The composition of several North Carolina state commissions would shift away from gubernatorial appointees and toward the choices of legislators and others in a measure that cleared a House committee on Tuesday.
A version of the legislation passed the full Senate last month. Its Republican sponsors argued the changes would bring more diversity to powerful boards that affect the lives of residents and are currently controlled by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper's picks.
House Republicans tweaked the proposal before it came to House State Government Committee for an affirmative vote. The amended measure deleted the Senate’s proposed changes to the powerful state Utilities Commission but added a provision to increase the number of voting members on the University of North Carolina Board of Governors from 24 to 28. The legislature already elects the current 28 members over a four-year cycle.
House Speaker Tim Moore of Cleveland County, who spoke for the proposal in the committee, said later that House leaders are still weighing alterations to the Utilities Commission, with its seven current members chosen by Cooper. The Senate version would reduce the commission membership to five and let the governor choose only two of the positions. Legislative leaders and the state treasurer would pick the others.
Moore said the UNC Board of Governors provision responds to complaints that legislation in the 2010s that reduced the panel from 32 to 24 members went too far.
Otherwise, the bill would still eliminate the majority control that the governor's appointees hold on several commissions. On two commissions — the Board of Transportation and the Economic Investment Committee, which awards financial incentives to companies — the legislature would control the majority of appointments.
Cooper and fellow Democrats have called the legislation an unconstitutional power grab. State court rulings have suggested that the compositions of some boards can be unlawful when they interfere with the governor’s ability to carry out laws and leave him with no meaningful control over them.
Sen. Warren Daniel, a Burke County Republican and sponsor of the original Senate bill, repeated on Tuesday in the House committee that he believed the Senate's measure complied with case law or contained alterations that had yet to be considered by courts.
The bill must advance through two more House committees before a floor vote.
