Senate budget debate: audio
How do we have audio of a debate that largely wasn't allowed to take place?
Well, the Senate has a rule that allows members to take some time at the end of session and explain why they voted a certain way. A few took that opportunity.
Sen. Phil Berger, the Republican leader in the Senate, was the first to take advantage, summarizing his party's objections to how things went down.
"This essence of a democracy is debate," he said. Click here to listen to more of his deconstruction of the budget process.
Majority leader Tony Rand is not one to let challenges to his party's actions go answered. His reply to Berger's criticism was that regardless of the process, North Carolina's budget seems to be pretty well constructed. How else, he asked, can you explain the state having room to grow some programs at a time when other states are cutting back.
"We're obviously in a state of grace," Rand said. Click here to listen to more of his response.
Bonus audio: The House rejected the Senate version of the budget. Rep. Mickey Michaux explained some of the differences between the two versions. The Senate, for example, only provided $11 million to help schools fuel their buses, the House put $45 million toward helping with rising fuel prices. They also differ on bigger items such as children's health insurance and the finance package: The House has a finance package, the Senate doesn't.
Due to recent automated spamming attacks on our blogs, we are temporarily requiring commenters to authenticate themselves via TypeKey® before posting comments to any News & Record blog in order to prevent denials of service. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.