01/27/2011

First Day

Some of the day went as expected with Tom Tillis elected Speaker of the House and Phil Berger elected President Pro-Tem of the Senate. For the first time in over 100 years both chambers of the NC General Assembly are controlled by Republicans.

One surprise came when Tillis received 74 votes, meaning 6 Democrats crossed party lines to vote for Tillis. The real significance of this is that Republicans now know they can get a veto-proof majority if needed.

Both chambers had bills introduced to establish the new rules for the bodies. This is standard first day procedure but the proposed rules were anything but standard. Members will be limited to 10 bills they can sponsor. There will be no blank bills allowed (formerly a standard practice to give the majority party a vehicle for last minute legislation). The biggest change was in the Senate in the creation of a position of Parliamentarian. This will take away the power of the Lt. Governor to rule on issues of order and further diminishes any remaining power of the Democrats in the Senate.

I will leave you with one story that exemplifies that there is a new sheriff in town. For the first time in anyone’s memory, all members were assigned their permanent offices BEFORE opening day. This required hundreds of offices to be packed up and moved and Speaker Tillis wanted it completed by opening day. When told by legislative staff that it could not be accomplished in time, he had a call placed to the Dept of Corrections. Inmate labor arrived and all the moves were completed in time. This is a man who plans to make some changes.