the House by a 63-46 vote. The House vote included three Republicans, all representing districts in WNC, joining Democrats to vote against the bill. One of the Republicans who joined with Democrats said, “The bill appears to do nothing for western NC.”

Even former Gov. Pat McCrory has come out against the bill.

“North Carolinians, including me, elected the state auditor to investigate waste, fraud, and abuse in state government — not appoint the Board of Elections,” McCrory wrote. “The North Carolina Constitution assigns appointment powers of this nature to the governor, not the state auditor.”

The legislation will go to Cooper for his signature or his veto. On Wednesday, Cooper said Republican lawmakers were using “financial crumbs to cover for massive power grabs.”

He hasn’t indicated if he will veto the bill, but if he does, only one of the three Republicans who voted against the bill would need to vote against the override to sustain the governor’s veto.

Republicans override Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of the immigration/private school voucher bill

On Tuesday, the House quickly overrode the governor’s veto of House Bill 10, a combination bill that forces North Carolina sheriffs to act as federal immigration police and also takes $463.5 million in taxpayer money and gives it to the state’s private school voucher program instead of public schools. The Senate overrode Cooper’s veto on Wednesday.

Under the new law, county sheriffs will be forced to work more closely with ICE officials to detain people who are in the country illegally. If requested by ICE, sheriffs will be required to hold anyone in the U.S. illegally in their custody, even if that person has bonded out of jail. The bill also expands the list of accused crimes under which law enforcement agencies are required to check a person’s immigration status.

The $463.5 million intended for private school vouchers for this year and next is in addition to the $293 million already available this school year. Education advocates and Democratic legislators have expressed concerns over the lack of regulation of private schools, the absence of teacher licensure requirements and the dearth of oversight over what is being taught in these schools.

A recent investigation by ProPublica has also raised new concerns: Many of these private schools receiving taxpayer money are not only religious but are considered “segregation academies” because of the extremely high number of white students who attend compared to the demographics of where the schools are located.