06/14/2011

Long Night Ahead

The House went into session tonight at 7:00 p.m., allowing committees to meet all day to hear bills. It will be a long night. Word is that the plan is to vote to override the Governor’s veto at 12:01 a.m. This will avoid voting during the day tomorrow with a gallery full of teachers and others who are expected to show up in protest.

Already tonight there have been protesters escorted from the House gallery by the State Capitol Police. I’ve been here for 20 years and this is the worst year I have ever seen for protests. Demonstrators broke through the main doors of the House and Senate and entered the chambers during session a couple of weeks ago. They were arrested. Tonight radical environmentalists shouted obscenities from the gallery and unfurled a banner before being thrown out. Exciting times – but it just serves to keep us here longer and later.

We believe that the gas tax will be left alone this session. That information changes by the hour but as we get closer to the end of session there is little time for handling additional controversial issues. We do know that there is a renewed attempt by the concrete industry to get their so-called Life Cycle Analysis bill passed. There is no bill number. They are attempting to add the language to some other bill in the closing days. Their lobbyist is relentless and she will not stop trying until the fat lady sings.

Rep. Stephen LaRogue (Republican from Kinston) continues his efforts to prevent medians on highway projects despite the results of engineering studies. His earlier bill that passed the House remains in the Senate Rules Committee where it will likely die. So today he took three Senate bills and tacked his median bill on to those. We expect that to show up for a floor vote possibly as soon as tonight. There will be an attempt by another Republican to amend the bill to remove LaRogue’s median language. It is anyone’s guess as to the chances of that amendment passing. LaRogue is Co-Chair of Rules, a very powerful position. It will be a gutsy move for Rep. Ric Killian to attempt to stop him.

So history will be made shortly after midnight when the budget veto is overridden but I hope I’m not still here to watch. I will keep you posted over the next days. With any luck the General Assembly will adjourn by Saturday.