Slipped Through
2011-06-20 - by
It’s strange how the wheels and cogs turn in the state legislature. Senators and Representatives sit and lolly-gag for months then a week before they go home all hell breaks loose and the floodgates open and suddenly 170 legislators are working day and night trying to pass hundreds of bills.
It looks crazy. But there’s method in their madness.
It’s a well kept secret – and an undisputed fact – that no legislator can read 50 bills a day. Which is exactly what the leaders in the House and Senate have in mind when they open the floodgates. Why? Because if a legislator can’t read a bill he can’t spot the bit of mischief buried on, say, page 58.
Here’s an example of mischief: A couple of years ago a company in Hickory received $2 million from the state in tax ‘incentives’ (subsidies) to create 200 jobs. But it didn’t create the jobs. So it faced giving the money back. Which, of course, the company didn’t like. So it found a solution: The company had a local Senator sponsor a bill to let it keep the money.
The bill slipped through the Senate and was on its way to sailing through the House when a House legislator, smelling a mouse, said, Hold on.
The bill was stuck. And it stayed stuck. Until the last two days of the session.
Then buried in a bill, buried in a stack of bills no one had time to read, it passed.
Slipped Through
2011-06-20/
It’s strange how the wheels and cogs turn in the state legislature. Senators and Representatives sit and lolly-gag for months then a week before they go home all hell breaks loose and the floodgates open and suddenly 170 legislators are working day and night trying to pass hundreds of bills.
It looks crazy. But there’s method in their madness.
It’s a well kept secret – and an undisputed fact – that no legislator can read 50 bills a day. Which is exactly what the leaders in the House and Senate have in mind when they open the floodgates. Why? Because if a legislator can’t read a bill he can’t spot the bit of mischief buried on, say, page 58.
Here’s an example of mischief: A couple of years ago a company in Hickory received $2 million from the state in tax ‘incentives’ (subsidies) to create 200 jobs. But it didn’t create the jobs. So it faced giving the money back. Which, of course, the company didn’t like. So it found a solution: The company had a local Senator sponsor a bill to let it keep the money.
The bill slipped through the Senate and was on its way to sailing through the House when a House legislator, smelling a mouse, said, Hold on.
The bill was stuck. And it stayed stuck. Until the last two days of the session.
Then buried in a bill, buried in a stack of bills no one had time to read, it passed.