What would you honor?
From today's paper:
RALEIGH - Winning the Nextel Cup was probably pretty good for Jimmie Johnson, but back in May the General Assembly decided he needed an extra pat on the back by way of a joint resolution.Also honored this year was UPS, when the shipping company with the funky brown trucks turned 100. And the Tweetsie Railroad, a theme park near Blowing Rock, can toot its horn about an official stamp of legislative recognition as well.
In fact, about 20 percent of all bills passed by both chambers of the General Assembly this year were resolutions extolling the virtues of towns, companies, girls basketball teams and various deceased residents.
Meanwhile the state budget, a $20 billion tax-and-spending plan and one of the few things the constitution mandates the General Assembly gets done, is unfinished and 15 days past due with budget negotiators still at an impasse over several issues.
"I think it's part of a larger issue of how the legislature spends its time," said Ran Coble, a longtime legislative observer who now leads the N.C. Center for Public Policy Research, a nonpartisan think tank.
Click here for the full story.
So . . . what do you think the General Assembly should honor?
Comments (2)
To report abuse of the comment feature on this site, please use the feedback form at the bottom of any page.
So . . . what do you think the General Assembly should honor?* Mark
[O] They should pray that the pleasants don't rise up with pitchforks and ropes for not honoring their constitution on time.
Honor is only a gift to one's self, not to men or governments, nor governments to men. You will know honor when it appears to your family and God by your defense of them * Rob Roy 1713 AD to his Sons.
Posted on July 15, 2007 11:09 PM
I think that the legislature should skip the feel good resolutions. More importantly, I think we should end the reconstruction era process where the legislature is required to approve so many local laws. You probably know better than I, but my understanding is that these local laws were a way for the "North" to control the south by regulating even minor local issues through the legislature.
I tend to think that there are those who don't want to discuss transformational legislation that would oppose such an end to the debating of minutiae. They want short sessions spent almost entirely debating how to fund current programs and fill up the remainder of the calendar with garbage. So, lo and behold there is no time to discuss anything new.
Posted on July 16, 2007 5:57 AM