Mar 05, 2007
New Rules
Editorial - Winston-Salem Journal

The rules under which the state House and Senate operate may seem arcane and unimportant to everyday North Carolinians. But they have a major influence on whether this democracy operates as it should. 
 
In that light, new rules offered by House Speaker Joe Hackney represent a serious improvement over those in place for the previous 12 years. 
 
The new rules will end a number of sinister manipulations of the legislative process — all of which reduced the ability of rank-and-file legislators to have an influence on bills and, also, of the public to see what is happening at the Legislative Building. 
 
The new rules will stop practices that allowed powerful legislators to join key committees for close votes, the filing of blank bills, the rushing of bills into law before legislators can read them and the use of the budget to pass non-budget matters. 
 
These are important changes, but several more are still needed. Bill titles should not be drafted so tightly as to prohibit amendments. And term limits on the offices of speaker and Senate president pro tem are needed. 
 
Unfortunately, the Senate is not following the lead of the House in these reforms. The Senate president pro tem, Marc Basnight, acts as if all is well and there are no problems. 
 
Hackney has helped the House move ahead. 
 
Basnight should relent on his opposition to reforms and help the Senate do the same.