Who's Constitution Is It Anyway?
Sunday's NC SPIN program devoted the entire half hour to the North Carolina Constitution, it's challenges and possible changes that needed making.
It has been 38 years since our Constitution was revised. The world and our state have changed dramatically since that time, prompting many to ask if we need to review and possibly revise this document. Or maybe we just need to amend the current document. Several recent challenges might support this thinking.
For starters we must clarify the governance of public schools in our state. Look for a lawsuit challenging Governor Perdue's appointment of the same person to be State Board of Education Chair and Chief Executive Officer of public schools. The courts might force a change in our current, somewhat vague, provisions in the Constitution.
But other issues need review. For starters the Legislature has abused the privilege of borrowing money without a vote of the people, as Article V, Section 3 clearly demands. Almost half our current state debt of $7 billion is non-voted debt. There's a question about whether or not the last amendment, regarding Tax Increment Financing, was untruthfully promoted. We should debate and resolve our redistricting provisions which have resulted in blatant gerrymandering of legislative districts.
The framers of our Constitution were resolute in not allowing people to hold positions of power for too long and when we changed our Constitution to allow a Governor to serve two consecutive terms the result was legislative leadership serving longer than we allow any state officer. A growing number believe and we need another change, perhaps one six-year gubernatorial term rather than allowing one person to serve two four-year terms. While changing, we should definitely limit the terms our legislative leadership can serve. The balance of power between the legisaltive, judicial and administrative branches need reviewing.
There are other questions that should be discussed and perhaps put to the people for a vote, but while our Constitution claims the people should have a voice in changing this document the sad truth is that nothing can happen unless a majority of our 170 member legislature vote to do so. Nothing can happen unless they decide they want it so.
So, who's Constitution is it anyway? Click here to watch this week's NC SPIN.
It has been 38 years since our Constitution was revised. The world and our state have changed dramatically since that time, prompting many to ask if we need to review and possibly revise this document. Or maybe we just need to amend the current document. Several recent challenges might support this thinking.
For starters we must clarify the governance of public schools in our state. Look for a lawsuit challenging Governor Perdue's appointment of the same person to be State Board of Education Chair and Chief Executive Officer of public schools. The courts might force a change in our current, somewhat vague, provisions in the Constitution.
But other issues need review. For starters the Legislature has abused the privilege of borrowing money without a vote of the people, as Article V, Section 3 clearly demands. Almost half our current state debt of $7 billion is non-voted debt. There's a question about whether or not the last amendment, regarding Tax Increment Financing, was untruthfully promoted. We should debate and resolve our redistricting provisions which have resulted in blatant gerrymandering of legislative districts.
The framers of our Constitution were resolute in not allowing people to hold positions of power for too long and when we changed our Constitution to allow a Governor to serve two consecutive terms the result was legislative leadership serving longer than we allow any state officer. A growing number believe and we need another change, perhaps one six-year gubernatorial term rather than allowing one person to serve two four-year terms. While changing, we should definitely limit the terms our legislative leadership can serve. The balance of power between the legisaltive, judicial and administrative branches need reviewing.
There are other questions that should be discussed and perhaps put to the people for a vote, but while our Constitution claims the people should have a voice in changing this document the sad truth is that nothing can happen unless a majority of our 170 member legislature vote to do so. Nothing can happen unless they decide they want it so.
So, who's Constitution is it anyway? Click here to watch this week's NC SPIN.
There's a question about whether or not the last amendment, regarding Tax Increment Financing , was untruthfully promoted. We should debate and resolve our redistricting provisions which have resulted in blatant gerrymandering of legislative districts.
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There are other questions that should be discussed and perhaps put to the people for a vote, but while our Constitution claims the people should have a voice in changing this document the sad truth is that nothing can happen unless a majority of our 170 member legislature vote to do so. Nothing can happen unless they decide they want it so.
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Could not agree more. Term limits for all representation is the key to keeping these guys from getting to entrenched in the trappings of the office.
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