Rand: Senate budget begins to roll Monday
Senate majority leader Tony Rand said his chamber's top appropriators were scheduled to finish tinkering with the skeleton of their budget proposal this Friday. They plan to give staff members the weekend to write up and print what will amount to the first draft.
That would let the Senate appropriation subcommittees to meet on their parts of the bill Monday and the full appropriations and finance committees to take a swing at the thing on Tuesday.
According to Rand, salaries for teachers and state workers will be about the same as they were in the House budget. If that average of 3 percent raises for teachers holds, it will disappoint Gov. Mike Easley, who wanted to see a much bigger boost in salaries to get teachers to the national average.
Rand said that Senate leaders hadn't yet figured out what they'll do with COPS or other borrowing as of Thursday morning, saying that was a topic to be discussed Thursday afternoon.
If plans for next week hold (and you can almost hear the legislative building itself laugh at you when you talk about plans and timelines) the subcommittees would do their work on Monday, the full committees would do their mojo on Tuesday and the bill would be voted on Wednesday and Thursday.
That would allow conference discussions to begin Friday, Rand said. For those who don't follow the budget full time: the conference process lets the House, Senate and governor's office settle the difference between their three versions of the budget.
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