We all know the new $21 billion state budget is the product of many hours of open debate among the 120 members of the N.C. House and 50 members of the N.C. Senate.

Okay, you can stop laughing now.

“Under the Dome” helps us peek at the real process, with a nugget about the insertion of $500,000 in the budget for a proposed Museum of the Marine. Neither the House nor the Senate had originally approved the money. And there’s some dispute about who ultimately decided to include the funding. But one representative claims credit. (See “Tucker’s abracadabra.”) 

See previous installments of the “How it’s really done” series here and here