Well...
...it took the House all of seven minutes to vote 92-7 93-7 (one member changed her vote after the fact) to override the governor's veto. The big boats bill now goes to Senate, which is expected to give it a similar vote approval.
This would be the first time Gov. Mike Easley (or any governor) has been over-ridden on a veto.
Update: The Senate voted 39-0 with one pair to over-ride the veto.
For those scoring at home, that means Easley's veto has been thoroughly ignored.
Is that a quack I hear?
Here is how the Associate Press wrote it up:
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) _ For the first time in state history, North Carolina lawmakers have voted to override a governor's veto.Members of the House and Senate voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to override Gov. Mike Easley's rejection of a new law easing the restrictions on the towing of boats.
Easley rejected a measure approved last month that allows boats up to 10 feet wide to be towed without a permit. The new law also allows boats up to 9 1/2 feet wide to be towed at night.
House Majority Leader Hugh Holliman said lawmakers tried to work out a compromise with Easley before Wednesday's vote, but were unsuccessful.
North Carolina lawmakers have never overridden a veto since the state's governors were given the power in 1996.
Update: Three more members have been allowed to vote after they showed up to the House session late. But their votes don't change the outcome.
Update: An hour and nine minutes after coming in, the General Assembly is out of here.
Comments (2)
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I agree in principle that it is unfair that taxpayers are being asked to foot the bill that is basically a bail-out.
However the big picture is not being addressed. We have been heading this way for years as we have become a consumer society, running up debt and allowing our home equity to pay it down. So rich or poor EVERYONE has enjoyed the ride.
Now its time to pay the piper and since we are a consumer society we are in serious trouble
Liquidity
I have been in business for myself since I was in my teens over 30 years ago and one thing I know well is that if my business is not liquid, then I am essentially out of business.
Since this countries run very much like a large business, liquidity is vital. Lending institutes have tightened lending standards, which has caused even further problems. Foreclosures are thus going to get much worse because m0ney is harder to come by before they get better unless emergency action is taken.
Did you know that almost ALL lenders have stopped doing residential construction loans???? How are contractors going to stay in business if their clients can’t get construction loans so they can build their homes??
The New FHA bail Out
The new so-called FHA bail out won’t work anyway. Asking a lender to volunteer to lose money on a note they own is pretty funny don’t you think?
DPA / Half Full or Half Empty/ What’s The True Cost To The Economy
Shutting off the picket to the “Down Payment Assistant Programs” is simply tightening an already strangled financial market. 40% of all FHA loans include DPA. Thus this new bill takes about 200,000 homebuyers out of buying a home this coming year alone. If stats are correct then as many as 10% or about 20,000 of those homeowners will lose their new homes that were using the DPA programs. Now lets look at this from a strictly economic picture and take banking lobbyist out of the picture.
If DPA is done away with 180,000 responsible families will NOT be able to buy a home in the next 12 months !!! Even though the same 180,000 would-be homeowners would be paying on performing notes. Now we can focus on that high number of foreclosures OR we can focus on the more important matter ( at least for the moment ) of the overall economy and its liquidity. It’s the half empty or half full scenario
Total Cost to Economy
HMMMMM If we did the numbers in what would those same consumers have to buy to up-fit, repair, furnish etc etc ,their new homes?? So then what is the actual cost to the entire economy by cutting off these good borrowers from a leg up????
If you think the residential real estate market is bad now wait until the commercial real estate market crashes hard. We are in for the hardest ride this country has ever seen unless we do something to soften the fall.
Investment Property Bail Out
I would even recommend that a special “temporary FHA” product be put together to allow the millions of real Estate Investors to refi their investment properties into an FHA secured program. FHA could guarantee 10% of a 90% loan or an 80/10. There are millions of consumers that own multiple investment properties, and their Adjustable Rate Mortgages have already started to adjust. This will really start getting ugly very soon.
“Japanese Affect”
Ten years ago I wrote a brief called the “Japanese Affect”. I used Japan as a model for the US when their country went thru a 10 year recession. I predicted that the US would start with the tech bubble burst to be followed by the Telcom bust and then went on to residential mortgage and then finally to commercial mortgage. Commercial Property/mortgage collapse being the worse and it is on its way, just like what happened in Japan
Summation
To sum up this discussion looking at the big picture of having the US Credit Ranking world wide to suffer the embarrassment of a poor rating and thus literally sending the US to the bottom
The big picture is staying in business as a country. Therefore the most immediate need we have is liquidity not the further regulations of the banking industry. Having Government backed loan products to save the residential markets from total collapse guaranteeing 30% with FHA loans as opposed to the present 20%
Keeping the DPA Program and perhaps making it even easier to get such in the short term or temporary basis
Guaranteeing 10% of an investment Property loan to save the investment property world from millions more in foreclosures. You could set up a risk based model and the lender could charge 3% points for the Up front MIP fee and rate could be a full point higher than a typical residential FHA loan. Yes you might have a 15% foreclosure rate, however the added fees should help offset the higher risk associated with investment property
Preparing a government backed commercial loan program so that WHEN they collapse you can already be ahead of the curve
FHA Lenders Held Accountable/No Overlay
Of course all of this means nothing unless the new bill was to have teeth. Therefore if lenders are to use FHA guaranteed loan products then they must be held to the fire to “Go By FHA Guidelines” right now lender “Overlay” their own guidelines on top of FHA guidelines creating their own brand of FHA loan.
Lenders must be warned that they will lose the status as an FHA lender/bank if it is found that they are NOT following FHA guidelines.
This is important if we are to truly free up the markets and create a liquid society
Thank you for your valuable time in considering these issues
John Shaw
Posted on September 3, 2008 2:51 PM
Yada, Yada, Yada -
Posted on September 4, 2008 6:26 AM