N.C. budget negotiators may go overtime to pass budget
Published: Jun 28, 2006
newsobserver.com
By GARY D. ROBERTSON, Associated Press Writer
RALEIGH , N.C. -- House and Senate budget negotiators were mired in differences Wednesday over how to handle the state's construction plans as they moved toward approving a state budget before the end of the fiscal year Friday.
"We're getting real close. They're real close," said House Speaker Jim Black, D-Mecklenburg.
But legislators also talked more about possibly holding a session early Saturday - after the new fiscal year begins - to pass the $18.9 billion budget.
Each chamber has to vote on the final proposed budget on two consecutive days after it's agreed to by negotiators. Then Gov. Mike Easley would be asked to sign the bill into law.
Since the bill adjusts the second year of the two-year budget passed last summer, there's no threat of a government shutdown if the spending package is approved a few days late.
The chambers traded offers Wednesday on spending roughly $200 million in cash on about 20 different projects, most on university campuses, in the coming fiscal year. The two chambers also are interested in borrowing more than $600 million in bonds through the end of the decade, most of which would be used to build prisons and mental hospitals.
Senate leader Marc Basnight, D-Dare, said there were about a dozen issues unsettled by Wednesday afternoon. The two sides kept working into early Wednesday evening as legislators and staff shuttled proposals between two rooms behind closed doors.
"We've got to polish off the rough edges," said Sen. Linda Garrou, D-Forsyth, one of the Senate's leading negotiators.
Senate leaders have been pushing to complete more university projects this year, while House leaders want to give planning money to all 16 campuses.
Negotiations grew passionate late Tuesday night as lawmakers from each chamber argued over which campus projects deserved top priority. They also complained that certain projects received more money because they sat in the districts of top negotiators.
"That's par for the course," House Majority Leader Joe Hackney, D-Orange, said of the infighting.
Negotiators also met Wednesday for the first time to work out an agreement on tax cuts, health insurance assistance for small businesses and a cap on the gasoline tax. Both chambers have agreed to a quarter-penny reduction in the sales tax.
But they are at odds over how low the 8.25 percent individual income tax rate for the highest wage-earners should fall. The House wants 8.125 percent, while the Senate wants 8 percent.
The House also wants to give a $200 per-worker tax credit for small businesses that pay at least half of a worker's health insurance premium. The Senate would prefer setting aside $34 million until next year to develop a more comprehensive health insurance subsidy program, said Sen. David Hoyle, D-Gaston.
"We want to do something meaningful for small business," Hoyle said.
The two sides also must agree to the size of pay raises for most state employees and university faculty. Once the money matters are settled, they must decide whether certain policy provisions remain in the budget document, including a minimum wage increase.
Basnight said he wants an 18-month moratorium on new landfills in the state starting July 1, arguing that the state needs to take a hard look at larger trash dumps - particularly in northeastern North Carolina - before allowing them to take garbage from other states.
Black said he doesn't want such policy matters in the budget. Basnight acknowledged he didn't believe it could pass his chamber in a standalone bill but said it still needed to be considered. |
