In the final minutes of today’s Senate Appropriations Committee meeting, Sen Bob Rucho, R- Mecklenberg, asked what the “reserve for tax adjustments” line is for. This is the $1.1 billion in revenue the Senate depends on to make its budget balance, though budget writers fail to indicate the source of the funds.
Will it be cigarette taxes or alcohol taxes as the governor proposed? Or will they tax services as rumored earlier in the week?
The Finance Committee will recommend the taxing package, but Appropriations leaders said that would not take place until “at least next week.”
So the senators will be voting on a budget that does not indicate where the largest part of the revenue will come from.
The budget bill, with a few added amendments, received a favorable report from the committee and will go the floor for a vote of the full Senate.
I’m just not sure what they are voting on since the tax package is missing.
If they had adopted the JLF Back to Basics budget that limits spending to $18.8 billion, they wouldn’t need the extra revenue that they can’t seem to find.
