News-Record.com

So I've been reading through the budget (Click here for the budget bill itself and click here for the money report, which explains the budget a little bit more) that is due to be voted today and Monday.

If you know the broad strokes already, then some of these smaller (relatively) items might be of interest.

Of special concern to Guilford County:

• The joint NCA&T - UNCG Nanotechnology school gets $5 million in cash and $53 million in borrowing authority. That pretty much gets the thing built. There's another $1.4 million to run the thing.

• Guilford County gets permission to create new positions for its new mental health court.

• There's an additional $1 million for promoting the furniture market in High Point. That's on top of recurring allocations for funding and transportation.

• Not exactly local, but there is $500,000 for an equine industry study, which has been a pet project of Rep. Nelson Cole. The study is meant to study the effect of the horse industry on North Carolina's economy.

• The budget establishes a Piedmont Triad Crime Lab, which is thought to be heading to Greensboro.

• The International Civil Rights Museum gets $500,000.

• The N.C. Zoo in Asheboro gets about $3 million for Barns and Paddocks and another $450,000 for horticultural storage.

• Again, not local per se, but there's a sales and use tax credit for aircraft manufacturers in the bill. That looks to me like its targeted toward Honda Jet.

Other interesting items in there:

• Expresses the intent of the General Assembly to end transfers from the Highway Trust Fund by 2013. That's been a key complaint of many, who say the state needs all the money it can get for building roads.

• There's $8 million for farmland preservation, probably making Ag Commissioner Steve Troxler happy.

• There's $120 million for Land for Tomorrow and Waterfront Access purchases. Essentially, the state is buying up open space.

• There's $6.3 million for the N.C. Museum of History to create a chronology of the state of North Carolina's history through 1900.

• The budget creates raises the excise tax on non-cigarette tobacco products to 10 percent. Chomping on that ol' stogie just got more expensive.

• $100 million is set aside for water and sewer infrastructure improvement.

• $250,000 for the Jewish Heritage Foundation to create the documentary, "Down home: Jewish Home in North Carolina."

• Provides funding for recalling 94,000 old license plates a year for the next five year.

• The governor's salary goes up from $130,629 to $135,854.

• There's a tax break for corporate data centers. Essentially, they won't pay sales taxes on equipment.

• There is a $250 income tax credit for volunteer firefighters and EMS workers.