The state House voted Wednesday to move about 100 jobs away from state agencies overseen by Gov. Josh Stein's administration.
The moves were included in labeled "budget technical corrections." But Democrats protested the measure, saying the label is inaccurate and the policy changes deserve more scrutiny.
The positions would shift from the departments of public safety and information technology to the State Highway Patrol, along with several at the Division of Motor Vehicles. Republicans say the move is needed because of legislation from December that takes the Highway Patrol out of the governor's administration.
But Rep. Eric Ager, D-Buncombe, says the ongoing Helene recovery makes it a bad time to take staff away from the Department of Public Safety.
"Eliminating these core staff will functionally slow down emergency preparedness and response, to include communication with the public and paying bills for recovery in western North Carolina," Ager said. "These activities will likely grind to a halt for some period of time."
Rep. Brenden Jones, R-Columbus, said the positions should have been moved along with the Highway Patrol because they support the law enforcement agency's work. He accused the agencies in the governor's administration of holding the positions "hostage."
"When they were asked about sending those positions over, it seems that all of a sudden, some of these positions didn't exist, or those employees were not in those positions, and they were getting renumbered," Jones said.
The law shifting the Highway Patrol is currently , in which Gov. Josh Stein and former Gov. Roy Cooper argue it's unconstitutional. The law allows the legislature to appoint the commander of the Highway Patrol.
Democrats said moving positions around is premature until that lawsuit is resolved, and they criticized the process used in the bill.
A "technical corrections" bill is typically used to correct typos and errors in recent legislation, not to pass new policy changes.
Rep. Abe Jones, D-Wake, said it's misnamed and should have received more vetting in the legislative process.
"It's really not technical changes," Jones said. "It's much deeper than that … it could be a wolf in sheep's clothing, or it could not be a wolf. I don't know. I hadn't figured it out, and I hate to vote against a bill because I hadn't figured it out yet."
House Speaker Destin Hall defended Republicans' approach, saying Democrats had adequate notice to review the bill. "What you saw in this bill really was some technical changes related to that substantive change that happened before," he said.
The bill would also move the Center for Missing Persons to the Highway Patrol and add new types of alerts similar to Amber Alerts. They include an "Ashanti Alert" for missing people over age 18 and a "Missing – Weather Alert" for a person who goes missing during an extreme weather event.
Also in the bill:
- A provision redirecting money allocated to the cities of Charlotte and Oxford from the 2023 budget bill to other local governments. Hall says the money being shifted from Charlotte relates to a tennis project that didn't come to fruition.
- A provision exempting temporary employees and "student-oriented professionals" at the UNC System from minimum wage and overtime laws.
- Deadline extensions for some grant funding in previous budget bills
The bill now goes to the Senate.
