NC Dems: There are too many AND too few bills (05-14-2025--Hour1)

[00:00:04] What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to 3 on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to thepetekalendershow.com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button, get every episode for free, write to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support.

[00:00:29] So yesterday, we had A.P. Dillon on from the North State Journal and she's the publisher of her newsletter, More to the Story. And we mentioned it that the Democrats up in Raleigh were doing a press conference or did a press conference yesterday. And it was a mock funeral that they did. I mean, that's what they called it.

[00:00:53] They called it some sort of a funeral for all the dead bills. Like pieces of legislation, not people named William, but all the dead legislation that languishes now in eternity in committee. They were filed. They never got committee hearings. They never got discussions. They never got votes. Woe is the Democrats.

[00:01:19] Democrats. Democratic state lawmakers branded it a bill funeral. This is a piece at W.R.A.L. by Laura Leslie. I believe she is their chief capital correspondent or something like that. She's been there for. Gosh, probably 20 years. But the eulogy gave way to a freewheeling complaint session. There's another word for a complaint session.

[00:01:49] Yeah, I'm not going to say it, but you know what that word is. OK, but a freewheeling complaint session for leaders in the legislative minority who lamented waning bipartisanship in the General Assembly. All right. This is this is always funny to me, like you're going to run hundreds of bills.

[00:02:10] In the legislature when you are in the minority and you don't have any sense of what the majority is going to be with you on. So you're going to run all these bills. And none of them are going to go anywhere and you're going to blame it on a lack of bipartisanship.

[00:02:30] Could it be? And I'm just spitballing here. I've never been an elected official, but I'm just going to throw this out there as a as a potential reason is that they don't agree with your policies. I feel like that might be the reason they disagree with your proposal. It's not a matter of bipartisanship. It's that you don't have the votes and you either don't know how to count votes or maybe you just don't know how to count.

[00:02:58] But I suspect I'm going to be charitable. You don't know how to count the votes, because if you can count votes ahead of time, then why bother submitting the bill? Because if you know there are not votes for your particular bill, then why even bother? Oh, unless, of course, you want to hold a news conference at the end of the bill filing period and lament how the Republicans won't hear hundreds of our bills,

[00:03:24] even though hundreds of your bills were garbage and they did not and they did not have majority support. Right. It's not a matter of them not hearing you. It's a matter of them disagreeing with you. Also going to throw this out there, too. This is just another idea I'm having, but time.

[00:03:45] Is limited. We actually mark this with like things called seconds and minutes and hours and days and weeks and months and years and all of that. And these are finite periods of time. And so when you load the agenda with a thousand bills, you don't have the time to actually hear every single bill.

[00:04:11] You can't do debates on every single bill that gets filed because anybody can file a bill. And people file really stupid ones. And when Republicans file stupid ones, they make the news. Democrats file a ton of stupid ones, too. They never make the news. The memorial, quote unquote, was a news conference in reality.

[00:04:33] Was for the 707 proposals filed by Democrats this year that never received a single committee hearing before the legislative deadline to pass their chamber of origin. So this is you've heard me talk about crossover. This is it's not music related, although maybe sometimes if it's like state song or something.

[00:04:55] But no crossover means bills filed in the House have to get through committees, through the House vote and sent over, crossed over to the Senate. And the Senate filed bills have to do the same. They have to cross over by the deadline. And that's the crossover deadline. And that already passed. And so if it doesn't cross over, then the bill is basically dead. However, however, there is another way that you can still get stuff done if you have the votes. Once again, there's that thing having the votes, right?

[00:05:25] It's called well, they call it gut and amend. That's what the legislators and the media call it. Gut and amend. I prefer gut and stuff because it sounds better. So you take a bill that's already crossed over. You got it like you rip out all of the all of the language of the bill that passed. And you stuff it full of another bill completely unrelated, maybe. And then it has to get debated again and agreed upon again and voted on again and all that.

[00:05:53] So there is a way to do that. Very difficult if you were in the minority, because once again, you don't have the votes to pull a gut and stuff. All right. So. On the numbers, I was informed by a person who works up at the legislature that the numbers are actually thus. Yes. One thousand eleven House bills were filed. Two hundred sixty four were passed by the House.

[00:06:23] There are three hundred two House bills still sitting in the House Rules Committee. About sixty six of those bills are GOP bills. OK, so it definitely it definitely seems like Democrats filed a metric buttload of bills that had no chance of going anywhere. And I'm not one to ascribe motive, but it is pretty convenient.

[00:06:49] Now they have a press conference of a funeral for all their dead bills. So the chambers passed hundreds of GOP backed bills before the crossover deadline. Both chambers. Democrats introduced real solutions, according to Senator Lisa Grafstein, a Democrat from Wake County. She of the really weird colored hair.

[00:07:15] She says they they they introduced real solutions for fixing what ails us in state government, hiring critical staff, cutting red tape, investing in the infrastructure behind state services. But Republicans actually didn't want to fix it. Or, as I suggested earlier, it's possible they disagreed with your proposals and there's not enough time to hear them all and you don't have the votes to pass them. So why waste everybody's time?

[00:07:45] Five months into the session, state lawmakers have only sent one bill so far to Democrat Governor Josh Stein. That was the disaster relief bill, which was signed into law in March. Now, they've also the legislators have also been working on the budget and they do a two year budget. It's a very big budget. It's like twenty five billion dollars or whatever it is. It's large or no, it may be over 30 now. Yeah, I think it's over 30 billion. So that's the primary focus of the long session.

[00:08:12] They do a whole bunch of work and then, you know, crossover deadline. They're not done. They're going to be going for another couple of months here. Senate Democratic leader Sidney Batch called the session one of the most unproductive, ineffective legislatures in modern history, which is surprising because. I would think is the minority party that disagrees with the majority party. You wouldn't want them to do a lot of stuff, right?

[00:08:38] The fewer bills they actually pass, I would assume the happier you would be. Why would you be demanding that they do? Oh, you're demanding they do stuff you want them to do. Well, there's a there's a way to go about getting that stuff done. Is for you to win. Batch said that the Senate has taken more bills on social issues this year than ever before. See, so it's not enough while also being too much. Thank you, Sidney Batch, for that clarity.

[00:09:07] She also represents Wake County. And too many bills and not enough bills. All right. So spring is here, a time of renewal and celebrations. You got graduations, weddings, anniversaries and the special days for mom and dad. Your family's making memories that are going to last a lifetime. But let me ask you, are all of those treasured moments from days gone by? Are they hidden away on old VCR tapes, eight millimeter films, photos, slides? Are they preserved?

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[00:10:05] Create a video preserving family memories since 1997. Located in Mint Hill, just off 485. Mail orders are accepted too. Get all the details at createavideo.com. Got a message here. It's a peat mail from Stan who says, On this hump day, I know we're only halfway through the work week, but this situation couldn't feel more right, and I feel a good one coming on. Does this ever happen to you, Pete? Enjoy the show. No, I,

[00:10:35] no, you can't play it any other time except for the Friday as I'm, you know, rolling out of here. And honestly, it does make a little bit more sense like to close out a, a three to six, you know, cause like the six o'clock going into right up at six o'clock, you know, five 45 timeframe. Most people getting off of work at that time. Yeah. But, uh, no, it's, I'm all, my, my calendar is all out of whack,

[00:11:04] which is weird given my last name, even though it's not the same spelling, but, uh, it's all out of whack because I was off on Monday. And so I keep feeling like today is Tuesday, you know? So anyway, talking about some Raleigh action, um, or inaction, which is what Democrats want, but don't want all at the same time. Um, but there is a bill that actually went through the Senate 47 to zero, a bipartisan bill. The thing that Democrats said doesn't happen actually happens.

[00:11:32] It actually happens quite regularly. Um, this bill was, uh, approved in the Senate 47 to zero. The bill moving through the North Carolina general assembly could limit the power of homeowners associations across the state or HOAs, or as I call them, HOAs. Senate bill three 78 past 47 to zero. Now heads over to the house. If approved, the bill would place a cap on HOA fines.

[00:12:02] So if you're in violation for something and the HOA finds you for it first, that usually they give you, well, they should give you the opportunity to correct the issue. Right. And then if you don't correct it, then you get brought into a hearing and the HOA board holds a hearing and then they make a ruling if you're in violation and then they start assessing fines and people are like, I'm not going to do that. Or maybe it's an absentee landlord or something.

[00:12:32] And so they don't show up for the hearing. Maybe it's a tenant that is in violation or something. And it starts racking up fines. And this would put a cap on the fines because people could end up owing thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars to the HOA. And then they could put a lien on the property. So if you try to sell the house, then you would have to pay off the fines first.

[00:12:59] And so you could conceive of a situation where somebody has been racking up fines for years and years, and then they go to sell and they can't sell the house for more than the fines. It would also prevent foreclosures. It would ban foreclosures over unpaid HOA fines. So the HOA could not basically seize your property.

[00:13:28] Now, I like the idea, the concept behind this stuff, because I imagine you could have some completely out of control HOA boards. I've never had, well, let's put a pin in that one. I've never had a resident controlled HOA board that behaved in this kind of a way. So I don't know what that process would look like. The only thing that I ever got in trouble for,

[00:13:56] I've lived in two HOAs, one currently, one previously, and the previous one, like they said, you got weeds in your yard. And so I went out and pulled weeds in my front yard. And that was it. Current HOA, we got a warning because my garbage cans were on the side of the house and they were visible from the street. And that is a no, no. You're not allowed to have,

[00:14:25] we are not allowed to produce garbage. We get the cans, we pay for service and all of that, like the garbage collection. However, you're not allowed to let anybody know that you actually generate trash in your house. So you have to screen the garbage cans from view. They can't be visible from your neighbor's house. They can't be visible from the street. So basically, you got to put them in like a garbage can corral. And there are specifications

[00:14:55] for what that is supposed to look like. Or you could put them in a shed. Ha ha, no, you can't put them in the shed because sheds are banned too. So you got to put them in your garage. And that's where my garbage cans live. They live in the garage. Which also requires us to put the little wall plug-ins to keep it fragrant in the garage because otherwise, whoo, in the summertime, yeah, it would get pretty bad. At any rate, I can see how these, the fines and the foreclosures,

[00:15:23] I can see why, or how rather, that would, that would be abused by out-of-control HOA boards. However, there's another side to this, which is how do you get people to comply with things like when they are in gross violation? Like somebody has piled up a whole bunch of like dilapidated vehicles in the front yard. And that just happens to be next door to you. Right? They're running a junkyard basically in their front yard. And that's against the rules.

[00:15:52] So they would start getting fines. But now you can never actually force them to correct the behavior. Right? So there's the other side of this issue. It also, this legislation would also ban HOAs from fining people who run home businesses like music lessons or tutoring services, which I feel like that's appropriate. Like, you should not be, you should not be prevented from offering piano lessons in your house.

[00:16:22] Like, that's, as long as it's not at like three in the morning and can be heard by all your neighbors, like, that's, you can't be banning that kind of stuff. However, there are parts of this bill I think that don't go far enough. All right, if you're listening to this show, you know I try to keep up with all sorts of current events. And I know you do too. And you've probably heard me say, get your news from multiple sources. Why? Well, because it's how you detect media bias,

[00:16:51] which is why I've been so impressed with Ground News. It's an app and it's a website and it combines news from around the world in one place so you can compare coverage and verify information. You can check it out at check.ground.news slash Pete. I put the link in the podcast description too. I started using Ground News a few months ago and more recently chose to work with them as an affiliate because it lets me see clearly how stories get covered and by whom. The Blind Spot feature

[00:17:21] shows you which stories get ignored by the left and the right. See for yourself. Check.ground.news slash Pete. Subscribe through that link and you'll get 15% off any subscription. I use the Vantage plan to get unlimited access to every feature. Your subscription then not only helps my podcast but it also supports Ground News as they make the media landscape more transparent. Talking about out of control HOAs HOAs

[00:17:49] legislation moving through the General Assembly right now would seek to rein them in and their abuses from banning foreclosures over unpaid fines placing a cap on those fines banning HOAs from fining people who run home businesses like music lessons or tutoring services and according to Charles Williams with the North Carolina Citizens for HOA Reform the state still has a long way to go but he says this is a step

[00:18:19] in the right direction. He said quote there is not a single agency in this state that has oversight of the HOA industry so if you have a problem there's really no place as a homeowner for you to go. We have some of the weakest HOA laws in the country and anybody who has done battle with an HOA in North Carolina knows this. There is nowhere to go. Let me get to Greg real quick here. Hello Greg

[00:18:48] welcome to the program. Hey I've got a question I'm in real estate and if I manage property you have to have a real estate license be a broker in charge. There's no law that requires does this change the law that requires HOA management company to have a broker in charge so that there's some recourse that you could go to the North Carolina real estate commission if you have a problem? I don't know. I don't know

[00:19:16] if that is in this bill. I can go check. I don't remember seeing it. Yeah I mean it's like 12 pages long I read it a couple days back. I don't recall seeing anything about that but that's not to say that it wasn't in there or it doesn't and you're saying that this does not exist at the moment. No anybody off the street could just start an HOA management company and if you can talk at a HOA management board

[00:19:45] to hire you Right. And then that's why you get so many letters because they make money by each letter. So that has not been my experience. We're actually our HOA is now abandoning it because it's too expensive. Right. It's too expensive to the homeowners that are paying for the postage. It's a separate line item in the budget and the more letters that they send and especially in a neighborhood as big as mine I don't know do you live

[00:20:14] in an HOA now? No. And the view is much better. Right. No I understand that but part of the problem in North Carolina is that a lot of builders believe that they have to do HOAs as part of a planned community act provision in existing law and they don't have to but they do it so they can maintain total control during the build and that is because when you're building a neighborhood the builder is the HOA. Yeah I work

[00:20:44] for a builder. Yeah and that to me is a huge problem. That's been my experience that that is a huge problem because the builder then can make mistakes do shoddy work and then offload the costs of repairing to the homeowners when they should have been the ones held accountable but because it's them they're not going to hold themselves accountable unless they choose to. My boss made a a new neighborhood and she bought

[00:21:13] the first lot and she cut it out of the neighborhood so it wouldn't be in the HOA. Wow. And she ran the HOA. So unbelievable. No actually very believable in this state very believable. Yeah. Greg I appreciate the call I'll take a look and see about the real estate say license I'll take a look next up is Gary hello Gary Hello Yo what's up Well on dealing with HOAs

[00:21:43] I found something that shut them up and made them leave me alone. I found out that the HOA whenever it was established did not complete all of its paperwork all those years ago and so the state threatened to shut down the HOA and so that's something that if people have problems with HOAs they might want to check into.

[00:22:13] I'm assuming you're talking about the declaration Yes Yeah Yeah Well no the HOA itself whenever it filed with the state to be an entity they did not complete all the paperwork So that was that the builder or was that when homeowners took over When homeowners took over Okay so right so the builder had the paperwork and set it all up and then the paperwork for the turning over to the resident

[00:22:42] controlled HOA board that's where they messed up Right Yeah So not the declaration gotcha Okay Well that's a good lead if you're having problems yeah take a look at the original paperwork So this to me is why I say that this bill and thanks for the call Gary I appreciate it It's a good tip but yeah you gotta have all the documentation you gotta if you're in an HOA neighborhood you've got to have all of the documentation saved onto a personal file or cloud whatever

[00:23:11] but you gotta you gotta know it all all the original documents because things get said in the neighborhood and among residents and by the board and things just become sort of like accepted as the truth and then you find out years later no that's not true oh there actually isn't a rule that governs this thing that everybody thought there was a rule saying you couldn't do this sort of thing and

[00:23:40] turns out there isn't a rule because it's usually it's very hard to change what's called the CCRs the codes covenants and restrictions right that you you usually need like two thirds of the neighbors to vote for some sort of a major change to your CCRs and so it's very difficult to do so a lot of boards will try to get around it and as you might imagine if the board is still controlled by the builder in a new neighborhood

[00:24:10] still under construction and they're like we'll turn it over when 70% or 80% of the units are sold and then they'll start turning it over but they don't have to set it at 70% they can set it at 100% and that neighborhood could take a decade to build and so residents never get control over that board and that board is basically controlled it is controlled by the builder and then the builder can change the rules

[00:24:39] however it chooses and they're only required to have one meeting a year for their budget quote ratification of the board by the board homeowners don't get a vote on it but they have to have a meeting so they show you here's the here's the spending and here's a little secret I learned they keep the HOA assessment levels the dues they keep them low while they're selling their units and then when they're gone you find out you don't have any money because they haven't

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[00:26:37] good good I just tuned in and called the fact that there's some legislation moving through North Carolina but I wanted to give you a little perspective on South Carolina right across the border I live in a neighborhood where the developer still controls the HOA because he's still building out right and he has not followed his own bylaws he went two or three years without sending out any financial statements to

[00:27:06] the residents and so we began to complain of course we got a neighborhood petition up for him to follow his own bylaws long story short there's not a lot of recourse at the state level we went all the way to the attorney general's office and he falls under developer non-profit act in south carolina which simply says you have to act on fiduciary

[00:27:36] duty if you run a non-profit and you have potential for abuse and we're suffering it right now we do have a lawsuit against this developer

[00:28:07] can't go into a lot of detail about that but it's not an easy route Pete it is not easy no and that's the other thing too is the litigation that you have to pursue you are just residents you just have client in that lawyer customer relationship right you have to raise the money yourself I'm assuming

[00:28:36] you're exactly right we banded together we got captains in the neighborhood so to speak door to door we collected money it's just a lot of work and even today it's moving through the system they challenged us they said each individual has to sue them directly our lawyers argued that the last I saw we're getting approved to be that right thank goodness you know because then we'd really be on

[00:29:06] the ropes if we each had to sue directly but yeah anyway just wanted to share that and you know I I just feel like I'll give you this too so the legislature said okay well we realize there's a lot of problems with HOAs and we're going to create a hotline with the consumer affairs department in South Carolina for people to register complaints with their HOAs and then we'll use that to inform us on future legislation which

[00:29:36] that was five years ago they've had tons of issues down with the legislature but it's unfortunate hopefully they'll learn something from what may be happening in North Carolina I don't yeah and here's the other thing when you're dealing with a legislature that is packed with people who have to run for election they

[00:30:16] there's bankers and mortgage companies and real estate agents and builders and construction and so you weigh all that in and people are like well we don't want to handcuff development we're very pro development same here but you're right that's what you're up against yeah good luck to you Mark I know the feeling Ralph was calling I think Ralph I saw on the board that he had

[00:30:45] a comment about the Palisades that's sort of the poster child in Charlotte for this kind of these kinds of

[00:31:47] this can be cataclysmic bankruptcy territory for HOAs all right that'll do it for this episode thank you so much for listening I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast so if you'd like please support them too and tell them you heard it