The N.C. Chamber released its annual legislative scorecard, which rates General Assembly members on their votes in support or opposition of bills the group deems important to North Carolina’s business community. The business promotion group rewarded votes by Republicans compared with positions taken by Democrats.
Senate leader Phil Berger got a 100% score on the Chamber’s list; Senate Democratic Leader Dan Blue got a 64%. In the House, Speaker Tim Moore got 93%; Democratic Leader Robert Reives got 47%.
Only two Democratic senators — Mike Woodard of Durham County and Kandie Smith of Pitt County — got the Chamber’s “jobs champion” label for voting in line with the group’s preferences at least 80% of the time.
In the House, the Democratic “jobs champions” were Mecklenburg County Reps. Carla Cunningham and Nasif Majeed, Guilford County’s Cecil Brockman, and Scotland County’s Garland Pierce.
Low scorers in the two chambers were both Democrats — Durham Sen. Natalie Murdock (30%) and Guilford County Rep. Pricey Harrison (15%).
Chamber officials based the scoring on the votes cast for or against 13 bills and one budget amendment.
By counting only votes, the Chamber doesn’t measure members for budget decisions and bills that never made it to the floor. For example, the group identifies as a concern support for “appropriate pre-K and child care funding structures, policy reforms, and innovations that address the growing workforce demands from the business community.”
Throughout 2023 and 2024, legislators have considered how to subsidize child care centers as federal COVID aid for them expires. The Chamber has advocated for state aid, but nothing has been approved. The Senate has been the main roadblock after the House’s fiscal 2024-25 budget proposal included $135 million in child care stabilization funding; House Bill 10, the compromise “mini budget” likely to become law in November after a veto override, includes $0 for the purpose.
In the report, Chamber President Gary Salamido acknowledged that the group hasn’t gotten what it wants from legislators on child care. “There were efforts which began to address the challenge this biennium and we will continue to elevate the issue and advocate for long-term solutions in the upcoming sessions,” he said.
Rep. Keith Kidwell, R-Currituck got an 88% score and the “jobs champion” label despite having introduced two bills, House Bills 32 and 393, that the Chamber considers “anti-business.” HB 32 requires businesses to credit customers if they don’t show up for scheduled service appointments, and HB 393 is an appliance lemon law. Neither moved, and the Chamber claims credit for having helped see to that.
Because there was never a vote, those bills didn’t count against Kidwell.
Moore’s 93% vote wasn’t 100% because the speaker and almost the entire House got marked down for having voted for House Bill 264. The bill would bar pharmacy benefit managers like CVS Caremark from using “spread pricing” to cream off a share of prescription drug profits from pharmacies and pharmaceutical manufacturers.
CVS lobbied hard against HB 246, which never got a hearing in the Senate.
The only three House members to get a 100% score from the Chamber for their work in 2023-24 — Pitt County’s Tim Reeder, Duplin County’s Jimmy Dixon and Richmond County’s Ben Moss — didn’t vote for HB 246. They had excused absences the day it came to the floor.
Partisan issues that the Chamber did score included bills that loosened wetlands and stormwater restrictions. The Chamber also scored the vote for House Bill 346, which loosened high-level business restrictions on Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina. This attracted Council of State opposition and split both House caucuses, but nonetheless had majority support within each party and the backing of Gov. Roy Cooper.
