N&O learns elections have consequences

This headline screams at us from today’s web site:

Bill would give McCrory, legislature control of some state boards

Wow.  If you’re just reading the headline, you might be thinking there is some sort of nefarious power grab going on. But if you actually read into the story, you get THIS:

A bill began moving through the General Assembly on Tuesday that would sweep out the members of several important state boards and commissions so that they could be replaced by appointments by the governor and the GOP-controlled General Assembly.

Sen. Bill Rabon, a Republican from Southport, told the Senate Rules Committee the bill streamlines government by getting rid of unnecessary boards and commissions, and that it allows several key entities to be run by appointees who “are more like-minded and willing to carry out the philosophy of the new administration.  […]

So, they’re trying to ensure that the new governor has a bureaucracy staffed with people who can be depended on to carry out his agenda.

*What an outrage.*

 

There is a bit of a backstory behind this, I’m sure.  A Raleigh-based source intimately familiar with the inner workings of the new administration, told us that Boss Bev went crazy handing out appointments days before she was to leave office.  The appointments included state

jobs normally reserved as patronage appointments by the incoming governor, as well as spots on state boards.  It sounds like this might be the first stab at addressing Bev’s parting stink-bomb.  

There is some lip-service in the story about saving the state some money by doing away with certain non-essential or redundant boards.  (But they don’t mention any of THESE.)   Let’s hope this is really mostly ab

out (1) streamlining the functions of state government and (2) getting the Bev cronies out of the way so Gov. Pat can get something done, and not just making more room for recipients of political payoffs.