New sheriffs in town

Josh Stein and Destin Hall are changing the tenor of state government.

This week, the North Carolina House of Representatives passed its budget. In one of the most bipartisan budget votes in recent memories, the bill passed 93-20, indicating more than half of the Democrats supported the measure. Governor Josh Stein, while not really embracing it, suggested that he found it acceptable.

In contrast, Republicans in the Senate howled. They bemoaned a measure that would delay scheduled income tax cuts until the state has a brighter fiscal outlook. The conservative PAC Club for Growth threatened to primary House Republicans who supported the measure. GOP Senators accused their House counterparts of raising taxes, but that’s just hyperbole. Delaying a tax cut is not a tax increase.

What we’re really seeing is a new tenor reflecting perspectives of a new governor and new House Speaker. Governor Josh Stein has struck a more cooperative tone than his predecessor, Roy Cooper. House Speaker Destin Hall is less combative, and hopefully less of a grifter, than the former Speaker, now Congressman Tim Moore.

Roy Cooper took office as governor when the GOP was still in its slash-and-burn phase of governing. Republicans had only been in power six years when Cooper moved into the Governor’s Mansion and they were still remaking state government to reflect GOP values. Cooper was elected to push back and slow the destruction of programs that had helped make North Carolina an economic powerhouse. And he did it.

Tim Moore replaced now Senator Thom Tillis, who was always more concerned with his own political future than North Carolina’s well-being. While Moore knew how to wield power better than Tillis, he was petty and vindictive. He tolerated little dissent and punished those who opposed him. He also got to be a very rich man.

So far, Stein has avoided the battles and strident language that a lot of his base wants. He’s focused more on getting results and getting resources from an opposing party that controls the federal government and the North Carolina legislature. He’s worked to get money from the Trump administration for western North Carolina and worked with the legislature to send more money to the beleaguered region. Even when he’s been rebuffed, he’s expressed disappointment more than anger and suggested that maybe more resources could be made available if they just keep working on it.

Stein has built a working relationship with Hall, who seems to share Stein’s even temperament. Hall has taken over a House when Republicans have revamped much of state government and now need to preserve what they’ve done. The revolution is over and now its time to govern. Making allies with the governor and House minority probably gives the Speaker leverage over the more strident Senate conservatives.

Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger is the last leader of the GOP rebels who took over the state legislature in 2011. It’s time for him and his leadership to go. They accomplished what Republicans wanted—rooting out Democratic programs and replacing them with Republican ones. They’ve remade our public schools, universities, and tax system. They’ve satisfied cultural conservatives by restricting abortion and ending protections for the LGBT citizens. Now, it’s time for cooler heads to prevail.

Stein and the House Democrats seem to recognize that they are limited in their ability to reverse the damage the GOP revolutionaries have caused. Now, they’re working to stabilize state government. They want to make it work under the new framework that Republicans have established because Democrats believe in governing. They hope that Hall might be a partner, if an uneasy one, in maintaining the status quo in a state that is evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans.