Action-filled summer session anticipated for N.C. General Assembly

There’s a lot in store for this summer’s N.C. legislative session.

The controversial House Bill 2 prohibits employees from suing in state courts over discrimination. Gov. Pat McCrory, who is running for re-election, hopes to reinstate this right through an executive order released on Tuesday.

But McCrory does not actually have the power to change the law, so it is up to the legislature to decide whether or not to follow the governor’s wishes.

UNC journalism professor Ferrel Guillory said he doubts legislators will alter the law.

“It’s hard to predict what the legislature is going to do, but so far legislative leaders have said they don’t see a need to change the law,” Guillory said.

Guillory attributed this possible discrepancy between the legislature and the governor to the different challenges they will face in the next election cycle.

“Most of the legislators who voted for this bill do not have opposition in the fall. They’re in relatively safe districts. The governor, however, has to run statewide, and so the political dynamics facing the governor and the political dynamics facing individual legislators are two different things,” Guillory said.

House Bill 2 has caused a significant backlash from businesses which could influence the legislature’s decision to alter the law.

Both PayPal and the Deutsche Bank have canceled plans to expand their businesses into North Carolina over the new law. These two companies were expected to create close to 700 jobs. Singer Bruce Springsteen also canceled his concert in Greensboro due to the law, and the 2017 NBA All-Star game scheduled to take place in Charlotte is now in jeopardy.

McCrory has also proposed a plan to increase teacher pay by an average of 5 percent. It is unclear what N.C. lawmakers will do with this proposal, but many are skeptical of how effective the proposal will actually be.

“Last time our criminally low starting teacher salary went from $30,000 per year to $35,000 per year,” N.C. State University political science professor Steven Green said.

“Which, hey, we raised teacher salary to $35,000, and you can take that to voters and say, ‘Look, we raised all these teacher salaries,’ but then again you look further up the teacher ranks where a huge number of teachers got essentially no increase and some actually got a decrease.”

Michael Bitzer, professor of political science at Catawba College, said the actual raise in teacher salary will likely be less than what the governor has proposed.

“It’s likely that the governor’s proposal will be the high end of the potential raises. Generally a legislature will take a governor’s budget proposal and make their own changes, and I think what you’ll see is probably something lower,” he said.

Legislators will have a budget surplus this year though, and that could potentially mean more money going toward raising teacher salaries.

“They do have a surplus this year, so that will be the big argument of do they invest in teacher salaries, state employee salaries or what do they do with that surplus,” Bitzer said.

So far, there is no indication as to what will be done with the surplus.

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