Cooper running out of time to fulfill promises

Politicians like to make promises when they run for office. But once the heady days of an election victory have passed, the work of fulfilling those promises is much harder.

Posted 10:00 a.m. Jan 3, 2020 — Updated 8:36 p.m. Jan 3, 2020

Matthew Burns

, WRAL.com senior producer/politics editor, & Travis Fain, WRAL statehouse reporter

RALEIGH, N.C. — Politicians like to make promises when they run for office. But once the heady days of an election victory have passed, the work of fulfilling those promises is much harder.

Gov. Roy Cooper has found that out over the last three years.

Most of the 31 promises WRAL News has tracked since Cooper's days on the campaign trail remain on track or "in progress," a designation that may not be promising, given continued Republican control of the N.C. General Assembly. He has achieved seven promises, including three in 2019:

Legislation passed in September eliminates NC Final Exams and requires school systems to track student testing hours and stay in line with the state average.
The state Department of Commerce launched a website to walk people through the steps of starting up a business and provides help from business counselors via a toll-free phone line.
The Nurse-Family Partnership, which helps low-income, first-time parents, says its state funding increased by $2 million under Cooper's administration, allowing it to serve more families.

The success rate was the highest of his three years in office, as he fulfilled only two promises a year in both 2017 and 2018.

Still, with only 12 months left in his term of office, Cooper is in danger of failing on a majority of his promises. Even if he wins re-election in November, he will be working during his second term on a new set of promises he's sure to make in the coming months.

Gov. Roy Cooper campaign promise tracker (first term)

Cooper's progress has been stalled by his contentious relationship with the Republican-controlled General Assembly. Through his first three years in office, he has vetoed 42 bills – more than the total issued by former Govs. Mike Easley, Bev Perdue and Pat McCrory in the previous 16 years – and lawmakers overrode 23 of those vetoes.

Democrats broke the GOP's veto-proof majority in both the House and the Senate in 2018, but that hasn't given Cooper the needed leverage to negotiate and secure some of his promises.

For example, he vetoed the $24 billion state budget, in part, because lawmakers included business tax cuts instead of putting more money toward higher teacher salaries. But the ensuing budget stalemate, including his veto of a "mini budget" that included what Cooper called "paltry" raises, makes it unlikely he'll be able to push the teacher pay to the national average as he hoped to.

Also, the Republican majority has dug in its heels over the prospect of Medicaid expansion, another Cooper promise, accusing the governor of refusing to negotiate a budget compromise separately from any talks on Medicaid and health care access. WRAL has already put Medicaid expansion into the failed promise category, as any significant movement on the subject is highly unlikely this year with the ill will between the two sides.

For most of the promises WRAL is tracking, a final call won't be made until next year. Although the governor has made progress on some fronts, most promises are a ways off from being fulfilled, and in many cases next year's outlook is not good.

Update: This post has been edited in the third paragraph to better summarize the governor's progress.

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