NC: Last-minute GenX ambush, standard operating procedure for legislature

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http://www.wral.com/editorial-last-minute-ambush-standard-operating-procedure-legislature/16919535/

CBC Editorial: Friday, Sept. 1, 2017; Editorial # 8206
The following is the opinion of Capitol Broadcasting Company

Whether your like, or don’t like, repeal of the Dare County ban on plastic grocery bags, North Carolina voters can easily identify who is responsible.

During an open meeting of the Senate Environment Committee last April Sen. Bill Cook, R-Beaufort, led the effort to include it in a bill dealing with a variety of environmental regulations.

We do wish Sen. Cook would leave our counties and cities alone. Dare County voters can and should make their own decisions.

But if voters want to know who was responsible for the funding plan to monitor how the chemical GenX flows into the Cape Fear River that ended up in bill that included the repeal of the Dare County plastic bag ban, they’d be better off hiring a private investigator.

The answer’s simple. Like too many actions by the General Assembly these days, the provision appeared without warning in a conference committee report on the bill. None of these conference committee members even represent the Wilmington area, where concern over GenX has arisen yet they chose to insert this measure into the legislation. No open committee hearing, no public discussion, no citizen input and no accountability.

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