There's always been a certain amount of hype, and ambiguity, surrounding the slogan "North Carolina - the most military-friendly state in the nation." Last week, in a welcome development, Gov. Beverly Perdue signed a package of bills passed by the General Assembly that should assist military personnel based here in specific ways.
One is House Bill 614, intended to make it more convenient for service members to vote. The new law allows deploying personnel to apply just once to vote by absentee ballot for all the elections in a calendar year, instead of separately for each election - primary, general, etc.
It's long been excessively difficult for military men and women stationed far from their homes to vote and to have their votes counted in a timely way. Any move to streamline the process deserves a salute.
Other bills that are now law include measures to clarify when members of the National Guard are subject to civilian law, rather than the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and to protect service members from unfair foreclosures by lenders when they are on active duty. Another new law, prompted by grim necessity, makes it easier for military personnel to specify what they wish to be done with their remains if they die.
That last measure serves, as well, as a reminder of why the state, home to so many major military installations, should do all it can to improve conditions in concrete ways for those who serve.
One way to do that, and to boost the public university system at the same time, is to expand educational links between North Carolina-based military commands and the university system. The N.C. Military Foundation reports that is being done on a significant scale through partnerships it calls unique to North Carolina.
Also, according to the Military Foundation, Defense Department spending in the state now exceeds $23 billion annually and grew by 10 percent last year. Military bases here are expanding, and defense-related industries are moving in, most notably near Fayetteville and Fort Bragg, but also in the Triangle.
The economic benefits are obvious, and so, regarding daily life for the troops, is the obligation to make "military friendly" more than just words.
