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NCCBI News Releases
For Immediate
Release
November 15, 2001
For more
information, contact:
Phil Kirk, 919-836-1407
or Steve Tuttle, 919-836-1411
NCCBI
Makes Session Limits Its Top Legislative Priority
The NCCBI Board of Directors has
adopted a resolution stating that it will be the top priority of the
association to lobby the General Assembly for passage of a bill
calling for a referendum on amending the state constitution to limit
the length of time the legislature can remain in session.
The action came during a mid-year meeting of the board on Tuesday in
Charlotte at which several board members expressed dismay that the
legislature remains in session after having convened on Jan. 24,
making it the longest one in the history of the state. Members took
note of the fact that the General Assembly did not adopt a state
budget until the fiscal year was nearly three months old. Members also
expressed concern that the General Assembly’s continued delay in
completing the redistricting process imperils orderly legislative and
congressional elections next year.
The NCCBI board unanimously adopted the resolution on the
recommendation of the association’s governing Executive Committee,
which had met earlier in the day.
In urging the board to adopt the resolution, NCCBI Chairman Gordon
Myers of Asheville, the Ingles Markets executive, pointed out that
North Carolina is the only state in the Southeast and one of the few
in the nation that has no constitutional or statutory limit on the
number of days the legislature can remain in session. “Most average
people now are reluctant to serve in the General Assembly because the
sessions just seem to go on and on,” Myers said. “It’s nearly
impossible nowadays for anyone who has to work for a living to serve
in our so-called citizen legislature,” he added.
NCCBI President Phil Kirk said the association will make session
limits its No. 1 goal during the 2002 session of the General Assembly,
which will convene in May.
“That the General Assembly remains camped out in Raleigh ten months
after convening should eliminate any doubt that may remain in
anyone’s mind that North Carolina needs session limits," Kirk
said. “I don’t think our legislators are deliberately staying in
session, but without a deadline in front of them, they simply don’t
have any incentive to wrap up their work.”
Kirk pointed out that Virginia’s legislature meets 30 days one year
and 60 days the next. Georgia’s legislature meets only 40 days every
year. Tennessee limits their legislature to 90 days a year. South
Carolina’s legislature must adjourn by the first Thursday in June.
In all 37 states impose either a constitutional or statutory limit on
how long their legislatures can remain in session.
A copy of the
resolution follows:
Resolution in Support of Session
Limits
Whereas, the North Carolina General Assembly is in the midst of its
longest session in history; and,
Whereas, North Carolina is the only state in the Southeast and one of
the few in the nation which does not place a constitutional or
statutory limit on the number of days its legislature can meet; and,
Whereas, the North Carolina Senate has on five occasions
overwhelmingly supported a constitutional amendment to limit the
sessions, which was sponsored by Senator David Hoyle; and,
Whereas, the longer and longer sessions are severely limiting the
people who can afford to serve in our legislature and are making it
more difficult for the political parties to recruit qualified people
to run for the General Assembly;
Now, therefore be it resolved that North Carolina Citizens for
Business and Industry (NCCBI) makes passage of this constitutional
amendment the major priority when the legislature reconvenes in May
and the executive committee and the board of directors call on its
2,300 members, including all local chambers of commerce, to make this
goal a major priority and that they contact their state legislators in
support of this long overdue and much-needed action.
Adopted this the 13th day of November, 2001.
Signed,
Gordon Myers, Chair
Phillip J. Kirk Jr., President and Secretary
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