Promises Kept: North Carolina General Assembly

Traditionally, politicians have been accused of being liars and never holding up their end of the bargain. That isn’t the case with the current Republican representation at the state legislature.

This past weekend at the North Carolina GOP Convention, both Thom Tillis, majority leader of the North Carolina House of Representatives, and Phil Berger, President Pro Tempore of the Senate, announced a budget being deliver to the Governor’s desk that was pro-education but still made cuts in basically all of the essential areas. This budget was finalized in the legislature at an earlier point in the session than any other time in recent history, sometimes with deliberation continuing on into August or later, costing tax payers more dollars.

Today, The Voter ID issue will be further discussed. A controversial topic, the voter ID would require all voters in North Carolina to present one of 8 forms of photo identification before being legally allowed to vote. Those types include a North Carolina driver’s license, a special DMV ID card, an identification card issued by a state or federal agency, a U.S. passport, a government employee ID card, a U.S. military card, a tribal identification card or an ID card that can be issued to those who can’t afford one of the above directly from the local board of elections. Many on the left say that this discriminates against particular voters but I can only think of one particular demographic that this discriminates against that they would be concerned with. (see: illegal immigrants)

There has also been deliberation and work put into issues involving E-Verify, which would require contractors and other employers to submit each employee that they hire to a verification system in order to verify their eligibility for employment. Similarly to the Voter ID, lefties disagree with this tenet, and, again, I can only think of one particular demographic that would be concerned with this. (see: illegal immigrants)

The State House of Representatives is expected to vote today to finalize a bill that would expand gun rights to individuals, giving the right to defend with deadly force in particular situations, including home invasion or carjacking. Again, the left is concerned with this and voted against it at 76-39 with the bill passing. Obviously the left is wanting to protect a particular group of people rather than allowing others to defend themselves. (see: criminals vs civilians)

The Legislature as a whole has made movements to eliminate straight-party voting and has fought for the inclusion of party defining labeling for all offices on voting ballots. I don’t see how this, or any of the others for that matter, could be voted against by either party but of course it will be stood against on some level by the left. I don’t even know who that is supposed to help.

A bill is expected to be sent to the Governor, who has already said that she would support it, from the State GOP-run Legislature that would remove the cap on the number of charter schools that an area can have. This particular item has strong bipartisan support which is very exciting because it will open a world of opportunities for education.

What does this all mean? The voters elected a Republican or conservative representation into the State Legislature which has been historically Democratic expecting particular things to be accomplished. I think that we have seen the vast majority of the issues that we voted for brought to the table and addressed and, even if eventually vetoed, sent to the Governor’s desk. If anything should be encouraging the average voter on the right in regards to the coming 2012 election, and should be showing the potential candidates what is expected of them, it should be the North Carolina General Assembly for all of the work that they are doing. I am sure there have been some short comings, but, all in all, I have been extremely impressed with what I have seen and I look forward to what I will get to see in the future.

From me personally, thank you for all of your hard work.