I'll set things right

Regarding your Aug. 20 editorial "Stacking the deck" and related articles:

In the final days of the recently completed legislative session, I quickly read a draft bill that was presented to me as necessary to ensure that a much-needed downtown state parking deck would be able to be built. I then gave permission for this language to be substituted for the original language in Senate Bill 1313, a bill that I had introduced but which was not going to be enacted into law.

Using such "dead" bills to carry new language is a common and useful practice (another of my dead bills was the vehicle used to ensure that the General Assembly did not adjourn before increasing penalties for drivers who are caught driving at dangerously high rates of speed). However, in this instance, I should have insisted on time to research and analyze the genesis, scope and implications of the new bill language.

Upon learning of the consequences for the City of Raleigh under the "new" S1313 (Zoning Near State Capitol) and realizing that the bill could be viewed as creating a double standard, I immediately began attempts to set things right. Since early August I have been in discussions with city and state officials in an attempt to mediate an appropriate solution. I have also initiated discussions about needed changes in the law, and I will be submitting revised language at the earliest opportunity.

No matter how hectic the process, how late the hour or how human the legislator, it is the responsibility of each member of the General Assembly to have an appropriate level of understanding of any piece of legislation that we agree to sponsor. I take full responsibility for having failed to do that in this instance.

Janet Cowell

State Senate

Raleigh

(The writer, a Raleigh Democrat, represents Senate District 16.)