Cooper vetoes face General Assembly override ... again

Gov. Roy Cooper has vetoed 11 bills this year – but none of those vetoes have succeeded yet.

The North Carolina General Assembly has voted to override five out of Cooper’s 11 vetoes, and the House has voted to override two more. Four more vetoes are waiting to be voted on.

The bills waiting to be voted on include House Bill 205 about workers compensation changes and legal notice modernization, House Bill 511 which would allow nonprofit organizations to sponsor gaming events as fundraisers, House Bill 576 allowing the aerosolization of leachate and Senate Bill 16, the Business Regulatory Reform Act of 2017.   

Rep. Verla Insko, D-Orange, said she doesn't think Republicans will override the remaining vetoes because they don't have enough votes. 

"If they had the votes to override the vetoes they would do it," she said. 

Insko said the difference is that the bills waiting to be voted on are more controversial than the other vetoed bills. 

Jacob Greenblatt, president of UNC Young Democrats, said the number of vetoes is concerning. 

"I mean of course the legislature has the constitutional power to override the governor's vetoes," he said. "But I think this really speaks to a larger problem of the fact that the legislature doesn’t represent I think really what the people of North Carolina want."

Greenblatt said Cooper has done a good job in office so far. 

"It's certainly challenging working in a purple state and with a pretty conservative legislature," he said. "But overall I mean he’s made some significant accomplishments I think." 

Why override a veto?

Rep. Larry Yarborough, R-Granville, said there has to be a good reason to override a veto and all of them don't come up for votes. 

"If your bill is vetoed and it's overridden you have to convince a lot of people to support you," he said.  

Yarborough said it shouldn't be easy to pass laws or make changes with the way our government was designed. 

"One of the things I believe here in Raleigh is that we probably need to do as little as possible," he said. "There’s not that much wrong with our state."

Rep. William Brawley, R-Mecklenburg, said the reason the legislature voted to override Cooper's vetoes is that they think their policies were right and disagreed with the governor's reasons for vetoing them. 

He said he doesn't know if the remaining vetoes will be overridden.

"Somebody's whipping votes and when they’ve got the votes they’ll ask for it to come up — or if they get the votes," he said. "So we'll just see what happens. But they’re on the calendar, so they could be overridden any day we're in session." 

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