News-Record.com

Earlier today, my friends and neighbors over at the Legion of Dome wrote about how Hagan had put in appropriation bills requesting $48 million in spending.

Although the post doesn't say so, this smells like a critique on U.S. Senate candidate Kay Hagan as it does state Sen. Kay Hagan.

Now, I don't want to just defend my hometown senator here. (My paper circulates in Greensboro, Hagan is from Greensboro.) But let's have a little context to this analysis:

• * Yes, Hagan has a long bill list but so do other appropriators. I came up with roughly $45 million in spending requests when I looked at Sen. Charlie Albertson's filings, and he was just appointed to the chairman slot Hagan used to occupy.

• * Appropriations bills like this are placeholders. They're request for funds in the upcoming budget but by no means guarantee funding. Yes, Hagan has a better shot than most at getting her items on board, but it's not a slam dunk - especially this year.

• * Of the 16 bills that Dome detailed, Hagan is on the author of one. The rest she signed on to as a co-sponsor, a status that means she's supportive of the effort but not carrying it's water.

• * The one appropriations bill she wrote: $2,939,000 to fund operations for the joint UNCG-NCA&T nanotechnology campus. The legislature agreed to build the school last year and this puts staff into place.

• * Big chunks of what she has signed onto are of statewide significance, not parochial projects.

• * The Furniture Market and Civil Rights museum are long-standing Guilford County projects. She'd be in more trouble if she didn't sign onto those.

I have to ponder this a bit more over the weekend. I have written my fair share of legislators-grub-for-money stories, but they've tended to look at groups like a geographic delegation or appropriations chairs. Singling Hagan out feels a little odd to me.