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Legislative Advocacy - Engineers Need to be Involved (cnt'd) Gov. Beverly Perdue on Monday signed a series of executive orders aimed at changing the way state government operates. The reforms, promised during her campaign, seek to alter how the state budget is written, how roads are built, how campaigns are funded and how the public gets information from state government. Perdue acknowledged, though, that the most sweeping elements will require legislators to change the law. "These orders begin the process of raising the bar for all of us," Perdue said. Perdue ordered that the state Board of Transportation, long criticized for approving projects based on patronage instead of need, cede its authority to approve road projects to the secretary of transportation. Such decisions would be made by the professional planners and engineers at the department, while the board acts as a planning group. Perdue acknowledged there may be statutory obstacles to such a change. State law requires that the board be consulted on any spending in districts represented by board members. In another of her change orders, Perdue plans to appoint a Budget Reform and Accountability Commission. Perdue's reform commission, based on the federal commission that handles military base closings, is planned as an independent group outside the legislature that would propose a set of budget reforms each year. The legislature could approve or reject them as a group but couldn't change any of them. The panel, however, can't do much unless the legislature gives up some of its power over the state budget. "We'll just have to look at that and see what they're trying to do," said Rep. Jim Crawford, an Oxford Democrat and co-chair of the House Appropriations Committee. "I'm not interested in diluting any power from the legislature." Rep. Paul Stam of Apex, the House Republican leader, said outside input on the budget could be helpful. "I don't see this as harmful if she needs advice on the budget," he said. Perdue said she will meet with legislative leaders this week and acknowledged that it will be a challenge to pass legislation in which lawmakers cede authority. "Whether they want to fight about it is still to be seen," Perdue said. The legislature would also have to sign off on Perdue's proposal to form an endowment to fund both major parties' campaigns for governor. Perdue hopes to remove the dominance of money in the race. While the legislature may offer few objections to creating the endowment, there is widespread skepticism over whether Perdue could raise sufficient money or whether candidates would give up their most powerful ammunition, the ability to spend unlimited money on television ads. "Perdue also signed an order directing state agencies under her direct control to post contract and grant data on the Internet. Another order directs state agencies to create a strategic planning process that includes a method to measure progress toward achieving annual and long-term goals. The orders capped a day that included Perdue meeting with senior staff and watching as her 10 Cabinet appointees were sworn in at a ceremony in the old Capitol House chambers. (Mark Johnson, THE CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 1/13/09; Gary D. Robertson, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, 1/12/09). Gov. Beverly Perdue's decision to use an executive order to recast how road-building choices are made, taking power away from the state Board of Transportation, drew a few questions about her own authority. State law, not an executive agency rule, lays out the duties of the board, and those duties include approving all "highway construction programs" and awarding all contracts. But in her executive order, Perdue cites another provision in the law which gives the board the ability to delegate its powers to the secretary of the Department of Transportation. Perdue pledged to move more authority to the secretary and agency engineers to try to quell criticism that politics and favoritism -- rather than sound planning -- dictated road building. The executive order was among several that she made her first order of business on her first working day as governor. "Because the governor of this state appoints the DOT board, we will be able to convince them very easily to delegate that authority," Perdue said. But Bob Orr, the former state Supreme Court justice who ran for the Republican nomination for governor, noted that the statutory provision allowing the board to delegate authority says that it may do so "in its discretion." "It still doesn't allow her to mandate it," said Orr, who now heads the N.C. Institute for Constitutional Law. Those same set of statutes, though, give the governor the power to remove a member of the board for any cause that she deems sufficient. Richard Whisnant of the School of Government at UNC-Chapel Hill said a provision in the state constitution may trump any of the statutory issues. The provision gives the governor authority to reorganize state agencies by executive order -- even if the changes affect existing law -- as long as the order is submitted to the General Assembly and it doesn't act to reject it. Rep. Jim Crawford, D-Granville, a longtime member of the House Transportation Committee, said he doubted that legislative leaders would challenge the change. But he also questioned its effect. "Politics is a strange thing. What you take away from one, another one gets," Crawford said. (THE INSIDER, 01/13/09). Western North Carolina is facing the worst drought the region has seen in a century despite recent rains, according to meteorologists. The region is entering its third year of serious drought. Records at the National Climatic Data Center show that 28.64 inches of rain fell in Asheville in 2008, making it the sixth the driest year since 1902. Richard Heim of the Asheville-based center said that combining the rain shortfall for the past two years makes the drought the worst in 100 years. State climatologist Ryan Boyles said the recent rains in the mountains won't be enough alone to break the drought. Boyles said the area needs rain once or twice a week to recharge groundwater supplies. "While we don't need two to three inches at a time, we do need frequent rainfall," he said. The U.S. Drought Monitor issued last week showed all of western North Carolina is in moderate to severe drought conditions. "We have huge demands on our water supplies that we didn't have 50 and 60 years ago," Heim said. "We can build reservoirs. We can tap into new rivers and streams, but we're going to have to learn to manage the water we have and maximize its use." (Dale Neal, ASHEVILLE CITIZEN-TIMES, 1/12/09). |