Editorial: Legislators, do your jobs. Stop looking to usurp governor's authority

CBC Editorial: Tuesday, Aug. 1 2023; editorial #8862

The following is the opinion of Capitol Broadcasting Company

North Carolinians elected Roy Cooper to be the state’s chief executive officer. As North Carolina’s Constitution makes clear: “The executive power of the State shall be vested in the Governor.”

It is the governor’s job to run the state in accordance with the State Constitution and laws passed by the General Assembly. It is not the job of the legislature to administer the laws it passes. If the laws are in accord with the state and federal constitutions – and that’s the job of the courts to determine – it is the job of the governor to make sure those laws are carried out.

But the legislature keeps looking for ways to prevent the governor from doing the job the people expect him to do. They usurp, delay or ignore his appointments to offices, board and commissions that are supposed to carry out the laws and policies of the state. The legislature likes to title legislation, like Senate Bill 512, “Greater Accountability” when the reality is, by taking authority away from the governor, this kind of legislation just results in less accountability.

Without the responsibility of the governor, there’s no check on the power of the legislature. When a governor maintains the Constitutional role, the courts and the legislature provide the check on that authority.

Administration of higher education was supposed to be shared. For many years following the 1971 reorganization of the University of North Carolina system that’s the way it was. The legislature selected members of the UNC System Board of Governors while the governor had the authority to appoint several members of each of the campuses’ boards of trustees. Gradually, the legislature’s taken that away. Legislators are looking to do the same with the Community College system.

Legislative leaders have sought to encroach directly into agencies -- under the governor’s direct authority – with legislation that would grab appointments of a majority on the State Board of Transportation. Legislators would take over appointments to the Economic Investment Committee which is a part of the state Department of Commerce.

Legislators want to take away appointments the governor now makes – some that already include legislative confirmation -- to other executive branch agencies including to the State Utilities Commission, the Wildlife Resources Commission and the N.C. Railroad Board of Directors. Legislators would seize the majority of the appointments while still requiring gubernatorial appointments be legislatively confirmed.

Legislators, now more than a month late delivering a budget and critical Medicaid expansion, are challenged enough to do the job THEY are elected to do.

They need, now, to stop encroaching on the responsibilities and tasks North Carolina elects a governor to do. End the usurping.

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