Helene Relief Bill’s Hidden Surprises

There has been much consternation from the regional media/left complex over the Raleigh Republicans’ most recent Helene relief bill.

They packed into the bill some surprises including shifting the State Board of Elections to the State Auditor’s control (to be Dave Boliek, a Republican); directing the State Attorney General regarding his activities; removing certain powers from the State Superintendent of Public Instruction; and making the State Highway Patrol an independent department with a “lengthy list of oversight authority”. It does some other things also.

The moves are intended to take power away from the socialists and give it to Republicans.

I have looked at my copy of the NC Constitution. It appears to me that the major provisions of this bill should be deemed constitutionally acceptable.

However, what do we get with Republican power?

We get Medicaid expansion. We get legal abortion through the first trimester. We get passivity when the Governor takes away our constitutional rights, as he did during Covid.

Putting the Board of Elections under the state Auditor’s control will not necessarily help when the state’s election law has gaping holes, as we have learned with the Griffin/ Riggs Supreme Court race.

Republicans in North Carolina have been successful when they control the judiciary, and their judges have issued some good rulings.

But the General Assembly has been a mixed bag at best.