Editorial: Don't grab power, share it

CBC Editorial: Wednesday, April 5, 2023; editorial #8839

The following is the opinion of Capitol Broadcasting Company

In a matter of hours and with no apparent issues of urgency, state Senate leader Phil Berger introduced and shoved through Judiciary Committee a 16-page bill to dramatically – if not fundamentally -- alter separations of powers in North Carolina government.

With practically no advance public notice, the committee on a party-line vote passed legislation that would fundamentally change the operations of the state’s Utilities Commission, Board of Transportation, Economic Investment Commission, Public Health Commission, Wildlife Resources Commission, Environmental Regulation Commission, Coastal Resources Commission, N.C. Railroads Board of Directors and UNC Health Care System.

The proposed changes would increase the power and role the legislature has in the day-to-day operations of state government – a power the state constitution explicitly grants to the governor and executive branch of government. It would significantly diminish the ability of the governor – who leads the executive branch – to administer the state.

Significantly, Berger’s bill would dramatically alter the way public utilities are regulated and how much North Carolina consumers pay every month for basic utilities like electricity, telephones, internet, water and natural gas.

The legislation basically takes significant appointment powers away from the governor and has it shared most specifically with the “President Pro Tempore of the Senate” (AKA Berger) and “Speaker of the House of Representatives” (AKA Moore).

We aren’t going to merely dismiss this plan outright. Rather than merely a spurious and frivolous power-grab, there might be a point and principle that needs to be further embraced.

What about taking Berger’s premise and expanding it? The governor should have half the appointments to the University of North Carolina Board of Governors? There’s no divine ordination that grants Berger and Moore sole authority to name the 24 members. Why shouldn’t Cooper appoint at least a dozen members and legislators the rest? Why, given the logic, shouldn’t the governor have the authority to appoint half the hearing officers who preside the state Office of Administrative Hearings? What other oversight boards and agencies need, similar to this latest proposal offered by Berger, might need shared appointments with the governor?

In 2016 the legislature took power away from the governor and gave Berger and Moore the power to appoint members of constituent UNC campus trustees. Formerly, the governor named four of the 13 members of the campus trustees with the Board of Governors naming eight along with each campus’s student body president.

If this legislation is more than a petty power-grab to upset the state’ constitutionally mandated separation of powers between the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government, Berger and Moore will lead the effort to expand shared appointment powers to similar boards and commissions.

If it’s such a good idea, spread it around.

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