VOLUME 6 ISSUE 38 | WWW.NSJONLINE.COM | WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2021
Cam Newton triumphant in return to Panthers Cam Newton scored 2 TDs and helped lead to the team to a 34-10 win against the Arizona Cardinals. See more in B1.
National poll gives GOP largest generic ballot lead on record Washington, D.C. Republican congressional candidates currently hold their largest lead in midterm election vote preferences in ABC News/ Washington Post polls dating back 40 years, underscoring profound challenges for Democrats hoping to retain their slim majorities in Congress next year, the broadcast network said. Just 31% say President Joe Biden is keeping most of his major campaign promises, and 59% worry he’ll do too much to increase the size and role of government, up 6 points since spring. NSJ STAFF
3 NC House members declare Senate campaigns Raleigh Rep. Gale Adcock of Cary, the No. 2 Democrat in the chamber, said she’ll run for a seat in western Wake County in 2022. Adcock, the deputy Democratic leader, was first elected to the House in 2014. Second-term Rep. Rachel Hunt of Charlotte also announced that she is running for a Senate district in southeastern Mecklenburg County. Hunt and Adcock announced their decisions less than two weeks after the Republicancontrolled legislature approved new legislative district boundaries for the next decade, based on 2020 census figures. House Republican Rep. Bobby Hanig of Currituck County already announced this month that he would run for a Senate seat covering 10 northeastern counties. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SC GOP Rep. Mace’s bill would federally decriminalize marijuana Columbia, S.C. Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina introduced legislation Monday to federally decriminalize marijuana, a measure she said would give states freer rein to pass their own laws and regulations without fear of federal reprisals. Mace said a half-dozen GOP House members would be original co-sponsors of the bill, which she said would aim to regulate marijuana similarly to alcohol and prohibit its use for anyone under 21 years of age. The measure would decriminalize marijuana at the federal level. It would not change local-level restrictions, meaning states would still determine their own marijuana statutes. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 36 states and four territories allow medical cannabis use, while 18 states, two territories and the District of Columbia allow nonmedical, adult use. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Fifth edition of NC scenic byways guidebook now available Raleigh The fifth edition of the Scenic Byways Guidebook is available from the N.C. Department of Transportation. The Scenic Byways program was created in the 1994 to allow motorists to experience a bit of North Carolina’s history, geography and scenery while raising awareness for the protection and preservation of these areas. To help preserve the roads’ intrinsic qualities, designated routes do not allow for new billboards to be erected along them. North Carolina has 62 scenic byways. Four of those byways are recognized by the Federal Highway Administration as national scenic byways. The Blue Ridge Parkway, which is included in the guidebook, is a recognized All-American Road but is managed by the National Park Service. NSJ STAFF
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Gov. Roy Cooper says he’ll sign compromise state budget By A.P. Dillon and Matt Mercer North State Journal
Leandro judge’s $1.7 billion order asks state agencies to go around legislature Moore and Berger: ‘It’s a circus.’ By A.P. Dillon North State Journal RALEIGH — Last week the long-running Leandro case judge has ordered state agencies to go around the legislature to transfer $1.7 billion in funds from the state’s coffers to fulfill the court-approved remedial plan produced by WestEd. Superior Court Judge David Lee issued an order that directs the transfer to occur within 30 days. His order instructs the heads of the Office of the State Budget and Management, the Office of the State Comptroller, and the Office of the State Treasurer to turn over the money from the state›s coffers. If the transfer happens, it will give the Department of Public Instruction the largest portion, totaling $1,522,053,000. The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services would get $189.8 million and the UNC System would receive $41.3 million. “This is not a new or confusing concept: a bipartisan N.C. Supreme Court twice has ruled that the state is failing to guarantee the right to a sound, basic public education that’s enshrined in our state constitution,” said Gov. Roy Cooper in a statement posted on Twitter. “Legislators can’t simply erase this right because they don’t like it. We have an effective, court-approved roadmap for making education better in North Carolina and it’s time to get it done.” When the Leandro case began in 1994, Cooper was a state senator at the General Assembly, serving in that capacity from 1991 to 2001. Before moving to the Senate, he served in the state House from 1987 to 1991. “This case has devolved into an attempt by politically allied lawyers and the Governor to enact the Governor’s preferred budget plan via court order, cutting out the legislature from its proper and constitutional role,” said House Speaker Tim Moore (R-Kings Mountain) and Senate
Leader Phil Berger (R-Eden) in a joint statement. Moore and Berger said, “It’s a circus.” “If Judge Lee’s orders are followed, the legislature’s core duty is usurped by unelected county-level trial judge and an out-ofstate consultancy funded by the Governor and his political allies,” Moore and Berger said. “Thankfully, executive branch officials swear an oath to the Constitution, not to an unelected county-level trial judge.” The General Assembly’s top leaders went on to say that a judge “does not have the legal or constitutional authority to order a withdrawal from the state’s General Fund.” The joint statement points to Article V, Section 7 of the state constitution, which says, “No money shall be drawn from the State treasury but in consequence of appropriations made by law.” The statement also cites previous confirmation that the legislature exclusively controls state appropriations by the N.C. Court of Appeals in the case of Richmond Cty. Bd. of Educ. v. Cowell. That affirmation also notes that “Because the State constitution vests the authority to appropriate money solely in the legislative branch, the Separation of Powers Clause prohibits the judiciary from taking public monies without statutory authorization.” Additionally, in Cooper v. Berger, the N.C. Supreme Court said, “The power of the purse is the exclusive prerogative of the General Assembly, with the origin of the appropriations clause dating back to the time that the original state constitution was ratified in 1776.” “The only rebuttal to this clear precedent is an absurd theory developed by Attorney General Josh Stein, which argues that the Constitution, in 1868, ordered a specific funding level for the education budget in the year 2021, and that only an out-of-state consultancy called WestEd can divine the precise funding level the 1868 Constitution ordered,” said Moore and Berger, referring to a See LEANDRO, page A3
RALEIGH — Gov. Roy Cooper announced Tuesday he would sign the compromise state budget plan into law when it passes the General Assembly this week. “I will sign this budget because, on balance, the good outweighs the bad. It moves North Carolina forward in important ways, many that are critical to our state’s progress as we are emerging from this pandemic,” Cooper said in prepared remarks. The support from Cooper made the bill’s passage in the N.C. Senate
a certainty, as the budget passed by a bipartisan vote of 40-8. The Democratic governor said that the budget got many things right, including expanding highspeed internet, funding for universities and community colleges, helping businesses recover from pandemic losses, and raises and bonuses for teachers and other state employees. “This budget continues the Republican-led legislature’s decade-long commitment to low taxes and responsible spending. The multibillion-dollar surpluses these policies helped create are evidence See BUDGET, page A2
NC retailers, truckers say labor shortages are root of inflation, supply-chain issues By David Larson North State Journal RALEIGH — Prices in October 2021 were 6.2% higher than they were a year earlier, and this inflation is hitting gas, food and other goods in North Carolina, as it is across the country. Andy Ellen, president and general counsel of the North Carolina Retail Merchants Association, and Crystal Collins, president of the North Carolina Trucking Association, both told NSJ on Nov. 15, that they believe the labor shortage is at the root of it all. “There are supply chain issues out there, obviously; in fact, it runs kind of the gamut from the ports all the way through trucking and the shortage of truck drivers, into the distribution centers and warehouses and getting those products to the stores,” Ellen said. “You have to have all of those components of the supply chain running smoothly in order to make sure we get goods where they’re supposed to go, and we have breakdowns in various parts of those right now.” Collins agreed, saying, “We are experiencing the same things that you’re seeing nationwide; fortunately, our ports are not in the shape that California ports are in. That’s the one advantage that we have in North Carolina versus Georgia and California.” Ellen said the retail industry is doing a lot better in getting goods on the shelves as compared to the height of COVID, even if the prices of those goods are now spiking. “If you think about where we were in March of 2020 — when you couldn’t get toilet paper and you couldn’t get a lot of the types of meat or other things — on
that side of it, we’re light years ahead of where we were,” Ellen said. “So I think that you see that costs are increasing on things like gasoline and just normal components for things. And it’s See SHORTAGES, page A2