While Joe Coletti crunches the numbers, I’ll throw out a few key highlights of the 220-page plan the governor plopped on legislators’ desks as they returned to work today.
Gov. Mike Easley wants this year’s General Fund appropriation to jump nearly 10 percent. That’s an extra $1.654 billion. About half of that increase ($864 million) is geared toward education programs.
Easley also supports an 85-cent increase in the state’s minimum wage — an idea that would take effect January 1.
As for tax relief, he supports capping (but not rolling back) the gas tax, and he supports lowering the state sales tax by a quarter point October 1.
As I said, Joe is taking a much closer look at these numbers. Stay tuned!
