News-Record.com

Howdy. I've checked in from vacation to see how the honorables were doing with their budget. The AP wire has a pretty good story that I'll post for you. In case you don't want to read the whole thing, there are three salient points:

Well, it seems as I was making my way through Vancouver (yes, Canada) the General Assembly got themselves close to getting a budget done. My take, from 3,000-plus miles is the leadership seems to think they have a workable agreement and everyone is just hoping that the chewing gum and bailing wire is sturdy enough to pass this think next week (the week of Aug. 8).

It also looks like more budget details will be coming Monday, about the same time as I'm flying over the country with a squirming 2-year-old. I'll be back on the job bright and early Tuesday morning, and will taking a run at catching up on all the news for Triad-related budget items.

Now for some words of wisom (or something) on the budget situation that have showed up in my e-mail bin:

Howdy folks. I'm fresh off a plane but my cats are alive and the house is still here, so all is well.

Apparently I missed the grand release of the budget Monday night. I'm told my friend and colleague (and now, sometimes editor) Eric Dyer picked up some goodies for Wednesday's paper, but I'm sure there will be more to do - it's just sort of the nature of these things.

At any rate, if you're just DYING to have a look at the budget, don't let me stop you. The links here and here (yes, you need to look at both to really understand things) should give you a fair over-view of what's been cut and what new is getting money.

You can expect to hear from my jet-laggy self again later on Tuesday.

The AP story on the budget deal is here.

My colleague Eric Dyer reports that the following goodies are in the package for Guilford County:

More to come.

The state budget is chock full of plenty of home cooking for the Triad. That's not necessarily a bad thing, although budget hawks will tell you that the state could do without spending on some programs, particularly the grants to nonprofits.

The teapot museum I mention getting a $400,000 grant in this morning's story is a real place. Click here for a link to a page that explains what they're trying to do.

You can find my other budget story from Wednesday's paper by clicking here. It talks about all the policy direction that gets thrown into the budget, beyond just the expected tax and spending items.

As for last night's amusements:

The House has passed the budget 61-59. The Senate is scheduled to meet at 5 p.m. to begin their debate on the $17.2 billion spending plan.

Update: The Senate has given tentative approval to the buddget. A final vote is expected Thursday.

The much-discussed minimum wage hike passed the House this afternoon. If the Senate were to agree to the House measure, it would raise the state's minimum wage 85-cents to $6 per hour.

The wage hike was well short of the $1 increase the House rejected as a stand alone measure this year. This version was tacked on to a bill that would give small businesses - those with fewer than 25 employees - a tax break for giving workers health insurance.

The bill now goes to the Senate.

It was pushed by Rep. Alma Adams, a Greensboro Democrat. She has filed similar bills every session since she's been a House member, starting in 1994. This is the year that the bill's gotten a debate, much less an affirmative vote.

Now that the budget is virtually assured of clearing the legislature (the Senate has to vote again today and then it goes to the governor) the honorables can turn their attention to more important things, like naming the state's official Christmas Tree. (It's the Fraser Fir by the way, and yes I'm wondering about the government endorsement of religion thing myself.)

At any rate, the Christmas Tree bill is one of at least 50 (okay, I stopped counting at 50) on the Senate's agenda for Thursday. If you think it sounds like they're hurrying up so they can get out of town, you'd be right.

Sen. Leader Marc Basnight said that Saturday will be the last day of business for the Senate.

But House Speaker Jim Black says there's no way the General Assembly can adjourn that quickly because there's too much work left to do.

So, we have the possibility that the House will be running without the Senate. Okay, to be fair, the Senate will operate a skeleton session every four days, but no work will get done.

The big cliff-hanger question is whether the Senate will pass the lottery bill. Without that, all the lottery language in the budget goes by the wayside - along with tens of millions of dollars slated for school construction.

Stay tuned.

I just filed the following for tomorrow's paper, but you get early just for reading:

A bill that would have limited smoking in restaurants, requiring that smoking sections are completely blocked off from other dining areas, was killed in committee Thursday morning.

Under the bill, smoking sections could have taken up no more than 25 percent of the restaurants total dining area.

The full House has narrowly rejected a similar anti-smoking measure earlier this year, but resurrected the idea by attaching it to a separate bill that would create a licensing scheme for drug treatment professionals.

Rep. Hugh Holliman, a Lexington Democrat, said his anti-smoking language had fallen victim to the Senate's rush to clear bills so they can stop working Saturday.

"The Senate has told us they don't have time to take up any controversial bills," Holliman said. He voluntarily stripped the measure from a drug treatment bill to allow that measure pass this summer.

Holliman said that he expected that House Speaker Jim Black would set up a study committee to review the state's smoking laws and that he would try again for a restaurant smoking ban when the General Assembly meets again next year.

While I was away on vacation last week, Friday arrived and dumped its usual raft of news releases announcing who has been appointed to what. Here are some Triad area appointees from that group.

Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue appointed:

The House passed (at a little after 8 p.m.) Senate Bill 223, which will require all North Carolina voting machines to have a paper record for each vote.

The Senate has passed the same bill. However, the House made a few technical changes, so the Senate must vote again on whether to concur. That will likely come tomorrow or Saturday.

This bill came about after voting machines in Carteret County lost a bunch of votes during last year's election. Find links to prior coverage here.

This is the ad I imagine running on late night TV to get people to watch the end-of-session Senate action today. (Yes, it's supposed to be a bit of humor.)

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Howdy folks and welcome to Crazy Basnight's Bill Emporium. It's our end of session sale and all legislation must go! That's right! Sponsor a bill and we'll move it out the door. The man from Dare County dares YOU to miss out on these deals!

Want to lower the state's upper income tax bracket? We got you covered. Want to keep your chickens from fighting? Go ahead, we've got legislation for that!

And they're just two of the dozens of bills we might vote on today.

But wait, there's more!

At any point today or tomorrow, we may take up that Lottery Bill. That's right! If you’re paying attention, you may be one of the lucky folks to watch us finally pass a state lottery for North Carolina. Or not. We haven't decided yet.

So common on down and don't leave the chamber . . . unless you're a no vote on the lottery of course.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

So . . . we're having a little too much fun down here right now. The plain English translation of all that:

The Senate is working on a bunch of bills today and tomorrow (yes, they're working Saturday) as part of their plan to stop working for the most part after this weekend. To do so, they're working under conditions that expedite the bill passing process but make things a bit hectic.

And the lottery bill, which the Senate must pass in order for there to be a state lottery, is waiting for a hearing but it's passage is somewhat in doubt.

Things will really start heating up today about ... now and are expected to go at least until early evening.

So, the continuing resolution that had been funding the government ran out at midnight last night.

And Gov. Mike Easley hasn't signed the state budget passed by the General Assembly yet.

So. . . how is the government running?

Seriously, I'm asking. Any thoughts out there?

Update: From the governor's office:
"The State constitution gives the Governor ten days to consider legislation, including the budget, and during that time other state laws to the contrary are suspended and business continues as usual."

From Joseph Ferrell, Professor of Public Law at the N.C. School of Government: "As long as they don't write any checks, I don't think it's a problem."

Update2: Sen. Phil Berger asks Sen. Marc Basnight the same question. And Basnight answers . . . sort of.
Click here for MP3 audio.

Class is in session here at the Senate. House members had the good sense to go home for the weekend Thursday, but senators began meeting about 10:20 a.m. this morning, a little more than 10 hours after adjourning Friday's session around midnight.

I've lost count of the bills they've shoved through the process in the last 72 hours. The legislation has included everything from changes to the state employee retirement system to recycling mercury switches on old cars to regulating genetically modified plants.

Of course, we're all wondering about the big one: the Lottery. The Senate must act on a lottery bill before the game can be put in place, even though provisions on how to spend lottery money are included in the budget.

From observing the unofficial action on the Senate floor (the stuff that happens before, after and sometime during debates that has nothing to do with the matter before the body) it looks like proponents are still working to bring the lottery to pass but they have an uphill battle.

And we are, curiously, still waiting for the governor to sign the state budget that got final legislative approval on Thursday.

We'll wrap this up in Sunday's paper.

Gov. Mike Easley has signed the budget the General Assembly gave final approval Thursday.

Click here to read what he had to say about it.

The Senate adjourned Saturday without taking up the proposed state lottery. They will next meet in a little over a week to clean up other pending business, such as the contested election for Superintendent of Public Instruction. While it is possible a vote could be taken then, lottery proponents were tepid in their optimism after session.

More to come in Sunday's paper.

I have to visit the mother ship today to get a piece of computer gear fixed and/or replaced.

The last story I wrote for the paper was about the lottery and can by found by clicking on this link.

Part of what I'll be doing today is deciding what stories still need cleaning up from the budget passing and the lottery not. Drop me a line below with your ideas.

As I was flipping through the recently-passed and signed state budget and something begins to nag at me . . . several somethings actually.

Sprinkled in with all the taxing, spending, policy changing and what not, there are grants (usually relatively small ones) like these:

• First Baptist Church of Clinton, $5,000, grant for operational support of a homeless shelter.

• Orange Congregation Mission Inc., $5,000, grant to provide emergency services to residents.

• Cedar Grove Missionary Baptist Association, $5,000, grant for emergency services to poor and needy residents.

• Poplar Grove Missionary Baptist Church, $5,000, sponsor health screening and provide information about health services.

In case you haven't guessed, civics lessons about the separation of church and state and about how state sponsorship of religion is a bad thing started coming back to me.

Not that all the budget's religious pork went to Christian groups. There's a $200,000 grant to the Jewish Community Center of Charlotte to provide a grant for senior programs. (I did a quick search and didn't see any money going to Hindu, Muslim or other non-Christian/Jewish faiths.)

Every one of the groups I listed is doing good things and the amounts involved are far from huge.

But should religious groups of any stripe be getting state money? Should someone who is of a faith or belief that objects to the views of the groups getting funding be forced to send his tax dollars to support those religious groups anyway?

The state constitution doesn't really give a whole lot of guidance on this issue. There are a couple of religious mentions in its declaration of rights:

"Sec. 13. Religious liberty. All persons have a natural and inalienable right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own consciences, and no human authority shall, in any case whatever, control or interfere with the rights of conscience."

"Sec. 19. Law of the land; equal protection of the laws. No person shall be taken, imprisoned, or disseized of his freehold, liberties, or privileges, or outlawed, or exiled, or in any manner deprived of his life, liberty, or property, but by the law of the land. No person shall be denied the equal protection of the laws; nor shall any person be subjected to discrimination by the State because of race, color, religion, or national origin."

And the constitution goes on to say that property held by religious institutions is exempt from taxation, which I guess one might argue is a pretty big endorsement of religion right there.

So here's your question of the day: am I just loopy or is this something to worry about? Do you think the state ought to be giving even more money to churches, synagogues and the like or none?

Next year's partisan elections might end up with one less party on the ballot. From our friends at the Associated Press:

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - Libertarians could lose their official status as a political party in North Carolina because they failed to get at least 10 percent of the votes cast in last year's gubernatorial and presidential races.

The State Board of Elections has scheduled time during a teleconference meeting Monday to discuss the party's standing. Sean Haugh, the party's executive director, said Friday he and party Chairman Thomas Hill will participate from Raleigh.

Along with the missed vote totals, the party has gathered only 25,000 of the nearly 70,000 signatures it needs to stay alive. Only Democrats and Republicans would be entitled to appear on ballots in partisan elections.

Haugh conceded that the party has failed to meet the state requirements, but said he hopes that the elections board will use its discretion to allow the party to remain on the ballot.

"It's simply in their best interests," he said. "If they did de-certify us they would have to send a mailing to all 13,000 members of the Libertarian Party.

"It would be very expensive and time-consuming."

Libertarians have appeared on ballots in North Carolina continuously since 1996. About a half-dozen municipal leaders belong to the party, along with several members of county soil and water district boards and a county surveyor.

Elections board chairman Larry Leake, a Democrat from Asheville, said Libertarians have used up their grace period.

"They either have the petition signatures," Leake said, "or they don't."

It's Friday, which means my e-mail box is flowing with all the stuff that government types forgot to send out earlier in the week. From that pile we learn:

Gov. Mike Easley has appointed:

• Christine Joyner Greene of High Point to the N.C. Board of Licensed Professional Counselors. Greene is a private licensed professional counselor in High Point.

• Jack Cipriani of Summerfield to the N.C. Employment Security Commission. He is also vice president of the National American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations and the N.C. American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations. Cipriani attended New York City Community College.

• James Keith McCollum of Rockingham to the N.C. Forestry Council. McCollum is a forester and procurement manager for Edwards Wood Products. He is a charter member of the National Wild Turkey Federation, a member of the Society of American Foresters, the Council on Forestry Engineering and the safety, logging and transportation committee of the N.C. Forestry Association.

And if that wasn't news enough, we learn that Rep. Pricey Harrison recently sponsored the folks as pages for the House:

• Jill Russell, a student at Western Guilford High School. She is the daughter of Jim and Julie Russell of Greensboro.

• Samuel Heroy, a student at Northwest Guilford High School. He is the son of William and Anna Heroy of Summerfield.

• Jill Russell, a student at Western Guilford High School. She is the daughter of Jim and Julie Russell of Greensboro.

  According to the blurb that comes with those page announcements, "For decades, the State House has relied on the service of pages, who help deliver bills and amendments for Representatives during daily House sessions and committee meetings, offer assistance in individual Representatives’ offices, and run errands around the Legislature. Pages spend a week at the General Assembly assisting members and their staff and learning about the structure of North Carolina government."
  

You know, if the Senate does manage to pass a lottery this week, I don't know what else folks down here are going to talk about. It's not like there's much else going on...oh wait! Yes there is!

One of my favorite quotes about the lottery came from Sen. Dan Clodfelter, a Democrat and lottery opponent. I approached him one day as his sat rifling through papers at his desk on the floor of the Senate. When I asked him about the lottery, he sighed, looked right at me and said: "You know, you people spend way too much time on that." When I asked him to elaborate, he said, "There's a lot more than the lottery going on down here."

And Clodfelter was absolutely right. In the next couple days, the Senate and House are going to push to finish their business for the year. Once they're done, they'll adjourn until next spring, probably May.

They're scheduled to make a formal decision on the State Superintendent of Public Instruction race, are still messing around with a bill that would strengthen the state's lobbying laws and have to finish up their big methamphetamine crack-down bill. The House calendar for today has dozens of items on it.

And for as much ink as will be spent on the lottery, Senators may never hear the measure. The Senate leadership, comprised of lottery supporters, isn't going to risk a vote on a state game this week unless they're sure it will pass.

And since the House passed it earlier this session, the lottery bill remains alive through 2006. The honorables could pack up shop, head home for nine months, and it would still be awaiting them when they returned in the spring. For all the people saying "a lot can happen over a week" of the latest effort to wrangle the needed support, imagine what can happen over nine months.

If you're planning on tuning in via the net (or dropping by in person) the session times are a bit funky for a Monday: The House is scheduled to go in at 5 p.m.; the Senate is scheduled to convene at 7:30 p.m.

HB 706 would make it easier for NC school systems to import teachers from others states. Click here for my story from this Sunday.

Among the folks who don't like the bill is Gov. Mike Easley. Because he's made some very unfavorable noises about the bill, folks are a twitter that he may veto the thing. (Come to think of it, a good ol' veto showdown might replace chatter about the lottery.)

The problem for Easley is that there seem to be enough votes in both the House and Senate to over-ride a veto fairly handily. When a NC governor gets a bill, he has three options: sign it, do nothing and wait ten days (in which case it becomes law) or veto it. If he doesn't sign the bill and doesn't want a veto show-down, he could simply ignore the thing and let it become law without his signature.

Stay tuned.

Well, if you're into reading tea leaves, the prospect for a lottery getting passed today just got a little less murky.

The Senate Rules committee met briefly this morning and, among other things, passed the lottery bill onto the full Senate. (Quick legislative lesson: the rules committee is where legislation that leaders like goes to be revived or quickly sent to the floor and where legislation the leadership doesn't like goes to die.)

At any rate, the committee action by itself doesn't mean much. But afterward Sen. Tony Rand, the majority leader in the Senate, seemed more upbeat than he has in a while when asked about the lottery.

"If we're ever going to do it, the time has come," Rand said.

Sen. Katie Dorsett, a Greensboro Democrat and member of the committee, said that passing the lottery bill out of Rules was a sign that a vote would come soon.

For those of you who have forgotten the score: There are 50 members of the Senate and if all 50 vote, 25 votes are needed for a tie, which Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue, a lottery supporter, would break. Until now, five Democrats and 21 Republicans have announced opposition to the bill, giving lottery opponents 26 votes.

To win, something in that dynamic, which has been the status quo for a while now, will have to change.

The Senate starts its session at noon, so stay tuned.

The General Assembly has just elected June Atkinson, a Democrat, as superintendent of public instruction. That decision came at 3:40 p.m. today after more than nine months of legal and political wrangling over who would take the state's top education post. There will be more in tomorrow's paper.

There was a moment - okay, about 30 minutes or so - when it looked like the Senate might get a lottery done.

The full explanation involves a lot of parliamentary gobbly-gook. What you need to know: the lottery supporters came up short in the end.

As those who have been following the lottery debate know, the House passed a lottery bill back in the spring. The budget that passed earlier this month even set out how lottery proceeds could be spent.

But the Senate has yet to pass a lottery bill. For weeks, the nose count in the 50-member chamber has been 24-26, with lottery supporters down a vote.

That tally apparently did not change over the course of the night and the Senate plans on adjourning today.

Because the 2006 session is basically and extension of this year's session, the bill will be waiting for the Senate when it returns.

The kicker here is this:

Some members of the House and Senate began meeting in committees at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday morning. They have been meeting in one form or another ever since (it's 4:08 a.m. Wednesday morning as I write this).

The House has finally taken a break and will come back at 2 p.m. (Wednesday).

The Senate, meanwhile, is still chugging along as I write this…I don't think they realize the House has gone home to take a nap.

Don't believe me? Here's the Associated Press' take on the latest goings on:

Of note for locally: Early Wednesday morning, the Senate elected Nancy Brenner of Greensboro to the State Board of Community Colleges, the community college system equivalent of the UNC Board of Governors.

Brenner is a long-time community volunteer, who currently serves on several local boards including the Greensboro Jewish Federation and the North Carolina Hillel.

The House should confirm that choice later today.

Timing note: It's 5:12 a.m. and the Senate is still meeting.

Well, this is surreal.

The Senate has packed up and headed home, saying they'll do no more work this year. The House, however, has decided to keep chugging away on stuff, including bills that would need Senate approval to become law.

One good example: A measure that would let certain counties raise their sales taxes a half-cent to pay for school construction costs. The idea is something of a replacement for the proceeds from the lottery, which didn't get finished this year.

Yes, Guilford County is included in this bill right now, despite the fact the delegation is not all for it. The bill got tentative approval this morning (Thursday) and could get is final approval from the House Monday night.

Which raises the question...why bother?

If the Senate really isn't returning, the best you can hope to do at this point is to have the bill ready for the start of next year's session in May...right?

There are three major schools of thought on this question.

SCHOOL A: The House leadership has simply gone bananas after too many late night sessions. That, or they're just trying to make a point that the House is doing the people's work while those lazy Senators go home.

SCHOOL B: House leaders think they'll be able to goad the Senate into coming back.

Now, Senate Leader Marc Basnight said this on a conference call with reporters Wednesday: "We finished our work and we won't be coming back." He said that about 50 different ways. He sounds pretty firm on the point.

The problem: it's not, strictly speaking, accurate.

The Senate is holding skeleton sessions to comply with the constitutional obligation they meet every three days while the General Assembly is around. Only a joint-resolution with the House can shut things down.

And the Senate will have to haul at least 26 members in to pass that joint resolution.

There is some thought that between having to haul at least 26 members into town anyway, an as-yet unseen public hue and cry over the lottery not passing, some too-tempting to ignore piece of legislation that the House sends over and/or a veto by the governor might entice the Senate back into action.

I wouldn't bet on that...but I wouldn't bet against it either. This is a weird place.

SCHOOL C: Supporters of the bill in the House are actually trying to get it done so the bill will be ready when the Senate comes back in May.

Why the rush then?

This school takes not that next year the General Assembly holds what's known as a "short session," which is designed to take care of urgent matters, tweak the state budget and head home to campaign.

During short sessions, both written and unwritten rules of either chamber keep the honorables from taking up local bills that are not agreed upon by all of the delegation from a single county. (Local bills are bills that affect specific counties rather than the whole state.)

Although the sales tax bill is not strictly speaking a local bill (it affects too many counties for that status to apply) it is very much like a local bill in its form and affect.

Supporters might be thinking they need to get it passed now so that the no-controversy rules for the short session don't apply.

I've heard each of these schools of thought expressed today ... take your pick. Me ... I'm off to take a nap. We'll see you back here tomorrow (Friday).

Among the things that get done in the waning days of the General Assembly sessions are appointments to various boards and commissions. Here are Guilford County folks appointed by House Speaker Jim Black, and yes you should recognize some of the names:

• Melvin "Skip" Alston of Guilford County is appointed to the North Carolina Real Estate Commission for a term expiring on July 31, 2008.

• Tony H. Jarrett of Guilford County is appointed to the Commission on State Property for a term expiring on August 14, 2007.

• Stephanie Lemon of Guilford County is appointed to the North Carolina Teaching Fellows Commission for a term expiring on June 30, 2009.

• Dr. Steve Willen of Guilford County is appointed to the State Board of Chiropractic Examiners for a term expiring on June 30, 2007.

• Pamela White of Guilford County is appointed to the North Carolina Housing Partnership for a term beginning on September 1, 2005, and expiring on August 31, 2008.

• Kathryn Ahlport of Guilford County is appointed to the Justus-Warren Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention Task Force for terms expiring on June 30, 2007.

• The Honorable Katie Dorsett of Guilford County is appointed to the Justus-Warren Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention Task Force for a term expiring on June 30, 2007, to fill the unexpired term of The Honorable Eric Reeves.

• Gary Gore of Guilford County is appointed to the Commission on State Property for a term expiring on August 14, 2007.

Ok, state government pundits, you can officially start your breathless speculation.

Contrary to emphatic and repeated statements by senate leaders of all different stripes that the chamber finished its work for the year last week, they'll be back in full session next week.

Senate Leader Marc Basnight's office sent out notice after 5 p.m. Friday that the Senate was being recalled to a full session on Tuesday (August 30).

"Please note that the session could include votes on any legislation eligible for consideration this year, including conference reports and House bills awaiting Senate votes," reads the notice from Basnight to members.

Yes, the lottery is still eligible for consideration. And if the House follows through with its plans, so will that sales tax hike deal for schools we talked about earlier.

Will either of those get a vote in the Senate? Has Basnight managed to win the one or two votes he needs to pass a lottery? What's so important that he would cheese-off all 49 other members by hauling their sorry butts back into town after telling them they were free at last?

Right now, your guess is as good as mine. I'll let you pundit away over the weekend (click the comment link below) and will see you back here on Monday.

Here's what I cluttered up the dead tree version of the paper with this weekend:

• Every year the General Assembly agrees to "study" a bunch of issues, so that they can act (or not) next time a legislative session comes around. This story ran down some of the things interesting to the Guilford County and beyond.

• Sometimes loosing the battle doesn't mean loosing the war. This story talks about the long-term prospects of the minimum wage bill, which seems to be on the shelf for the time being.

• An item in Inside Scoop talked about some of the tactical maneuvering behind last week's lottery votes.

And speaking of the lottery, everyone is wondering whether it’s going to get a vote on the Senate floor now that the chamber has decided an encore performance, despite protestations that they were done for the year.

Thus far, no one is reporting that the votes are definitely there to get a lottery vote done and I haven't heard myself that anything has changed enough. We'll see tomorrow (Tuesday).

From the governor's office:

Gov. Mike Easley announced today that Canadian-based Imaflex Inc. will open its first U.S. plastics manufacturing facility in Thomasville, investing $10 million in the area and creating 50 new jobs over the next three years. The announcement was made possible in part by a One North Carolina Fund grant of $125,000.

"Imaflex's expansion to North Carolina will enhance our state's already strong international presence in the plastics industry," said Easley. "North Carolina ranks 9th in the U.S. in plastics manufacturing, an industry that provides well-paying, sustainable jobs for our hardworking families."

Imaflex uses an extrusion process to make polyethylene films for packaging materials. The company utilizes computerized work stations and sophisticated, high-tech equipment to produce a top-quality product. The new jobs mostly will be skilled manufacturing positions that will pay an average of $550 to $600 per week plus benefits, which is more than the county’s average wage of $519.

So today's supposedly the big day for the lottery and official Raleigh is all a twitter.

I'd do a run down of all the rumors of what will happen, except I'd probably still be writing it as some decision was reached. Suffice it to say that the indications are strong that there will be some sort of lottery vote today.

Right now (12 p.m.) the Senate is in recess and supposed to return at 12:15 p.m.

More to come.

The lottery has passed the Senate on a vote of 24-24, with Lt. Governor Perdue casting the tie breaking vote in favor.

More in tomorrow's paper and possibly here later if things calm down.

I'm cranking out copy for the dead tree edition of the paper but here are a few things you might like to know about the lottery vote:

• This is the first time since 1996 that a Lt. Governor has voted to break a tie in the Senate. (If you really want to know: it then-Lt. Governor Dennis Wicker broke a tie regarding an amendment on a gun control related bill.)

• More history: In 1985, then-Lt. Governor Robert Jordan declined to break a tie on a lottery vote, dooming the bill.

• Locally, Sens. Katie Dorsett and Kay Hagan, both Greensboro Democrats, voted for the lottery. Sens. Phil Berger, Stan Bingham, Jerry Tillman and Hugh Webster, all Republicans, voted against.

• Gov. Mike Easley is scheduled to sign the lottery bill Wednesday at 11 a.m.

• A new commission will be set up to oversee the lottery. It's expected that it will take between four and six months to get the game running.

I'm about to toddle off and watch the governor sign the lottery bill. He's then expected to do the political equivalent of a touchdown celebration, being that this has been a centerpiece of his education policy for five or six years now. More on that here if it's interesting.

News of the day can be found right here. Be sure to click on all the nifty bells and whistles like our Q+A.

Here are some other lottery tidbits and musings from my e-mail box and around the web:

• Sen. Phil Berger is none-to-happy about the lottery's passage. He wrote in this release: “North Carolina is currently 42nd in the nation in high school graduation and 42nd in SAT Scores. If this is truly an “education lottery,” we should see measurable improvement soon. Based on the hype we’ve been hearing, the only thing keeping our students from academic success was the failure to jump on the gambling bandwagon.”

• The state Democratic Party can't seem to decide whether to blame the Republicans for blocking a lottery or blame the two Republicans who weren't in the chamber yesterday for not going on their honeymoon and getting sick earlier.

  “Whether it was by voting against a lottery or by choosing not to vote, the bottom line is that the Republicans refused to stand up for our schools and our children by supporting an education lottery,” said NC Democratic Party Chairman Jerry Meek in an e-mail. I've copied it into a word file you can access by clicking here.

But wait, there's more. The web is alive with the sound of lottery musings:

• The News and Record's Doug Clark is mad about how the lottery vote came to pass and let's us know it in this post. The comments are worth reading too.

• NC SPIN has some interesting lottery chatter, but I can't find a perma-link to it.

• Local blogger Guarino is none to happy about the lottery.

• The folks who hand out on this website, however, are very happy. I'd call them lottery enthusiasts.

House Speaker Jim Black just announced that the General Assembly would adjourn on Friday, probably some time in the mid-morning. The honorables will then leave town until May...unless they have to come back for a special session for some reason.

Gov. Mike Easley just delivered this statement urging North Carolinians to conserve gas and detailing steps the government was taking to head off shortages.

I just filed a feed from that news conference. Although it's written in the form of a story, it's more there for the folks doing the heavy lifting on the issue to pull from, pick apart and use as they need: