Goring oxen
So, the House has begun tweaking the budget they rolled out yesterday. They do that first in an appropriations committee that has been going on since about 8:30 a.m.
The process goes something like this: someone’s pet project has been left out. In the case of the discussion I’m listening to right now, Kids Voting was left out of the House budget. This is the program that lets children participate in a mock election as their parents go to the polls.
So, Rep. Maggie Jeffus, a Greensboro Democrat, is a backer of Kids Voting and wants to put the item up for discussion during the conference between the House and Senate. So she proposes adding $100,000 to the budget for Kids Voting. But she has to take it from somewhere else in the budget.
Jeffus made the mistake of taking it from the Kannapolis Research Campus, the new community college project centered around the Dole company’s big move into the state. That has prompted a bunch of business Democrats to attack her amendment. (Kannapolis lost a bunch of textile jobs, and this is a way to bolster employment in the area.)
As a result, Jeffus’ amendment almost got voted down. But her fellow honorables like Maggie and like Kids Voting.
So instead, her amendment is getting set aside for the moment. Apparently, Jeffus is going to get together with those attacking the amendment and find some other source of funding for the program.
In other words: Don’t gore our ox, we’ll find you another one to bleed.
This is going to go on for most of the afternoon it sounds like. The full bill will hit the floor tomorrow.
Update2: Jeffus got her Kids Voting money by raiding Learn and Earn funding, a pet project of Gov. Mike Easley.
Update1: Civil Rights Museum Rejected
Rep. Alma Adams made an attempt, backed by fellow Greensboro Democrats Jeffus and Pricey Harrison, to land funding for the Civil Rights Museum in downtown Greensboro in the budget. It is not in the governor’s budget and not in the Senate budget. If it doesn’t make it into the House budget somehow, getting state funding this year for the museum will be tough.
The move failed on a 25-29 appropriations committee vote.
Haven't heard about Kids Voting again yet.