North Carolina’s Republican legislative leaders filed two new constitutional amendments Thursday, aiming to load up this fall’s ballot with proposals tailored to attract conservative voters to the polls.
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The two new amendments were filed in the Senate and are already scheduled for an unusual Monday meeting of the Senate Agriculture committee. Senate Bill 1081 would guarantee North Carolinians the constitutional right “to engage in farming and forestry.” Senate Bill 1082 would guarantee a constitutional “right to work,” banning any requirement to join a labor union or organization.
The office of Senate Leader Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) did not immediately respond to NC Newsline’s inquiry about the reasoning behind the proposed amendments. However, in statements posted on social media late Thursday, the bills’ respective sponsors claimed both rights are under threat.
A third constitutional amendment, Senate Bill 1080, was part of the budget deal announced earlier this week by Senate Leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Destin Hall. It would cap the state’s income tax at 3.5% beginning in 2027. That bill will be heard in Senate Finance on Tuesday.
In the meantime, state House Republicans are backing House Bill 1089, a constitutional amendment to impose limits on property tax increases. It will likely be heard on the House floor next week as well.
All four, should they pass, would be on the ballot Nov. 3.
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Meredith Poll director and political scientist David McLennan says it’s reminiscent of 2018, when Republicans were facing a blue wave in the midterm after Trump’s first election and responded by putting six constitutional amendments on the ballot.
“The cynic in me says this is just an attempt to ramp up Republican votes in the fall,” McLennan told NC Newsline. “The right to farm? I don’t know what that really means … there’s no big threat to it.”
McLennan noted that a Carolina Journal poll released Thursday shows Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Roy Cooper widening his lead over Republican nominee Michael Whatley to 11 points, while President Donald Trump’s approval rating in North Carolina slid to 41.5%, the lowest point the poll has recorded in Trump’s second term.
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He said the amendments might be a bid to overcome what could be low GOP turnout in November.
“It’s not really about establishing constitutional rights as much as it is to signal to their voters, ‘Hey, look, we could have some trouble this year, but these things might bring you out because you care about taxes and property taxes and farming,’” he said.
Another reason, McLennan said, might be to circumvent Stein’s veto. Constitutional amendments, once passed by a three-fifths vote of the state House and Senate, are not subject to the governor’s veto. If they’re approved by a majority of voters, they become law.
Even conservative amendments, however, don’t always guarantee a boost to Republicans’ odds. In 2018, voters passed four of the six constitutional amendments on the ballot: voter photo ID, a 7% income tax cap, victims’ rights and a constitutional right to hunt and fish. But Democrats still broke the Republican supermajority in the state House that year.
It’s also not clear whether the House will agree to vote on the Senate’s amendments or vice-versa. Each chamber has passed amendments in recent years that the other chamber has declined to consider.
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