The Constitutional Amendments of 1970-71

by John L. Sanders, Director of the Institute of Government, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

By the end of the 1960's, North Carolina state government consisted of over 200 state administrative agencies. The State Constitution Study Commission concluded on the advice of witnesses who had tried it that no governor could effectively oversee an administrative apparatus of such disjointed complexity. The Commission's solution was an amendment, patterned after the Model State Constitution and the Constitutions of a few other states, requiring the General Assembly to reduce the number of administrative departments to not more than 25 by 1975, and to give the Governor authority to effect agency reorganizations and consolidations, subject to disapproval by action of either house of the legislature if the changes affected existing statutes.

The second separate Constitutional amendment ratified in 1970 supplemented the existing authority of the Governor to call extra sessions of the General Assembly with the advice of the Council of State. The amendment provides that on written request of three-fifths of all the members of each house, the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall convene an extra session of the General Assembly. Thus the legislative branch is now able to convene itself, notwithstanding the contrary wishes of the Governor.

The most significant of the separate amendments and in some ways the most important of the Constitutional changes ratified in 1970 was the finance amendment. The changes it effected are especially important in the financing of local government. The amendment became effective on July 1, 1973. Its principal provisions are as follows:

1. All forms of capitation or poll tax were prohibited.
2. The General Assembly was authorized to enact laws empowering counties, cities, and towns to establish special taxing districts less extensive in area than the entire county or city in order to finance the provision within those special districts of a higher level of governmental service than is available in the unit at large, either by supplementing existing services or providing services not otherwise available. That provision eliminated the previous necessity of creating a new, independent governmental unit to accomplish the same result.
3. For a century, the Constitution required that the levying of taxes and the borrowing of money by local government be approved by a vote of the people of the unit, unless the money was to be used for a "necessary expense." The court, not the General Assembly, was the final arbiter of what was a "necessary expense," and the State Supreme Court took a rather restrictive view of the embrace of that concept. The determination of what types of public expendi- tures should require voter approval and what types should be made by a governing board on its own authority was found by the General Assembly to be a legislative and not a judicial matter. In that conviction, the finance amendment provided that the General Assembly, acting on a uniform, statewide basis, should make the final determination of whether voter approval must be had for the levy of property taxes or the borrowing of money to finance particular activities of local government.
4. To facilitate governmental and private cooperative endeavors, the state and local governmental units were authorized by the amendment to enter into contracts with and appropriate money to private entities "for the accomplishment of public purposes only."
5. The various forms of public financial obligations were more precisely defined than in the previous Constitution, with the general effect of requiring voter approval only for the issuance of general obligation bonds and notes or for governmental guarantees of the debts of private persons or organizations. The General Assembly was directed to regulate by general law (permitting classified but not local acts) the contracting of debt by local governments.
6. The amendments retained the existing limitation that the state and local governments may not, without voter approval, borrow more than the equivalent of two-thirds of the amount by which the unit's indebtedness was reduced during the last fiscal period, except for purposes listed in the Constitution. This list was lengthened to include "emergencies immediately threatening public health or safety."
7. No change was made in the provisions with respect to the classification and exemption of property for purposes of property taxation. The limitation of .20 on the $100 valuation previously imposed on the general county property tax was omitted.

The fourth independent amendment also dealt with taxation. It struck out a schedule of specified minimum exemptions from the Constitutional provision on the state income tax, leaving those exemptions to be fixed by the General Assembly. This change enabled the legislature to provide for the filing of joint tax returns by husbands and wives and to adopt a "piggy- back" state income tax to be computed on the same basis as the federal income tax, thus relieving the taxpayer of two sets of computations. The amendment retains the maximum tax rate at ten per cent.

The final amendment ratified in 1970 assigned the benefits of property escheating to the State for want of an heir or other lawful claimant to a special fund, to be available to help needy North Carolina students attending public institutions of higher education in the State. Property escheating prior to July 1, 1971, continues to be held by The University of North Carolina.

The one amendment defeated by the voters in 1970 would have repealed the state Constitutional requirement that in order to register as a voter, one must be able to read and write the English language. That requirement was already ineffective by virtue of federal legislation and therefore the failure of repeal had no practical effect.

The General Assembly of 1971 submitted to the voters five state Constitutional amendments, all of which were ratified by the voters on November 7, 1972. Those amendments set the Constitutionally-specified voting age at 18 years, required the General Assembly to set maximum age limits for service as justices and judges of the state courts, authorized the General Assembly to prescribe procedures for the censure and removal of state judges and justices, added to the Constitution a statement of policy with regard to the conservation and the protection of natural resources, and limited the authority of the General Assembly to incorporate cities and towns within close proximity to existing municipalities.

The General Assembly at its 1973 session submitted and the voters in 1974 approved an amendment changing the title of the Solicitor to that of District Attorney. The 1974 legislative session submitted an amendment authorizing the issuance by state or county governments of revenue bonds to finance industrial facilities, which the voters rejected.

In 1975, the General Assembly submitted two amendments authorizing legislation to permit the issuance of revenue bonds (1) by state and local governments to finance health care facilities and (2) by counties to finance industrial facilities. Both received voter approval on March 23, 1976.

The Constitutional amendments of 1835 had permitted the voters to elect a Governor for two successive two-year terms. The Constitution of 1868 extended the Governor's term to four years but prohibited the Governor and Lieutenant Governor from serving successive four-year terms of the same office. The 1971 Constitution retained this limitation. An amendment to empower the voters to elect both the Governor and Lieutenant Governor to two successive terms of the same office was submitted by the 1977 General Assembly and ratified by the voters on November 8, 1977. Four other amendments were approved by the voters at the same time. They required that the State operate on a balanced budget at all times, extended to widowers (as well as to widows) the benefit of the homestead exemption, allowed a woman (as well as a man) to insure her life for the benefit of her spouse or children free from all claims of the insured's creditors or of her (or his) estate, and authorized municipalities owning or operating electric power facilities to do so jointly with other public or private power organizations and to issue electric system revenue bonds to finance such facilities.

Only one amendment was proposed by the General Assembly of 1979. Approved by the voters in 1980, it required that all justices and judges of the State courts be licensed lawyers as a condition of election or appointment to the bench.

The 1981 session of the General Assembly sent five amendments to the voters for decision on June 29, 1982. The two amendments ratified by the voters authorized the General Assembly (1) to provide for the recall of retired State Supreme Court Justices and Court of Appeals Judges to temporary duty on either court and (2) to empower the Supreme Court to review direct appeals from the Utilities Commission. The voters rejected amendments (1) extending the terms of all members of the General Assembly from two to four years; (2) authorizing the General Assembly to empower public agencies to develop new and existing seaports and airports, and to finance and refinance seaport, airport, and related commercial and industrial facilities for public and private parties; and (3) authorizing the General Assembly to empower a State agency to issue bonds to finance facilities for private institutions of higher education.

At its 1982 session, the General Assembly submitted two amendments. On November 2, 1982, the electorate ratified an amendment shifting the beginning of legislative terms from the date of election to January 1 next after the election, and rejected an amendment permitting the issuance of tax-increment bonds without voter approval.

On May 8, 1984, the voters ratified an amendment submitted by the General Assembly of 1983 to authorize the General Assembly to create an agency to issue revenue bonds to finance agricultural facilities. And on November 6, 1984, the voters approved an amendment requiring that the Attorney General and all District Attorneys be licensed lawyers as a condition of election or appointment.

An amendment to shift the elections for state legislative, executive, and judicial officers and for county officers from even-numbered to odd-numbered years (beginning in 1989 for legislators and 1993 for Governors and other state executives) was submitted by the General Assembly of 1985 to the voters, who rejected it on May 6, 1986. An amendment to revert to the pre-1977 Constitutional policy that barred the Governor and Lieutenant Governor from election to two successive terms of the same office was proposed by the 1985 legislative session for a popular vote on November 4, 1986, but in the meantime the 1986 adjourned session repealed the act proposing the amendment.

In mid-1986, the General Assembly at its adjourned session voted to send to the voters three Constitutional amendments, all three of which were approved on November 4, 1986. They (1) authorized legislation enabling state and local governments to develop seaports and airports and to participate jointly with other public agencies and with private parties and issue revenue bonds for that purpose; (2) authorized the State to issue tax-exempt revenue bonds to finance or refinance private college facilities; and (3) provided that when a vacancy occurs among the eight elected state executive officers (not including the Governor and Lieutenant Governor) or the elected judges and justices more than 60 days (it had been 30 days) before a general election, the vacancy must be filled at that election.

Neither the General Assembly of 1987-88 nor the General Assembly of 1989 submitted a Constitutional amendment to the voters.