No more vetoes from Perdue

Gov. Bev Perdue says she has signed or will not veto the remaining bills on her desk, including three environmental measures.

Posted 8:34 p.m. Aug 1, 2012 — Updated 9:00 p.m. Aug 1, 2012

Mark Binker

RALEIGH, N.C. — Gov. Bev Perdue will not veto any more bills.

The governor's office announced today that she will sign three of the five remaining bills on her desk. The other two will go into law without her signature.

One of the bills she won't sign deals with a local water system in western North Carolina. The other is House Bill 819, which deals with sea level rise. Although the version of the bill that passed the legislature is toned down from drafts that were widely mocked, it still delays use of certain sea level rise information in setting state-level policy.

“North Carolina should not ignore science when making public policy decisions,” Perdue said. “House Bill 819 will become law because it allows local governments to use their own scientific studies to define rates of sea level change. I urge the General Assembly to revisit this issue and develop an approach that gives state agencies the flexibility to take appropriate action in response to sea level change within the next four years.”

Perdue vetoed 19 bills during the past two years. North Carolina's governors first gained veto powers in 1997 and three chief executives vetoed a total of 10 bills before 2011.

Among the bills that Perdue signed was H 585, which will exempt newer model cars from emissions inspections.

Update: Three of the bills that will become law dealt with the environment and all three were opposed by the Sierra Club.

“We are disappointed that the Governor chose not to veto these bills. All three measures primarily benefit developers at the expense of North Carolina’s taxpayers, who will end up paying more in the long run to deal with the increased costs of failing to address sea level rise as well as water pollution caused by poorly planned development," said Molly Diggins, state director for Sierra Club's North Carolina chapter.

Suggest A Correction