CBC Editorial: Friday, June 28, 2024; #8939
The following is the opinion of Capitol Broadcasting Company.
Constitutions are the foundations of our government and civic life. The United States Constitution, ratified by North Carolina in 1789, has been amended just 27 times (including the 10 in the Bill of Rights).
North Carolina’s State Constitution, adopted in 1868 as part of the state’s post-Civil War obligations for readmission to the union, was revised and updated in 1971. In the 53 years since, there have been 37 amendments – eight since 2011.
The way we amend our constitutions is set to be thoughtful and deliberative. Changing or adding to a constitution should be critical and substantive.
But that’s not what’s been happening in North Carolina in the last few years. As seen in the last few days, legislative leaders impetuously pop proposed amendments into pending legislation and rapidly ram them through the legislature.
They treat the State Constitution as if it were a campaign playground – quite to the contrary of what students are taught of its serious significance starting in elementary school.
Legislative leaders these days propose pointless and empty “amendments” in their scheme to boost turnout of their partisan supporters in the November election. One of those appears to have made it way to the ballot while others have been rejected.
SOME BACKGROUND: An amendment to the U.S. Constitution must first be approved by a two-thirds majority of the House and Senate. Then, it is submitted to each state’s governor who then must send it on to the legislature. It does not become law until at least three fourths of the states (38 state legislatures) also approve it.
An amendment to the State Constitution must be approved by three-fifths of each legislative body (30 votes in the Senate and 72 in the House) before it can be submitted to the voters.
None of the proposed amendments to the State Constitution are needed or will change anything.
None were subject to public hearings or even extensive open discussion and debate through the committee process in the General Assembly. The legislation flew out of a state Senate committee on June 20 and seven days later was on the way to the House.
Another proposed amendment, that for now failed to pass the Senate, would set the maximum state income tax rate at 5% even though the current tax rate is 4.5%. The current limit of 7% was written into the State Constitution, with voter approval, just six years ago. Further, state law sets the personal income tax rate to drop to 4.25% in 2025, dictates that it be reduced to 3.99% in 2026 and commands rate decreases into the future.
Piling on top of this – also failing for now to win legislative approval — is a requirement that those who vote by mail – NOT IN PERSON AT A POLLING PLACE — provide photographic proof of their identity. There has been no indication or evidence that there is a problem with the establishment of the identity of those properly voting by mail.
Legislators, like other state officials, take an oath to “bear true allegiance” to the State Constitution.
That’s a serious obligation – not an invitation to frivolous and selfish manipulation.
