RALEIGH, N.C.  – Gov. Beverly Perdue has officially told North Carolina lawmakers they won’t have to return to the state capital to consider overriding her first veto.

Perdue signed Wednesday a proclamation rescinding her earlier call for the General Assembly to reconvene in Raleigh this Friday for a veto session.

Legislative leaders decided last week they wouldn’t challenge Perdue’s veto of a bill that would have expanded the list of requests and documents General Assembly members could keep confidential. They said the issue wasn’t urgent and could be handled when the Legislature reconvenes next May.

A majority of lawmakers in the House and Senate had signed petitions asking Perdue to cancel the session.

RALEIGH, N.C.- So much for history.

After several veto showdowns resolved through negotiation that avoided embarrassing either the executive or legislative branch, the General Assembly handed Gov. Mike Easley the first override in North Carolina state history with hardly a regret by lawmakers.

“The members are predominantly concerned about the substantive issue, not the dynamics between the two branches of state government,” House Speaker Joe Hackney, D-Orange, said soon after the Senate and House took just 40 minutes last week to override Easley’s veto of a boat-towing bill. “I don’t know how historic it is.”

Sure, it’s historic in the sense that the Democratic-led Legislature finally used the balancing power it received when the governor obtained the veto stamp to cancel his objections. North Carolina was the last state to give the governor the veto in 1997.

But the override may become little more than an interesting footnote in North Carolina’s political record given what bill was vetoed and the governor who objected to the measure.

“I thought it was like a pimple on an elephant,” quipped former Democratic Speaker Joe Mavretic, who ran the chamber in 1989 and 1990. An override, he added, “had to happen sometime.”

Easley, who took office in 2001, has been the only governor to use the veto, doing so nine times. In the first eight, legislative leaders had either accepted the verdict of fellow Democrat Easley or negotiated a compromise based on the governor’s objections.

Five of those six previous bills followed the same pattern: lawmakers unhappy with Easley’s meddling in legislation say they have the votes to override, but later work deal with Easley that allows the veto to stand yet. That means supporters of the vetoed legislation also save face.

Unlike last year’s vetoed bill on economic incentives for tire manufacturers, lawmakers had less patience this time around than to wait two days before reaching a compromise. Easley, Hackney and Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand were out of town last week at the Democratic National Convention. Only Hackney returned for the session.

“Sometimes you work it out and sometimes it can’t,” said House Majority Leader Hugh Holliman, D-Davidson, who couldn’t reach an agreement with Easley aide Franklin Freeman. “Our best work is done when we do come to a good compromise position.”
 
The measure Easley vetoed Aug. 17 eased restrictions on towing boats by allowing wider boats to be towed without a permit all hours of the day and night. Easley said the measure could put “families at a risk on the highways” for death and injury.

His objections frustrated some legislators, who said safety issues were considered thoroughly during legislative debate on the measure this year and that statistics showed few accidents involving towed boats in recent years.

The Highway Patrol had started ticketing violators more aggressively recently under the previous law, according to supporters of the change, threatening professional fishing tournaments in the state and the boat-building industry.

“You should look at safety first, and we did that, and we found that there was no valid reason to be concerned about this wide trailer and this wide boat,” said Senate leader Marc Basnight, a Democrat from coastal Dare County.

Troopers were opposed to the changes, and Freeman had said before the session ended Easley probably wouldn’t sign the bill. Easley pointed out situations under the new law where two 9 1/2 foot boats now could approach each other on a road with two lanes, each 9 feet wide, without a permit or time restrictions.

“I’m still startled that they can dismiss so easily the safety concerns by law enforcement, the same folks that they almost always listen to on other issues,” said Chris Fitzsimon, the executive director of NC Policy Watch, a liberal political watchdog group based in Raleigh.

The boating industry leaders, he added, “deserved to be represented, but so too do the people who are driving down toward (boats) on a two-lane road at 9 o’clock at night.”

House and Senate members still agreed to the override, surpassing easily the three-fifths vote requirement. The override motion passed in the two chambers by a combined vote of 134-8.

“I have done what I thought was right to protect the safety of the public on our highways,” Easley said in a response. “It will be the members of the General Assembly who will have on their hands the consequences of this law.”

The override may lead to some hard feelings between the Legislature and Easley. But they don’t have much time left together.

With Easley leaving office in January because he’s barred from running for a third consecutive term, the General Assembly probably won’t meet again with him as chief executive, which probably gave lawmakers more confidence to complete an override.

“You’re just four or five months from leaving town, it’s not as significant,” said Thad Beyle, a political science professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

RALEIGH, N.C. – For the first time in state history, North Carolina lawmakers have voted to override a governor’s veto.

Members of the House and Senate voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to override Gov. Mike Easley’s rejection of a new law easing the restrictions on the towing of boats.

Easley rejected a measure approved last month that allows boats up to 10 feet wide to be towed without a permit. The new law also allows boats up to 9 1/2 feet wide to be towed at night.

House Majority Leader Hugh Holliman said lawmakers tried to work out a compromise with Easley before Wednesday’s vote, but were unsuccessful.
 
North Carolina lawmakers have never overridden a veto since the state’s governors were given the power in 1996.

RALEIGH, N.C. – North Carolina lawmakers were planning to return to Raleigh on Wednesday to consider fighting Gov. Mike Easley’s veto on a bill that would ease restrictions on towing boats.

The veto session has required some Democrats, such as House Speaker Joe Hackney, to book last-minute flights back from their party’s national convention in Denver. As of Tuesday, Easley and Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand, D-Cumberland, had no plans to return.

Although the bill passed by wide margins in both chambers, legislative leaders haven’t decided whether they’ll vote to overturn Easley’s veto, allow the veto to stand, or draft a compromise bill.

Hackney, D-Orange, believes most members in his chamber want the opportunity to consider the legislation again, spokesman Bill Holmes said Tuesday.

“At this point, there is overwhelming support for overriding the veto,” Holmes said.

The state’s constitution requires North Carolina governors to call lawmakers back to session within 10 days of vetoing legislation; If they don’t, the vetoed bill automatically becomes law. Easley announced the session on Monday.

Summoning lawmakers back to Raleigh puts the measure, which would allow boats up to 10 feet wide to be towed without a permit, back in the General Assembly’s hands. The measure also lifts some restrictions on when boats can be towed by allowing watercraft between 8 1/2 and 9 1/2 feet wide to be towed at night and on weekends.

Last Sunday, on the last day that he had to take action on legislation from the summer session, Easley rejected the boat towing measure, citing safety concerns. A top Easley aide had warned lawmakers before they passed it that the governor thought it would endanger motorists and other travelers, especially when the big boats are pulled on narrow bridges and roads.

Legislative leaders can overturn Easley’s veto if three-fifths of members present vote in favor of the bill. The veto will stand if there aren’t the requisite votes.

But with the relatively short notice and some Democrats out of town for their party’s national convention, it’s also unclear how many lawmakers will attend the scheduled Wednesday morning session.

The plan’s supporters had pushed this year for the legislation as a way to help North Carolina boaters and fishing tournaments who felt current boat towing law was too restrictive.

But opponents, including safety coalitions and the state Highway Patrol, said the changes would cause accidents.

“This legislation, as written, will jeopardize safety on our highways,” said Bryan Beatty, the secretary of the Department of Crime Control and Public Safety in a letter to newspapers Monday.

In the 11 years since the General Assembly granted North Carolina governors the power to reject legislation, it has never overpowered a veto.

Some vetoes have been sustained because lawmakers have declined Easley’s call to return to Raleigh for session.

On others, lawmakers have hashed out last-minute compromises, such as with last year’s measure originally written to provide economic incentives only to Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. Lawmakers retooled the plan to include Goodyear’s competitors.

Holmes acknowledged that lawmakers could adopt the same approach this year.

“They have brokered agreements on these sorts of things before, and they very may well again,” Holmes said.
 
In a statement when the veto was issued, Easley said he was disappointed there was no provision limiting the blood-alcohol level a boat tower could have. The governor also said the proposal would be out of line with other states’ boat towing restrictions.

Both the House and the Senate would need to either override the measure or approve new legislation.

Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand, speaking from the Democratic convention in Denver on Monday, said he didn’t know what his chamber would do if the House voted to override Easley’s veto.

He noted that he opposed the legislation and said that most of the fishing tournaments that proponents said would be helped by the legislation have already concluded.
 
“I think the cost is such that we’d be better served to wait until January to do this,” Rand, D-Cumberland, said.