The North Carolina legislature gathered power in the early 1970s
Scott watched the legislative branch of North Carolina's government grow during his tenure as governor, he recalls. He did not try to push back as legislators gathered more powers for themselves and exerted more and more influence, but neither does he support this expansion.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Robert W. (Bob) Scott, February 11, 1998. Interview C-0336-2. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
- JACK FLEER:
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As an executive official, as the chief executive official of the state,
did you conclude your relationship with the legislature believing that
the legislature was too powerful?
- ROBERT W. (BOB) SCOTT:
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No, I wouldn't say that I felt they were too powerful,
although I was beginning to get a sense—and the
legislature was moving that way—that they were
exercising more and more power than they had historically. They were
acting more and more like the Congress of the United States, and
distancing themselves from the executive branch.
They were developing their own staff, physical research, and the
legislative committee, the legislative structure in their staffing down
there, was one of the fastest areas of state government growth, the
legislative staff. They were putting more and more of their own research
capabilities into place, the legislative research commission, and the
physical staff. They didn't take the word of the executive
branch anymore with respect to budgets and all that.
So I could sense that they were moving that direction, and it was
inevitable. The legislative sessions were getting longer and longer,
they were more prone to come back for certain things, and I just felt
like they were moving in that direction. I didn't
particularly like it, but I also accepted it.
- JACK FLEER:
-
Did you have any thought, during your service as governor, to try to
improve the power of the governor with either the veto power or the
right of succession?
- ROBERT W. (BOB) SCOTT:
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Well, I thought about it, but I realized it was not doable, so I
didn't extend any capital on that. In fact, I was surprised
when Governor Hunt got it done, because I just felt like the
legislature's not going to give up that much power to the
governor. But I'm glad that the legislature would, except the
state itself is changing, people coming in from other states, you know,
and we were coming more and more out of isolation, if you will.
I've often said, tongue in cheek, that one of the biggest
mistakes in the whole scheme of government in the United States was when
they started having the National Legislative Conference. The legislators
would go, and they'd find out what
other states are doing, and come back and want to do it here, and pick
up an idea or two. I say we should never have let them get together.
- JACK FLEER:
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But on the governorship, they would have found that they were the
exception. I mean on the veto, excuse me.
- ROBERT W. (BOB) SCOTT:
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That's right. When I addressed the legislature at the end of
my term, we had a budget surplus, and I recommended that we give a small
tax reduction, and something else, I've forgotten, but the
legislative leadership at that time said, No, sir. But I was going to be
out of office, I wasn't going to be there to defend it. You
see, the outgoing governor proposes the budget, and I had that in there.
I wasn't in office to defend that concept, so
wasn't any point in getting exercised about it.