RALEIGH - Making history took about nine minutes. The vote by legislators to override Gov. Mike Easley's veto of a new state law opening state roads to wider boat trailers was the first defeat of a governor's veto in state history, and one meted out in less time than it takes to cook a pizza.

Easley was the first North Carolina governor to use the veto -- the authority to reject legislation approved by the General Assembly. During his two terms, he has given the first demonstrations of the difference the new constitutional power can make in the balance of power between the legislative and executive branches of North Carolina's government.

In all, Easley vetoed nine bills and likely will leave office with a score of Easley 8, General Assembly 1. He has wielded the veto sparingly and usually on low-profile legislation, using the constitutional tool more as a safety net than as the shotgun behind the door.

The veto is often portrayed as the governor's weapon in titanic clashes with lawmakers. Easley, though, has pulled the veto stamp out of his desk more to catch minor legislation he sees as dangerously flawed. He then negotiates a way to rework it.

But the veto hasn't been rigorously tested. Not until the governor and legislature come from different parties, or from different wings of the same party, will you witness the sort of tension between the branches of government that will measure the strength of the veto.

Easley's nine vetoes included bills awarding financial incentives to Goodyear, altering requirements for teacher certification and appointing new board and commission members -- two of whom were dead and five of whom were blocked by law from taking office.

"It serves as a last defense against bad law," said Franklin Freeman, Easley's legislative liaison.

Easley sees the veto largely as a pause button, a way to get the legislature to take the time to reconsider something they've passed.

He doesn't veto legislation just because he doesn't like it.

"I've signed plenty of bills I disagreed with," Easley said.

He uses the veto to stop what he views as harmful to the state or its people. He blocked then-House Speaker Jim Black, a Charlotte Democrat, and other legislators from giving a vacant state office building in downtown Charlotte to Johnson & Wales University. The gift was intended to satisfy a promised tax incentive that helped lure the school to Charlotte.

"Sometimes a governor has to say 'This is bad policy and I just can't put my name on it'," he said.

In the Johnson & Wales case, Easley went further than a veto. He then sold the building before legislators could give it away.

The teacher certification bill allowed schools to hire out-of-state teachers without passing certain tests as long as their home state rated them as "highly qualified." Easley said that change would have "lowered our standards to the lowest in the country."

'Just a waste of time'?

Some legislators say Easley has picked disagreements over small matters, at least some of which could have been avoided by working out the problem before the bill passed. Most of the vetoes came during the usual cascade of legislation at the end of a session when it's difficult for even lawmakers to know what is in the bills.

Easley has portrayed his objections as issues of principle. In some cases, however, his administration has fashioned a compromise that differed little from the bill he vetoed. After he vetoed the teachers bill, he still agreed to let schools hire out-of-state teachers under a temporary teaching license.

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