Senate Pulls Veto Override Votes, Ends Session

The Senate displaced two veto override votes on its calendar planned for Tuesday, raising questions as to whether the Senate could muster the votes to override the vetoes, as the House did last week.

So far the House has successfully turned back all seven of Gov. Roy Cooper’s 11 vetoes that the body has taken votes on, most recently HB140 and HB770.

Since January, Cooper has already surpassed former Gov. Pat McCrory’s total vetoes by almost doubling his six vetoes while in office.

Cooper’s veto tally is halfway to the 19 logged by former Gov. Bev Perdue across her entire four-year term.

For the Senate to avoid veto override votes on the legislation came as a surprise to many observers due to the Senate having a stronger Republican majority than the House.

House Bill 140 originally dealt with transparency related to fee schedules, but was amended in the Senate by Sen. Dan Bishop (R-Mecklenburg) to give customers the ability to purchase credit insurance such as credit property, life or unemployment insurance on consumer loans for purchases of personal items such as personal computers.

Cooper’s veto statement said expanding credit insurance could drive consumers further into debt, and that they should not have to pay for unnecessary insurance.

Bishop said that bill simply gave consumers a choice.

The House voted to override the veto in a 72-43 vote, and the bill was sent to the Senate.

The House also overrode Cooper’s veto of HB770 in a 71-44 vote, but the Senate did not take up a vote on that bill either.

Cooper cited in his objections to the bill that the legislature gave itself two appointments to the state’s Medical Board.

The bill also would allow a full-time employee of the NC Industrial Commission, former state GOP counsel Bill Peaslee, to draw an additional salary for serving on the state Property Tax Commission.

While the Senate backed away from the planned override votes and the House did not take any votes on Tuesday, the House did set itself up for Wednesday votes to pas through the Senate redistricting plan, as did the Senate for the House redistricting plan, though whether the Senate will take up votes to override Cooper’s veto remains to be seen.