The Senate held it?s second reading vote today on it?s $21.3 Billion budget proposal. The budget is the most important policy document the legislature will pass and this one gets nearly every policy wrong. It uses the same failed policies we?ve seen in past budgets. It commits government resources in the wrong places, with the wrong assumptions and no evaluation of the results. Nothing is better because of this budget.
Here is the vote count from today?s Senate vote:
Yes: 33 No: 16 Exc. Absent: 1
Voting yes: Albertson (D- Duplin); Atwater (D- Chatham); Basnight (D- Dare); Berger (D- Franklin); Bingham (R- Davidson); Boseman (D- New Hanover); Clodfelter (D- Mecklenburg); Cowell (D- Wake); Dalton (D- Rutherford); Dannelly; Dorsett; Foriest; Garrou; Goss; Graham; Hagan; Hartsell; Hoyle; Jones; Kerr; Kinnaird; Malone; McKissick (D- Durham); Nesbitt (D- Buncombe); Purcell (D- Scotland); Queen (D- Haywood); Rand (D- Cumberland); Shaw (D- Cumberland); Snow (D- Cherokee); Soles; Stevens (D-Columbus); Swindell (D- Nash); Weinstein (D- Robeson).
Voting no: Allran (R- Catawba); Apodaca (R- Henderson); Berger (R- Rockingham); Blake (R- Moore); Brock (R- Davie); Brown (R- Onslow); Brunstetter (R- Forsyth); East (R- Surry); Forrester (R- Gaston); Goodall (R- Union); Hunt (R- Wake); Jacumin (R- Burke); Preston (R- Carteret); Rucho (R- Mecklenburg); Smith (R- Johnston); Tillman (R- Randolph)
Exc. Absence: Senator(s): Jenkins (D- Edgecombe)
Third reading vote is tomorrow. If it passes, a conference committee of House and Senate members who voted yes on their respective budgets will be assigned and they will work out the differences in the two proposals for a final vote in both chambers. That conference report budget will then go to the governor for his signature. Unless he vetoes it, it will then become law.
