The NC House Speaker banished me to the basement. I know exactly why. | Opinion
Editor’s note: The writer is an attorney serving his third term in the N.C. House.
About a month ago, I asked the Wake County District Attorney to investigate possible corruption charges against North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore. My request was based on credible allegations regarding his use of taxpayer money to continue illicit affairs.
Thursday, as we were getting ready to vote on the state’s $30 billion budget, the Speaker ordered legislative staff to move my office into the basement of the Legislative Building — and yes, there is a basement.
To be clear, I don’t care where my office is located. Some legislators do. Some legislators fall in love with the trappings of being an elected official. I am not one of them. I am here for the people of my district and of this state. And the fact is, that there is credible evidence of corruption and abuse of power that deserves to be investigated. (Editor’s note: Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman said at the time that she saw no basis for a case against Moore, and added that proving any legislator has misused their office for personal benefit is difficult.)
This office move to the basement and the letter from Moore announcing it wasn’t simply a reflexive act of petty revenge. It was also an attempt to distract attention away from a deeply flawed budget written in the dark by legislative leaders and special interests.
This is a budget that underfunds our schools, undervalues state employees and undermines the separation of powers in our state government. It came to us months late because Republican leaders, like Speaker Moore, were focused on working out a backroom deal - that ultimately failed - with casino special interests who also happened to be top fundraisers for Republican dark money campaigns.
While working families struggle to make ends meet, this budget provides state employees with 7% raises over two years — raises that fall well short of inflation. At the same time, legislative leaders gave their Republican friends on the North Carolina Supreme Court a raise of 17.9% over the next two years — more than twice as large as those of our state workers.
An unaccountable private school voucher scheme was stripped of any income restrictions and tripled in size under this budget, siphoning half a billion dollars away from public schools, especially in the underserved areas of our state.
In fact, if you took the money going for private school vouchers and instead raised teacher pay, you could double the raises this budget gives public school teachers. Under this budget, teachers got an average raise of just 7% over the next two years.
This budget also further erodes the separation of powers in our state, giving more power to Speaker Moore and Senate leader Phil Berger. Indeed, now they have the power to authorize a new “legislative secret police” with unprecedented powers to seize pubic records and enter the premises of state and local agencies and private companies who do business with the state.
North Carolina just passed a state budget spending $30 billion of your money that was written in secret, passed after midnight, and with little time for the public — or even most legislators — to read its nearly 700 pages. And that is a lot more concerning than having an office in a basement.
Rep. Terence Everitt is a Democratic member of the N.C. House. He represents Wake County.
