News

Rep. Johnson applauds veto override

By Bill Moss, Published: September 12, 2019

State Rep. Jake Johnson applauded the House's override of Gov. Roy Cooper's budget veto and pushed back on charges that the vote was a sneak attack.

“I was extremely proud to cast my vote to override Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of the state budget," said Johnson, who was appointed to the House District 113 seat last month. "With this override, we are now one step closer to finally passing the state budget that North Carolinians and the citizens of District 113 deserve. Gov. Cooper vetoed this budget because it did not include Medicaid expansion, a priority of the far left that would ultimately bankrupt the state. I voted for this override because I do not think it is fair to hold funding for things like education, disaster relief, infrastructure, and teacher pay raises hostage because of a single issue.

"Some are saying that this vote was done in ‘secret’. That could not be further from the truth," he said. "This vote was properly placed on the house calendar, which I would encourage everyone to go take a look at on the North Carolina General Assembly website. It was confirmed by central nonpartisan staff that the Speaker never made any mention of votes being cancelled; meaning that members should have been present for session if they desired to cast a vote. It is not the Speaker's job to make sure someone shows up, that is the job of each individual member. It was also stated (on public record) by one of the Democrat members present on the floor that a portion of their delegation was absent because they were drawing maps. If this is true, then this is a blatant violation of the court’s orders for transparent and public redistricting. Of course you won’t see this mentioned by the liberal media outlets."