|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
||||||||||
|
Editorial - July 2003 |
||||||||||
|
2003 legislative session nothing to brag about |
||||||||||
|
Published July 23, 2003 |
||||||||||
|
Lawmakers managed to pass a $14.8 billion budget and finish on time, but the 2003 session won’t go down as one of great accomplishment. In fact, legislators avoided the more difficult issues. They didn’t take up the lottery, a death penalty moratorium proposal or caps on medical malpractice. These are important issues that should have been debated, but given the depressed state of the economy and the sharp political divisions, it’s hard to complain, especially since they finished on schedule for the first time in three years. The House set the pace in the final hours of the session, still operating under an unusual co-speakership that came about at the beginning of the session when the body, evenly divided among Democrats and Republicans, couldn’t agree on a single speaker. Most observers say Republican Speaker Richard Morgan and Democratic Speaker Jim Black did rather well under the circumstances with a coalition of moderates following their lead. The House adjourned despite Senate efforts to push through some major initiatives that included a $180 million cancer research hospital. While Gov. Mike Easley was unable to get the legislature’s attention on a lottery program, his efforts to pour more money into core education programs was successful. But the more difficult issues will be back before the legislature in 2004. Some lawmakers have already warned that additional revenue will be badly needed next year. The lottery question will probably still be an issue, as will the death penalty and medical malpractice questions. A real need in Lincoln County is alternative revenue sources that will take pressure off property taxes. Such initiatives usually have to come from the state. We hope the leadership in Raleigh will get beyond their dissension and come up with innovative solutions to these pressing questions. The merits of most of them have already been thoroughly discussed.
|
||||||||||
|
© 2001 Lincoln Times-News |
||||||||||
|
Terms and Conditions |
||||||||||
|
|