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Budget in the House (or the House Budget)
The state could have saved a lot of time and money (not to mention a few trees) had they issued the House budget electronically Tuesday night.
Instead, we were left to skulk about the building until late (11:30 p.m.) to get copies of the bill the House Appropriations Committee will start going through at 8 a.m. Wednesday morning.
Between the two books that make up the document, it is about 500 pages long and much of it is written in language only a lawyer would dare call "English."
Most of what's in the document, we've seen before, either in the various finance bills that have run over the past two weeks or in the appropriations subcommittees last week. Here are some highlights.
The High Point Furniture Market is still in line for $1.2 million in each of the next two years to help defray transportation costs. This is a big deal for the market, since transportation is a major concern for visitors to the semi-annual trade show.
Market boosters will be less happy with a marketing provision. Senate budget writers had set aside $1 million annually to help market the state's furniture industry in general and the market in particular. The House budget sets aside $1 million only in the coming year and would allow it to be used to market any North Carolina industry.
The cigarette tax is indeed pegged at 30-cents a pack, up from 5-cents a pack.
Most state employees get a 2.5 percent raise.
The Natural Science Center of Greensboro would get $182,395 and the Greensboro Children's Museum would get $132,606 under a program to spark grassroots science education.
The Charlotte Hawkins Brown Memorial in Sedalia is up for a $1.5 million grant.
The North Carolina Ballet and the North Carolina Symphony each get funding in the six figure range. The Greensboro Symphony gets nothing.
The budget doubles the fee it charges for the state certificate that allows hospitals and clinics to perform abortions.
The budget changes the state employee health plan to pay 100 percent of the charges for annual mammograms for women over 40 years old. Women under 40 covered by the state health plan could get a mammogram once every three years.
Beginning in the fall of 2007, limits the number of out of state students attending the N.C. School of the Arts to 45 percent. That percentage drops to 40 percent in 2008.
After the committee hearing the budget must go to the full House. Speaker Jim Black says he wants to complete work on the measure by the end of the week. Budget writers would then begin the process of negotiations between the House and Senate over a final version of the bill.