In an earlier post, there was a description of the House Local Government II Committee meeting that considered and rejected a union backed bill, SB 1271 – Firefighter/EMS Payroll Deductions. This bill, defeated once, is to be considered again by the same committee on Wednesday, 25 June at 10:00 AM.
In the first meeting those voting to allow the payroll deductions were Reps. Alma Adams (D-Guilford), Nelson Dollar (R-Wake), Susan Fisher (D-Buncombe), Earl Jones (D-Guilford), Jimmy Love (D-Lee) and Larry Womble (D-Forsyth).
While the votes of the Democrat members in support of this legislation are understandable from a philosophical and practical point, unions poured a LOT of money into electing Democrats in the 2006 election, the vote of Representative Nelson Dollar (R-Wake), is not. Why does a self professed conservative Republican join with a group of mostly liberal democrats to support a union backed bill that will mostly benefit the Teamsters?
The way this "already defeated" bill will rise from the dead (Dracula like) is that one of the legislators who voted against the bill, Reps. Lucy Allen (D-Franklin), Larry Brown (R-Forsyth), Phil Frye (R-Mitchell), Marvin Lucas (D-Cumberland), Mary McAllister (D-Cumberland), Fred Steen (R-Rowan), Thom Tillis (R-Mecklenburg) or Laura Wiley (R-Guilford), will make a motion to "reconsider". They will again debate the bill and vote again. Since the bill failed by two votes last time they will need either opponents to take a walk or switch votes assuming they keep all of the original supporters.
Usually when a bill is brought back up in this manner the supporters are pretty sure they have the votes in their pockets…
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