With wounds fresh over HB2, Mecklenburg lawmakers face a wary legislature

With wounds from House Bill 2 still festering, Mecklenburg County lawmakers return to Raleigh Wednesday facing a more hostile environment – and with less clout – than they have had in years.

November’s election resulted in fewer Mecklenburg Republicans going to a General Assembly still firmly controlled by the GOP. And no longer is a former Charlotte mayor in the governor’s office.

That’s why the city of Charlotte has an unusually limited legislative agenda. Essentially, “Don’t hurt us.”

“It’s really a defensive agenda rather than being offensive and pro-active to keep up with the growing demands of a dynamic city,” said Sen. Joel Ford, a Charlotte Democrat.

Instead of fighting for more state investments or money for projects such as light rail, lawmakers will instead find themselves fighting against more cuts. Specifically, they’ll oppose any new efforts to divert sales tax dollars to poorer rural counties as well as any attempt to reduce transportation funding to urban areas.

Mecklenburg’s dilemma reflects the challenges of populous counties in a state where the urban-rural divide is stark. Like Mecklenburg, Wake County will send more Democrats to the legislature, leaving the state’s two biggest urban areas with less influence in a General Assembly dominated by suburban and rural Republicans.

“The urban-rural divide is an old story in North Carolina and across the South,” said Ferrel Guillory, a political analyst at UNC-Chapel Hill. “(But) the partisan divide exacerbates the urban-rural divide.”

In Charlotte, tensions remain high from last month’s attempt to repeal HB2, when Republican legislators accused the city of bad faith in failing to rescind the entire anti-discrimination ordinance that started it. That was part of a tentative deal involving the city, the General Assembly and then-Gov.-elect Roy Cooper designed to repeal the law that prevents cities from enacting LGBT protections.

One GOP senator called the city “disingenuous.” Another referred to the city council “the lunatic left.”

“Charlotte is simply getting hammered,” tweeted political scientist Michael Bitzer of Catawba College.

“To say that (relations) are strained and challenged is an understatement,” Ford said.

In a gesture of outreach, the City Council plans to hold its annual retreat in Raleigh next week and host a dinner for the delegation.

“One of the problems is members of the council do not know members of the General Assembly personally,” said Ed Driggs, one of only two Republicans on the 11-member council. “So we’re dealing with these cartoon-character perceptions.”

The delegation will be without former Senate Finance Chair Bob Rucho and former Rep. Charles Jeter, who was a member of the House GOP leadership as Republican Conference chair. Rucho did not run for re-election. Jeter stepped down last summer for personal reasons.

As recently as 2014, Mecklenburg County also claimed the House speaker, now U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis. And Charlotte Republican Rep. Ruth Samuelson was a member of House leadership.

In November, county voters ousted two GOP lawmakers, leaving only six Republicans in the 17-member delegation to the GOP-controlled General Assembly.

A top priority for Mecklenburg lawmakers will be fighting any further sales tax redistribution. Current redistributions are expected to cost the county and its municipalities an estimated $45 million in lost revenues this year.

“If you want to quantify the negative impact, you start there,” Ford said of the legislation. “And it only goes downhill.”

The chief sponsor of the redistribution legislation was GOP Sen. Harry Brown of Onslow County. During last month’s HB2 debate, he called the city of Charlotte “as disingenuous as anybody I’ve ever seen.”

Freshman Republican Rep. Andy Dulin, a former Charlotte City Council member, said he’s already tried to build bridges with lawmakers from both parties.

“That’s important to build those relationships,” he said. “The Republican side, in some cases rightfully so, has some very deep mistrust of what’s coming out of this community.”

Republican Rep. Bill Brawley of Matthews, who as senior House Finance, is poised to be the county’s most influential lawmaker, said he’ll do what he can to further the county’s interests.

“I will work very hard to protect my district and my home county,” he said, “realizing that I will get very little help from the Charlotte City Council and the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners.”

This story was originally published January 21, 2017 at 2:34 PM with the headline "With wounds fresh over HB2, Mecklenburg lawmakers face a wary legislature."