Source: Editorial Board
With only a few weeks left before they lose their veto-proof supermajority, North Carolina’s Republican-controlled Senate last week announced and then immediately passed three politically controversial proposals, including two new state constitutional amendments, WRAL reported.
The proposals, introduced on Dec. 2, came less than a month before Republicans will lose their supermajority thanks to Democrats pulling off upset victories for state House seats in Buncombe, Granville and Wilson counties.
One amendment would again lower the state’s maximum possible income tax rate, another would make changes to the state’s voter photo ID requirements and the third proposal calls for a new U.S. Constitutional Convention – a longtime goal of conservative activists, including state lawmakers here.
While Gov. Roy Cooper would be able to veto the income tax and voter ID amendments, he cannot veto the Senate’s call for a new U.S. Constitutional Convention because it was introduced as a “joint resolution,” a special type of legislation the governor doesn’t have the power to veto, according to WRAL. The Constitutional Convention proposal had already passed the state House earlier this year. The two constitutional amendment proposals haven’t been finalized yet, though, and they still must pass the House.
The proposed amendments, if passed by both chambers, would be put on the ballot in the 2026 general election in North Carolina, the second step in the state’s two-step process for amending the constitution. State law dictates that a constitutional amendment must pass the legislature with a supermajority (at least 60%) of both chambers voting in favor. After that, it would be placed on the ballot where at least 50% of voters would need to vote in favor of the amendment for it to get added to the state constitution.
According to WRAL, the two amendments Senate Republicans passed last week wouldn’t make “any major, immediate changes” but “could have ramifications for the future.” That includes providing cover for Republicans in the event they lose an ongoing lawsuit over two similar amendments that passed in 2018 while using racist, illegal maps.
The NAACP, who challenged the constitutional amendments passed six years ago, has been mostly successful in court, winning a trial in Wake County (the judge who authored the ruling would see his seat eliminated if SB 382 becomes law), and having a new trial ordered by the Supreme Court in 2022. That trial remains underway, but if these two amendments pass the legislature and are approved by voters, they will remain law even if the NAACP wins its lawsuit.
The timing of the votes shows that Republicans likely know they would be unable to get any support from Democrats because, starting in January, any constitutional amendment will need at least one Democrat to vote in favor of the amendment to be put on the 2026 ballot. The timing also shows that this is another desperate Republican power grab, much like what Senate Republicans did with Senate Bill 382, a supposed “Helene relief” bill that steals power from newly-elected Democrats and provides no new funding for hurricane relief.
Cooper vetoed the bill before the Thanksgiving holiday, calling it “a sham,” but Senate Republicans overrode his veto on their first day back from the holiday break. Overriding it in the House could prove more difficult, though, as three Republican House members, all of whom represent areas devastated by Helene, sided with Democrats in voting against the relief bill. Without those three Republicans, Cooper’s veto cannot be overridden in the House.
Whether those three Republicans stand up against their party’s anti-democratic hunger for the last morsels of their no-longer-unbreakable power or they cowardly fall in line remains to be seen. If they do side with Democrats, they will send a message to fellow Republicans that unserious, strictly partisan political acts like stripping power away from the incoming governor, attorney general, lieutenant governor and superintendent of schools don’t trump the importance of helping North Carolinians recover from a natural disaster that caused $53 billion in damage and killed more than 100 residents.
