Speaker Moore Talks Teacher Pay, Atlantic Coast Pipeline, and Voter ID on WBT Radio

Raleigh, N.C. – State House Speaker Tim Moore (R-Cleveland)  joined WBT 99.3 FM Charlotte’s News Talk radio on Thursday to discuss developments at the North Carolina General Assembly, including an investigation into Atlantic Coast Pipeline permitting, a pending voter ID appeal in federal court, and the Governor’s continued vetoes of legislation raising teacher pay. 

Speaker Moore said he was confident a pay raise would be delivered to North Carolina teachers in 2020 despite the Governor’s vetoes:

“I am extremely surprised that the Governor vetoed those pay raises, because we passed separate, standalone bills to give these hardworking teachers, university faculty, community college instructors, all of these folks a pay raise, and the Governor vetoed it,” Speaker Moore said. 

“The Governor could have signed that bill and come back and said ‘This is great but we need to do more.’” But he vetoed that pay raise.   So when teachers and other folks look around and want to know why they didn’t get a raise, they rightfully should be looking squarely at the Governor.  And I think finally the pressure is getting built up that he realizes he messed up.” 

Speaker Moore also answered a question from WBT about an investigation into state permitting for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline:

“There certainly are a lot of questions, and I think that folks need to try to answer those questions,” Speaker Moore said.

“There have been stories that have come out where I believe a lobbyist for Duke Energy stated an official with the Governor’s office had been untruthful concerning the conversations that they had.”

“I want to be fair and deliberate since there is an oversight committee that is looking at this and not presuppose anything.  I certainly think there have been enough questions raised that further inquiry is probably warranted and I think frankly the Governor’s folks would want to clear the air on this as well.” 

When asked to name a big priority for 2020, Speaker Moore pointed to the need to implement voter ID in North Carolina.

“We want to ensure that the voter ID law we passed, that was approved as a constitutional amendment by the people, actually gets put into effect,” Speaker Moore said.  “I can think of only a handful of examples where I’ve seen liberals on the court go so far to take away the rights of the voters in this state.” 

“Why in the world would we not want a commonsense provision that says when you go vote, you show a photo ID….Of course we passed legislation that is in the federal courts, and we are going to fight that all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court if we have to to make sure that the will of the people is upheld.”