House Budget
Update:Click here for my story from today's paper, whick details the proposed funding for the nanotechnology school in east Greensboro.
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The House Budget is online:
- Click here for the bill itself.
- Click here for the money report, which is a little easier to read in terms of dollars and cents.
The bill keeps the temporary (sort of) 1/4 cent sales tax and upper-end income tax rate on the books for another two years.
It would create an earned income tax credit.
Update: Okay, a few additional notes:
- The House Finance Committee is running tomorrow, pretty much all day. The appropriations committee is expected to go on Wednesday morning. Speaker Joe Hackney anticipates the House may need a Friday session to do the final reading on the budget.
- Click here for the AP story from Monday night.
- Hackney says he likes a lot of what's in the budget. But he named a few things he didn't like.
"We have some items that need to get changed before the House votes on the bill and I think you'll see some of those changes. There were too many projects in there for Winston-Salem State University, I think that we've already worked out to get that corrected.
"There are no special provisions not pertaining to the budget in there that I can find but some of our members argued in caucus that there is some special project money in there so I asked the appropriations chairs to go back and take a look. The guideline is supposed to be whether it is a statewide or state-owned project or at least a regional scope project and we'll take a look to see if the things that are in there fit under those guidelines."
I hear the drag racing hall of fame might be one of those projects that don't meet the guidelines, but I'm sure its supporters would argue that it does. Wednesday should be interesting.
- No bonds in the House budget. Hackney said he anticipates doing bonds at some point, but not in the main budget bill.
- There is some borrowing, even without bonds. Certificates of Participation (COPs) don't have to be approved by voters and there are a bunch of 'em in the budget - to the tune of $400-plus million. Locally, both UNCG and NCA&T would get money from COPs to build classroom buildings.
- The Charlotte Hawkins Brown Museum in Sedalia would get $7.8 million under the current version of the House plan. Since that's a state-owned facility, I don't expect it to get fried under the anti-pork dictum, at least not on the House side.
- And I'll have a story in Tuesday's paper about good news for the planned biotechnology school in east Greensboro.