Session ends with ethics bills

A stream of unseemly revelations pushed the General Assembly to try to clean its own house

As one of their final acts before going home for the year, North Carolina lawmakers voted Thursday night for two measures designed to ensure that government operates a bit more ethically.

It was a fitting finale for a session that began in January under the dark cloud of scandal over former House Speaker Jim Black and ended as Black was on his way to federal prison for five years after pleading guilty to public corruption.

First, lawmakers approved a bill requiring the public disclosure of contributors to legal defense funds set up by politicians. That was a reaction to concerns that groups with interests before the legislature could have secretly contributed to a fund Black established to help pay his legal bills.

And late Thursday night, shortly before adjourning for the year, lawmakers approved a measure that will give the public greater access to hearings into ethics complaints lodged against lawmakers and state government workers.

House Speaker Joe Hackney said the legislature worked hard on ethical issues this session, applying new laws and and making substantial changes and additions this year.

"We have addressed ethics on a daily basis, doing what we can to raise awareness of ethical issues," said Hackney, an Orange County Democrat.

State Rep. John Blust, a Greensboro Republican, said the legislature could have done much more to strengthen ethics and lobbying laws.

"I do think it comes up woefully short when compared to what we needed to do in light of some of the things we've seen reported on," he said.

While questions about ethics commanded the public's attention, lawmakers dealt with everything this year from taxes to mental health. The legislature, controlled by Democrats, enacted a $21 billion budget that will relieve counties of their obligation to help pay for Medicaid, a responsibility that had become increasingly burdensome for many of the state's smaller, rural counties. Counties also overcame a fierce lobbying campaign by real estate agents and home builders to win the right to levy a land transfer tax, giving them an alternative to property taxes to pay for schools and other infrastructure needs.

The legislature also required employees' health insurance policies to treat serious depression and other major illnesses the same as they do heart disease and other physical ailments. Legislators changed the cutoff date to begin school, meaning that fewer 4-year-olds will be eligible to start kindergarten beginning in 2009.

They also named the Ayden Collard Festival the official collard festival of North Carolina.

No smoking ban

Lawmakers turned back efforts to ban smoking in public places and a proposed constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages. They did nothing to deal with the de facto moratorium on the death penalty in North Carolina.

But while legislators tackled major tax and health-care policies, scandal pervaded the session. In addition to Black, other lawmakers found themselves facing questions about their actions.

The State Board of Elections held hearings into campaign finance improprieties by Democratic Reps. Thomas Wright of Wilmington and Mary McAllister of Fayetteville. Questions swirled around the N.C. Legislative Black Caucus when it was revealed that relatives of five legislators in the caucus had received college scholarships from a foundation affiliated with the caucus. The foundation is funded by groups and individuals with interests before the legislature.

And last month, Republican Rep. David Almond of Stanly County abruptly resigned after a legislative employee filed an unspecified personnel complaint against him.