Session Start (NC Insider)
Legislators will begin what they hope will be a short legislative short session on Wednesday, saying they are still on track to produce a state budget before the start of the new fiscal year. The legislature was set to convene amid budget talks, news conferences and a protest of federal health care legislation. Senate budget writers continued meeting behind closed doors Tuesday to try to quickly hammer out the chamber’s budget plan. Senate leader Marc Basnight, D-Dare, and the chamber’s chief budget writer, Linda Garrou, D-Forsyth, laid out a key difference with Gov. Beverly Perdue, saying their spending plan won’t contain pay increases for teachers or repay state employees for last year’s furlough. Basnight said it was difficult to justify raises for any state employees while private sector workers still face layoffs and furloughs. “You cannot give raises in that climate,” he said. Garrou said by eliminating pay raises and a furlough payback that legislators could largely restore an additional flexibility cut for local schools included in Perdue’s budget plan. Basnight did say that he believed the Senate plan would include $50 million to $100 million for Perdue initiatives, including tax credits, aimed at jump-starting small business hiring. Legislators were expected to be greeted by protesters who planned to “surround the Legislative Building” while calling for state lawmakers to support legislation aimed at blocking national health care reform. The “Take Back Our State Rally” was being organized by NCFreedom and various tea party groups. Basnight said he is not in favor of taking up any legislation to try to undo the federal health care law.
Session By the Numbers
A few numbers to consider as the General Assembly begins this year’s legislative short session:
• 1.5 billion: The amount, in dollars, of federal stimulus money that legislators expect to use to help balance the 2010-11 fiscal year budget.
• 499 million: The amount of that total, in dollars, that Congress has yet to approve.
• 2,767: The number of House and Senate bills filed since the two-year session began in January 2009.
• 13: Days remaining before all bills containing appropriations must be filed.
• 7.22, the cost, in dollars, of a sandwich, chips and drink from the legislative cafeteria.
• 6: Incumbent legislators, including a House member who lost a bid for a Senate seat, who return to Raleigh having lost their primary races.
• 5: Number of groups whose name includes the word “tea” listed as sponsors of a protest planned at the Legislative Building on Wednesday.
• 1: Number of times that the Revenue Laws Study Committee has recommended that cities get voter approval before incurring debt to build their own high-speed Internet systems.
• 0: Number of times that the General Assembly, since 2002, has asked for voter approval before incurring state debt.
