The budget is the big news today. Copies of the conference report (two volumes, close to 500 pages)  were delivered to legislators’ offices this morning about 10:30. Five-and-a-half hours later debate, discussion, and a vote kick off as both bodies convene session at 3:00 p.m. There’s not much time for a full study and review.

Senate leaders take a little over an hour to explain and crow about what a good job they did. The Senate vote was 27-17.

The House has barely gotten started with the committee and subcommittee chairs patting themselves on the back and congratulating themselves and each other for a good hour-and-a-half.

The budget spends a little over $19 billion (but when you add in the federal stimulus money, it brings the total spending to $20.4 billion)  and raises $1.4 billion in revenue (some in transfers from other sources and most in new taxes). There’s a new tax on income tax for $60,000 earners and up, a 20 percent increase in the sales tax (up a full cent), 10-cent-a-pack increase in cigarette tax (with at least $50 million of the revenue designated for the University Cancer Center), a new tax on digital clickthroughs and ringtones. There are increased taxes on beer, wine, and liquor. (The budget also reduces the amount municipalities get to keep). 

In a nod to the Senate’s push for tax reform, the Finance Committees of both the House and Senate are authorized during the interim “to study and recommend legislation to reform North Carolina’s sales and income tax structure in order to broaden the tax base and lower the State’s tax rates.” We’ll see.

Here are a few items that I don’t like:

  • New restrooms for the elephant exhibit:  $300,000
  • Picnic Shelter at Aycock birthplace:  $86,100
  • Floating dock:  $130,000
  • Drop Out Prevention Grants:  $13 million
  • Coastal Sounds Wind Energy Study;  $300,000
  • The entire tax package and the growth of government.
  • They claim to eliminate 2,044 state positions, but 1,318 are unfilled anyway.
  • They circumvent a portion of the corporate income tax that is supposed to go into a public school building fund to assist local governments with school construction and divert it to the General Fund.  This pushes a shortage on local government, pushing them to increase property taxes after they have already set their budgets.

Here are a few items I like:

  • One-year moratorium on the ABC program that awards schools that meet certain performance standards. They’ll study and look at ways to restructure accoubtabiity. I hope they’ll look at merit pay for teachers.
  • Eliminating some of the competency testing program.
  • Removing barriers to lateral entry into teaching.
  • Requirement for local boards to inform the public about school report cards and ensure they “receive wide distribution to the local press or otherwise.” More transparency is always better.

We’ll continue  to comb through the budget in coming days and weeks and will continue to comment.  These are a few quick observations.