Civitas Action Unveils 2016 State Legislative Rankings | Eastern NC Now

    Publisher's note: This post, by Demi Dowdy, was originally published in the Recent Articles section of Civitas's online edition.

Average Scores Higher Than Last Two Sessions

    RALEIGH     Civitas Action has released its annual Conservative Effectiveness Rankings of North Carolina state lawmakers for 2016.

    "We had a relatively short list of grade-worthy bills this session, which helped enable several perfect scores," said Civitas Action President Francis De Luca. "We are encouraged to see the first perfect scores in our rankings in the last few years."

    The legislative vote on HB 2 heads the list of graded bills, which also includes votes on important issues such as corporate welfare, tax rates and the state budget.

    "This year there were far fewer liberal bills receiving votes and knocking down scores. That is a sign of progress," added De Luca.

    The Civitas Action "Conservative Effectiveness Rankings" is the only rating system in North Carolina that allows the citizens of North Carolina to gauge how their state legislator actually votes on important bills, and offers a score to better determine the member's overall ideological stance on the pivotal issues. This year, however, the rankings will see a subtle change: "Letter grades will no longer be assigned as we believe those grades distracted from the ability to gauge legislators' effectiveness based on relative numeric scores," according to De Luca.

    Civitas Action has been producing its annual legislative ranking since the 2008 legislative session. Rankings for the 2011 thru 2015 sessions are now available on the site, with prior years to be added in the coming weeks.

    To see the Conservative Effectiveness Rankings, click here.