NC Home Builders are swinging a big hammer in this year’s legislative session | Opinion

Republican state lawmakers override Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s vetoes with a mixture of routine and gusto – at one point overriding a record six vetoes in one day.

That’s the power of the Republicans’ supermajority. But behind that show of force is the power of the super lobbyists. Their influence is particularly clear in the success of what may be the state’s most influential lobby, the North Carolina Home Builders Association.

The Home Builders scored two major victories this session. One was a provision of the 2023 Farm Act that ended state environmental protections for isolated wetlands. The change could open more than a million acres to development.

The other was House Bill 488. The measure eliminates changes in the state building codes that would have required all new homes to be more energy efficient and more resistant to strong winds. The bill also creates a new builder-friendly 13-member council to develop residential building codes. The existing 17-member building code council will continue to oversee the code for commercial buildings.

Cooper vetoed both bills. He said developing wetlands would increase flooding and failing to update the residential building code would block energy savings and the state could miss out on federal funding for improving storm resiliency. Both vetoes were overridden.

The Home Builders Association celebrated its success. In a video posted on Facebook, Steven Webb, the group’s director of legislative affairs, said House Bill 488 “overcame objections from over 50 outside special interest groups and the governor.”

The Home Builders say rejecting the proposed building code changes will hold down the cost of new home construction and ultimately serve the need for more affordable housing.

Tim Minton, the group’s executive vice president, told me, “For us, what’s been really good this year has been that affordable housing has become a major issue.” He said, “When there’s a (proposed) regulatory change, what’s that impact going to be to the cost of housing? That message resonates better today than it probably did 10 or 15 years ago.”

Arguing that new regulations will make new homes less affordable is an effective approach, but the reality is that home builders want to fix their costs and increase their profits. Meanwhile, supporters of the housing code changes say savings from the proposed energy conservation requirements would have more than covered the cost they would have added to a new home.

Bob Hall, the retired executive director of Democracy NC, a nonpartisan campaign watchdog, said of the Home Builders, “Their profits are directly related to regulation and zoning. So they have a keen interest in government policy.”

At the General Assembly, the group pursues that keen interest with five lobbyists and hefty political contributions, especially to legislative leaders.

Hall’s review of campaign funding records found that the NC Home Builders PAC contributed $350,427 to North Carolina candidates and political committees in the 2022 election cycle and $342,369 in the 2020 election cycle for a total of nearly $700,000.

The money is spread around. Nearly three out of four legislators received a donation from the Home Builders.

The group was influential even when Democrats controlled the legislature, but it can go full throttle now with Republicans in charge.

Cynthia Satterfield, state director of the North Carolina Sierra Club, said this session has been especially hard on environmental protections. She said the Home Builders have approached the legislature with “a united strategy, running bills that attack North Carolina’s environment from every angle possible – building codes, energy use, wetlands protections.”

She added, “Legislators need to be listening to the experts, not just their friends that are writing checks.”

Affordable housing is a concern. But so are affordable politicians. The Home Builders got what they wanted out of this legislature. Maybe they’re persuasive, but it also helps that they’re generous.