Divided government in Raleigh has extended the life of several pieces of legislation vetoed by Gov. Bev Perdue.
Perdue vetoed a record 16 bills sent to her desk by the Republican-led legislature during the last legislative session.
Members of the N.C. General Assembly returned to Raleigh in mid-July for a special session to approve new congressional and state legislative districts. The session was also reserved for attempts to override the governor’s vetoes and pass the bills into law.
“We haven’t been in this situation before,” said Ran Coble, executive director for the N.C. Center for Public Policy Research. “What a lot of people don’t realize is the governor in North Carolina was the last governor to get veto power in 1997,” he said.
A successful override vote must have support from a three-fifths majority in both the N.C. House and Senate. The Senate has a veto-proof majority of 31 Republicans but House Republicans need to enlist support from at least four Democrats to override a veto.
Sen. Ellie Kinnaird, D-Orange, said she hopes the Democrats will sustain the vetoes, but that some members of her party might be inclined to side with the Republicans.
“Many of the bills have bipartisan support so it will really depend case-by-case on what happens and which bills become law,” Kinnaird said.
Regardless of the vote outcomes, Coble said citizens can expect similar conflicts along party lines until the next gubernatorial election in 2012.
“There are fundamental differences between the Democratic governor and the Republican legislators,” Coble said. “They have different priorities and powerful tools they can use to accomplish those goals.”
