The last few days have been interesting ones here in Raleigh. The state House has been called for a special session in order to determine if they could override a governor’s veto of the Racial Justice Act.
They could not.
However, in a very unconventional move last night, house republicans called an extra special session in order to consider overriding the governor’s veto of Senate Bill 727. This bill was designed to prevent the NCAE from collecting teacher’s dues automatically from teacher’s paychecks. In this case, the House did override the veto and the bill became law:
In an unprecedented move early Thursday, the North Carolina General Assembly voted to hold a special legislative session after midnight for veto overrides, prompting a sharp rebuke from Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue.
Perdue said the Republican-controlled legislature’s actions were unconstitutional.
The House voted 69-45 to override the governor’s veto of Senate Bill 727, which stops the North Carolina Association of Educators from collecting dues from teachers’ paychecks via payroll deduction.
I certainly agree with the legislation though I have a certain distaste for the methods involved. There is nothing stopping a teacher from going down the bank and authorizing a payday deduction for the dues to the NCAE. Nothing at all. Further, it is not incumbency upon a school district to handle the administration of the collection of dues to an outside body; that is admin overhead that should be absorber by that organization.
However, there are certainly valid calls of shenanigans concerning the method of the vote. If a body has the votes to override the veto, by all means, call the issue to the floor and vote for it. On the other hand, calling a special session at 11:15 at night in order to get that override passed in the dead of night is disingenuous.
Is this where we are with our political posturing? Is it really the case that this type of maneuvering is how business will get done? I hope not.
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