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Gov. Bev Perdue was in rare form this morning at the Council of State meeting. For a brief minute, she even channeled a bit o' the godfather. She was talking about the fact all state employees had been required to take 10-hour flexible furloughs and how she couldn't MAKE any elected official cut their pay.

"I cannot ask you all by law to do it automatically. Anyone who is elected has to voluntarily offer to give up that portion of their salary ... Personnel ... must have that information in hand no later than the 15th or your name will appear on the list of electeds that did not follow the voluntary request. And I really don't want that to happen to anybody who is elected.

One can imagine how this might be scripted in a mob movie: Hey, that's a nice reputation you got there. It'd be a shame if something should happen to it. Oh, things can happen, like, you know, you fail to return a portion of your salary to the state and then somebody, not saying who, puts out a list of elected officials who haven't made good. You know, bad things can happen - badda-boom.

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After the Council of State meeting, Perdue talked to us scruffy media types.

She was asked about Rep. Cary Allred's speeding ticket. She said she was looking forward to reading the Highway Patrol's report on why the ticket wasn't issued immediately and said that legislators should expect greater scrutiny.

"I think it's critically important that electeds have a higher standard of behavior," Perdue said. And she said that Allred and everyone else involved in the case needed to make sure they resolved it appropriately.

"Everyone in the state is watching," she said.

Perdue was also asked about furloughs - and said she didn't like doing them - and about the seven things she was lobbying legislators to keep in the budget before all else. Some were things we've heard before like protecting classrooms, creating jobs and keeping public safety folks on the job. But she made a particularly strong pitch for children’s' health insurance.

"I find it unconscionable that we might have a child taken off the children’s health rolls because we have no money," Perdue said.

Click here for the full Q+A. If you stay to the end, you get to hear the governor call a camera man a pervert during this exchange:

Perdue: Now let me undress to give you back your microphones.

Camera Man: Alright!

Perdue: I am an old woman, you are a pervert. You are a per-vert!

I finished updating this story on the News & Record's main page just a little while ago:

Gov. Bev Perdue has issued an executive order that effectively furloughs all state employees paid with tax dollars in an effort to help bridge a $3.2 billion budget gap for the budget year that ends June 30.

All teachers and state employees will lose one-half-of-one-percent of their annual pay by June 30. For a worker making $50,000, that means they’ll have $250 less in their May and June paychecks.

In exchange, those workers will be given 10 hours of time off that they can take by Dec. 31.

“This is not the end of the world,” Perdue told a morning news conference, although she called the measures “distasteful.”

Since taking office in January, Perdue has cut about $2.2 billion from the state government. But tax collections figures from April 15 showed that the state’s current year deficit would be $1 billion larger than anticipated – a total of $3.2 billion.

The furloughs will bridge $65 million of that additional $1 billion. In addition, Perdue said she will use up to $350 million of the state’s rainy day fund, $400 million in federal recovery funds she had hoped to be able to use after June 30, and will pull money out of trust funds and other special accounts as needed.

Click here for more.

Click here for Executive Order 11, which Perdue used to order the furloughs.

Click here for the budget memo explaining more of this.

Note: Updates below w/ audio and a mention of the state health plan.

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Gov. Bev Perdue talked to NFIB this afternoon. Afterward, she was mobbed by a crowd of us scruffy media types.

Among the things on our minds: how's the current year budget crisis going. Perdue has been forced to cut funding for state agencies because tax collections have been below estimates.

April 15 is a big tax collection day and many are anticipating the news from this year's April surprise might be bad.

"I did meet this morning with Charlie Peruse," Perdue said. She asked how revenues were doing.

"Charlie looked at me and said, 'The sales tax revenue for this past quarter are fairly good.' I don't know what that means.

"I said, 'Charlie, how hopeful are you?' He said, 'I feel comfortable that we have a long, long way to go but it isn't as bad as it could have been.'"

Perdue said that personal and corporate income tax figures were still to be tallied and that it would be Friday or early next week before there were reliable numbers.

And, she added, that the state would send out another round of tax refunds this week.

More to come, including audio.

Update: Click here for the audio of Perdue's Q+A with us scruffy media types.

She covers taxes, the budget, how federal stimulus funds are handled and is asked about Gov. Mike Easley's problems with accounting for SUVs his family has been driving:

"I'm seeing the same reports that you're seeing and reading the same stories you're reading, and I look forward to the facts being put out there for everybody in the state to think about. That's what it's all about, giving everybody a chance.

On the stimulus, Perdue said she learned something new from Dempsey Benton, her office's stimulus czar.

"He tells me something that I didn't know until yesterday, that the rules are such that the money cannot be co-mingled ... with state funds...All 50 states will almost have to set up a shadow budget. So if I'm going to use federal recovery funds for daycare slots or for job training, then I'll have to have two separate accounts. I'll have to have a North Carolina account and an account that's unique to the recovery dollars. The strident and stringent requirements ... are as complex and convoluted as I've ever seen."

Asked about potential tax changes in the state - in particular, changes that would tax more things but lower the rate, Perdue was circumspect:

"If the Senate and the General Assembly plans to move forward, I will be a partner in the activity that they undertake, I will be critical when it's important to be critical. But all in all, we all understand that in North Carolina and in America, that the system of providing services just based on property tax for county government and personal and corporate income tax needs to be re-examined.

"It's time to re-examine the tax structure. I don't know if this is the perfect time of if you'll see anything come this session. But it is healthy to have this kind of conversation and I admire the General Assembly for doing that"

...

"I think it's a hard time to talk about any kind of broad-based taxes, just because of the economy. So I'll have to see what it is they have in store for us...It's early in the whole General Assembly session."

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Update: During her speech to the NFIB members, Perdue also mentioned the state health plan. She noted some legislators were sitting in the room:

"I'm going to say this because we've got some House members sitting around here, not many senators. We need a state health plan, we need that bill brokered out. If you don't do it by Friday, we're going to see Blue Cross and our state health plan begin to cut off payments to providers, just when they need the money the most. And if by Monday or Tuesday there isn't a brokered bill, it's going to cost us $15 million out of North Carolina's very meager rainy day fund. I think we can come to a solution on that bill and I hope that you bill."

Also, she made mention of a trip to Charlotte tomorrow, that may be of interest for those in the banking sector:

“Tomorrow I’m going to Charlotte. I’m doing a special announcement. We’ve worked for weeks, months actually, on a kind of recovery plan to work with the folks in Charlotte in the financial services industry.”

I asked a Perdue staffer about the announcement. They said it would involve the banking industry but not be limited to that sector. They also added that the announcement would be "fairly specific to Charlotte."

Gov. Bev Perdue answers a question via video about unemployment benefits.

Submit your questions to the governor's office at her E-town hall page.

From the Sunday paper:

Local government officials had hoped the massive economic stimulus bill Congress passed in February would be manna from heaven, or at least easy cash from the federal government.

Rather, tapping money coming to North Carolina from the American Investment and Recovery Act has turned into a strange Easter egg hunt, one in which nobody knows all the rules or exactly what the eggs look like.

“We are extremely frustrated about what’s going on,” said Reidsville City Manager Kelly Almond. “We don’t know who to ask or who to fault.”

The stimulus bill divided funding between tax breaks, infusions into entitlement programs such as Medicaid and unemployment benefits and capital projects such as building roads or schools.

It is that third chunk — at least $6.1 billion — that cities and counties hope to tap.

Click here to read the whole thing.

Word just came down from the Feds that Gov. Bev Perdue and the State of North Carolina would be allowed to intervene in the Alcoa-Yadkin River case. For those new to the story, Perdue and some in the state legislature want to prevent Alcoa from being given another federal permit to operate electric generating facilities on the Yadkin River.

Here's the notice that just came from the FERC:

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION

Alcoa Power Generating, Inc. Project No. 2197-073

NOTICE GRANTING LATE INTERVENTION

(April 17, 2009)

On December 28, 2006, the Commission issued a Notice of Application Accepted for Filing and Soliciting Motions to Intervene and Protests for the relicensing of Alcoa Power Generating, Inc.’s Yadkin Hydroelectric Project No. 2197, located on the Yadkin River in Stanly, Davidson, Davie, Montgomery, and Rowan Counties, North Carolina.

On April 1, 2009, the State of North Carolina filed an untimely motion to intervene in this proceeding. On April 15, 2009, Alcoa Power Generating, Inc. filed a timely answer in opposition to North Carolina’s motion to intervene. On April 16, 2009, Stanly County filed a timely answer in support of North Carolina’s motion to intervene. Pursuant to Rule 214, the motion to intervene filed by the State of North Carolina is granted, subject to the Commission’s rules and regulations.

Kimberly D. Bose,
Secretary.

From Gov. Bev Perdue's office:

RALEIGH – Gov. Bev Perdue has reappointed Shirley T. Frye of Greensboro to the Guilford Technical Community College Board of Trustees.

Frye is retired. She is chair of the Joseph M. Bryan Foundation, a board member of the GlaxoSmithKline Foundation, vice-chair of The North Carolina Science and Math School and a board member of the Greensboro Partnership. She received the 2008 Distinguished Citizen Award from the Greensboro Partnership in 2009. Frye also received honorary doctorates from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 2007 and from Bennett College in 2006. She received her bachelor’s degree in education and English from N.C. A&T State University and her master’s degree in education and psychology from Syracuse University in New York.

The board’s duties are to elect the president, employ personnel, purchase land necessary for the operation of the college, apply standards for admission and graduation, receive gifts and donations, provide for the administration of all educational and occupational services, and to establish or enter into public or private partnerships for the support of the institution. The board has 12 members, each serving a four-year term. The governor appoints four members.

Also from the governor's office:

RALEIGH – Gov. Bev Perdue has appointed Tom Scullion of Greensboro to the North Carolina State Social Services Commission. Scullion is a retired professor emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and former lieutenant in the United States Army. He is a member of the Adult Center for Enrichment Board of Directors, Friends of Residents in Long Term Care and UNC Institute on Aging Senior Leadership Initiative. Scullion received his master’s degree in social work from Fordham University in New York and his doctorate degree in social work from Brandeis University in Massachusetts.

The commission adopts rules and regulations for the conduct of the state’s social service programs and has the power to adopt, amend and rescind rules and regulations. The commission has 13 members, each serving a four-year term. The governor appoints all members.

Those following the ongoing battle over whether to relicense Alcoa will remember that Gov. Bev Perdue moved to intervene in the federal regulatory case.

Alcoa filed this response this morning and says Gov. Perdue should not be able to weigh in. The company argues the N.C. Department of Environment of Natural Resources is already a party to the case. And, they say, the time for the state to take a real interest in the relicensing is over. From the filing:

The Motion cites as “good cause” for failing to file within the Rule 210(b) period the fact that “the opportunity to intervene through the normal channels predated the election of the current gubernatorial administration.”5 What the Motion overlooks, however, is the fact that the issues and positions in this proceeding are not new, and the State therefore has long been on notice as to the issues of this proceeding, regardless of the individual serving as governor. In her letter to the Commission of June 3, 2008, then-Lieutenant Governor (now current Governor) Perdue referred to the different circumstances that exist presently as compared to those present at the time the initial license was granted.6 Yet these circumstances to which the Governor referred (i.e., the closing of the Alcoa Inc. (“Alcoa”) smelting operations in Badin, North Carolina) did not develop after the Rule 210(b) deadline in February 2007. Rather, Alcoa curtailed its smelting operations in 2002.

Furthermore, the previous gubernatorial administration, of which the current Governor was an integral and senior member, was responsible for the successful intervention in this proceeding of two of its instrumentalities—NCDENR and NCWRC. If those two State entities had the opportunity to intervene in this proceeding on a timely basis, then so too did the Governor’s office, assuming arguendo that the Governor’s office has separate standing to appear as a party. The fact that the individual serving as Governor changed is irrelevant. The present Governor is of the same political party as her predecessor, but even if that were not the case, the fact that the occupant of the office changes would not of itself indicate a change in State policy.

Gov. Bev Perdue and Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of the White House Office on Health Reform, hosted a 90-minute town hall on health care reform Tuesday at NCA&T alumni events center.

Click here for the early version of my story.

More from the governor here and the feds here.

During the event, Perdue and DeParle heard from both pre-selected people and those who raised their hands. Included were health care providers as well as people who have had struggles with the health care system.

During a question-and-answer session after the event, DeParle said that she would carry the stories from today's forum back to Washington with her. (You can click here to listen to Perdue and DeParle take questions from reporters after the forum.)

One of the stories that seemed to stick with DeParle was that of Kirby Heard, 52, of High Point. The graphic designer talked about how she has lost her health insurance and now relies on a system of free clinics, but has been waiting eight months to see a dentist to replace a filling.

Click here to listen to what Heard told the forum.

From this morning's story on tobacco under fire in North Carolina:

“The argument I’m getting is this thing about tobacco farmers and companies, that we owe some sort of debt to them because they built the state,” Haynes said. “Well, our country was also partially founded on slavery, and we’re not doing that any more. We woke up and got some common sense one day. … Why aren’t the farmers farming something else? They’ve had plenty of time to switch.”

Isley shakes his head when asked if there’s another crop that could yield as much money for his 100-acre farm as tobacco.

“Maybe one acre of strawberries, and if you could have a little stand up on the roadside, maybe that could sustain your family,” he said.

Really?

“No. I wish it was,” he said.

So why doesn’t he get out of farming altogether?

“It’s in my blood,” he said. “It must be. It sure wasn’t because I wanted to get up at 4 a.m. every day and go to bed at midnight every night and make less money than my classmates.”

Click here to read the whole thing.

Haynes is Holly Haynes, a Winston-Salem woman who is fighting cancer. Isley is John Isley, a fourth-generation tobacco farmer from Reidsville. Among others, the story also includes quotes from folks who work at Greensboro-based Lorillard.

What I hoped to do with this story is let you hear a little bit from folks who are deeply vested in the tobacco policy debate but whose voices aren't often heard.

My editors and I talked over several times whether we needed to include a smoker in the story and decided against it because we've heard from them on many occasions. If you're dying for that perspective, Mark Johnson's excellent piece from earlier this year can scratch that itch.

And I should thank N+R news librarian Diane Lamb, who helped me sort through figures from the ESC, BLS and Reynolds American regarding tobacco-related employment.

If you're looking for more on this story:

• * Click here for H2, the smoking ban bill sponsored by Rep. Hugh Holliman. And Click here for background.

• * Click here to read the 2006 Surgeon General's report that declared:

  "Research reviewed in this report indicates that smoke-free policies are the most economic and effective approach for providing protection from exposure to secondhand smoke. But do they provide the greatest health impact. Separating smokers and nonsmokers in the same airspace is not effective, nor is air cleaning or a greater exchange of indoor with outdoor air. Additionally, having separately ventilated areas for smoking may not offer a satisfactory solution to reducing workplace exposures. Policies prohibiting smoking in the workplace have multiple benefits. Besides reducing exposure of nonsmokers to secondhand smoke, these policies reduce tobacco use by smokers and change public attitudes about tobacco use from acceptable to unacceptable."

• * You can read details of the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement on tobacco here. Good resources that help explain more include here, here, and here.

• * The Fort Worth Star-Telegram recently did a good story on the pending federal tobacco tax hike, while McClatchy's Washington Bureau put out this story about the ongoing conflict over FDA regulation of tobacco.

• * For those interested in public opinion, a March 2009 Elon University Poll showed that "A strong majority support local or state laws that ban smoking in all public places, including public buildings, offices, restaurants and bars. Seventy percent support local laws and 67 percent support state laws."(PDF)

So, does your opinion line up with the public's? The comment link is open.

Click here for today's Washington Watch column, in which I talk to Sen. Kay Hagan about joining the group of 15 moderate Democrats on her side of the hill:

Hagan said Monday that the United States was experiencing a fiscal crisis that called for higher than typical government spending.

But, she added, “I also think we’ve got to look at the long term. ... Obviously long term, I’m looking at not incurring as much debt as we’re talking about.”

I've got to admit, Hagan didn't move off her talking points from this news release by very much.

I spoke to Hagan late Monday and we covered a couple items that weren't in the column. Among them, Gov. Bev Perdue's proposed budget, which cuts spending on a number of programs. They include two that Hagan has an interest in:

• * Personal Financial Literacy The recommended reduction eliminates the appropriation which is no longer necessary as Personal Financial Literacy has been integrated into the curriculum and is also available to students through the North Carolina Virtual Public School (NCVPS)... ($500,000)

• * Phase Out Tuition Waiver for NC School of Science and Math (NCSSM) It is recommended that the funding of tuition remissions for graduates of NCSSM entering the UNC system be discontinued. Held harmless would be NCSSM graduates already in the UNC system. Funding would be completely eliminated by 2012-13. Appropriation ($990,619) in 2009-10 ($2,034,190) in 2010-11

Why these two? Both were championed by Hagan when she was a state senator and she cited both on the campaign trail as examples of smaller but important she did in the legislature.

In fact, Hagan took some heat over the tuition exemption bit from more liberal Democrats while she was in Raleigh. They suggested that the tuition waiver for kids already at one of the most prestigious public high schools around was unfair to kids who couldn't get into the school.

"Obviously I think nobody envies the choice Gov. Perdue has to make," Hagan said. Of the tuition waiver, she said, "We put it in place to keep our brightest here in North Carolina. We didn't want to lose them to out of state universities."

On the personal financial literacy piece, which looks like it will live on in some way, Hagan said the current financial crisis shows the need for such education.

"Personal financial literacy has not been something that's been taught properly in the past...It's not rocket science and we need to be teaching it."

Gov. Bev Perdue's budget continues to provide stories for us scruffy media types ... and consternation for just about everyone else.

From today's N+R:

• * Click here for my story about a social worker training program that could get cut. Telling here is that no one says this is a bad program, but folks in Raleigh say it's not efficient enough.

• * On day one of the budget release, UNCG and NCA&T were still evaluating the pain that the governor's budget would impose. Day two, my colleague Joe Killian reports they're feeling the pain.

Okay...I have to run off and do some reporting outside the Beltline today. Y'all play nice.

So, Gov. Bev Perdue rolled out her budget today and it got a fair amount of attention from us scruffy media types.

Click here to read the whole thing for yourself. Fair warning: the books measure roughly a foot high when stacked on my desk, so I'm guessing the PDFs are pretty big.

For those who want some of the early media coverage:

• * Update: Legislative leaders didn't give Perdue's budget the dreaded "dead on arrival" stamp, which means she did better her first time out than former Gov. Mike Easley did on his last.

• * The AP's Gary Robertson takes you through the basics.

• * One of my stories for tomorrow looks at some of the parochial effects of the budget, including the possibility a local prison could close.

• * My colleague Sonja Elmquist writes about one of the far flung effects of the current budget crisis.

• * The N+O's budget-paloza.

• * News 14 rocks some video.

Gov. Bev Perdue continued her budget rollout today at Wake County Community College's campus in North Raleigh today.

She said that her budget:

• * would increase spending on public education by 2.5 percent, but relies heavily on federal stimulus dollars to do that.

• * will cut state support for central office administrators.

• * will increase funding for retraining workers.

• * would fund enrolment growth and expand support for financial aid for university systems.

• * however, she said she would be cutting funding for joint campuses and centers located not on a university's main campus. To my mind, that says the folks running the UNCG-NCAT nanotechnology school are likely in for a disappointment.

For more of Perdue’s thoughts, check out the videos below.

The state budget dance will formally begin Tuesday when Gov. Bev Perdue unveils her tax and spending proposal.

Already we've seen the preliminary handkerchief waving, bowing and pleasantries that go along with the beginning of any cotillion. The honorables have been reading up on various sections of the state budget in committee meetings while getting briefed on how bad the revenue picture really is.

Meanwhile, Perdue has been telling anyone who will listen how "tough" the choices she's going to have to make are. Her senior budget staffer even briefed us scruffy media types on the fiscal picture last week.

After Perdue makes her opening move, the action shifts to the legislature like this:

• * The Senate will take a crack at writing the budget first this year.
• * After the Senate passes its version, the House will get a shot at writing it and almost certainly put their own stamp on it.
• * The House, Senate and governor's office negotiate until a final budget is put before the honorables.

All along the way, updated tax revenue figures, breaking news, and the odd policy priority that bubbles to the surface shapes the final product. While some changes are big and thematic – what percent raise will teachers get, if any or how much money will be put into the mental health care system – often the fiercest battles are fought over the smaller pots of money.

For those small programs, such as support for the High Point Furniture Market, inclusion in the governor’s budget is a golden ticket to the final round of budget negotiations. And it’s a good bet those golden tickets will be harder to come by than a Wonka Bar at a health food convention this year.

Perdue has been giving different glimpses of her budget over the past week. Gov. Mike Easley used to do this sort of thing, putting out pieces of his budget agenda in advance to make sure they got media attention before putting out the entire thing, when reporters would start asking pesky questions about how he might pay for all those goodies.

As Laura Leslie notes at her blog, this isn't a half-bad idea since the stories written tomorrow will all be about which programs are getting slashed or who is getting taxed to balance the budget.

So what do we know of Perdue's budget priorities so far? The summary is this:

• * This afternoon she'll talk about her education spending plans, but she already said in the state of the state address that she wants to increase per pupil spending.

• * Over the weekend, Perdue released an audio statement on the National Guard, which seems to have gone missing from her web site. In it, she said that she would propose spending $2 million for National Guard family assistance centers and more from other programs, such as one that helps the children of national guard soldier cope with their parents' deployments.

• * Last week, she pledged to spend millions on beefing up the probation and parole system, where officials have admitted they can't keep track of all the offenders they should.

• * In another address last week, Perdue outlined economic development priorities that included raising the earned income tax credit, creating a tax exemption for small businesses and spending millions on job creation and recruitment programs.

Left unsaid so far is how Perdue plans to pay for all of this while tamping down a budget shortfall expected to be in the $2 billion range.

Undoubtedly, Perdue will have to make cuts in other areas and she has been gathering suggestions on what those might be. And while few expect she'll propose a broad-based tax hike such as a sales tax increase, taxes on alcohol and tobacco will almost certainly be proposed.

Whatever she does when she finally lifts the curtain tomorrow, prepare for much rending of clothing, beating of chests and gnashing of teeth.

Gov. Bev Perdue's office has just sent word that she will release her version of the state budget on Tuesday. More details - like what time of day - to come, according to the notice.

Click here for today's newspaper story on Gov. Bev Perdue's State of the State address.

So was there actual, you know, news from the speech? A little.

First off, Perdue said she would be delivering her budget next week. Although the honorables have been getting briefings and meeting on the budget, it is the governor's budget message that officially kicks off the tax and spending dance.

Lawmakers I talked to last night all noted that Perdue's address was light on specifics and said they would look to her budget proposal for hard numbers.

Secondly, the word "furlough" in relation to state workers came up quite a bit after the speech last night. Perdue didn't use the F word herself, but both House Speaker Joe Hackney and Senate Minority Leader Phil Berger mentioned it as an option that would have to be considered.

Finally, the speech was notable for what you didn't hear. You didn't hear a lot of push-back afterward. Yes, the Republicans sought to lay blame for the current fiscal mess at the Democrats' feet, but didn't take issue with Perdue's calls for austerity or the fact she said deep budget cuts would be needed. And Democrats seemed content to take their medicine, reconciling them at least for the evening that whatever state spending plan is produce would likely hack off just about every constituency they had.

"I think we have our marching orders now," said Sen. Tony Rand, the majority leader in the Senate.

And during the speech, Perdue didn't offer up a round-robin nod to all the state's various industries and movers and shakers. You didn't hear, for example, the governor send love to farmers and when she mentioned the business community it was to admonish them to do more for education, not pay lip service to corporations on tax issues.

If Perdue's budget reflects her rhetoric, education leaders should be fairly happy, or at least not completely disappointed. Everyone else: that grinding sound you hear is her Excellency sharpening a pike to gore your particular ox.

Update: More on the SOTS festivities from the tavern and Dome.

This is the Capital Beat live-blog of Gov. Perdue’s State of the State address tonight. The address is due to begin at 7 p.m. You can get live audio from the House chamber here.

The following dialog box is generated by Cover-it-Live and will be fed via Twitter. For those on Twitter, my stream will also be picking up tweets with #NCGA and #NCSOS hashtags. (For those of you not on Twitter, that means you'll get to see some comments from others, not just me.)

The live-blog will commence sometime between 6:30 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Update: Perdue's prepared remarks are posted after the jump.

I reported last week that funding for promoting the High Point Furniture Market was among the cuts that the Commerce Department offered to Gov. Bev Perdue as a way to help balance next year's budget.

The recurring funding (that which the state gives every year unless legislators act to stop it) for the market is less than $1 million. That hardly seems like enough to cure what could be in the neighborhood of $3 billion budget gap. Still, the old saying "A million here, a million there and pretty soon you're talking about real money," often applies when trying to cut down a state budget.

I didn't have a chance to speak to Perdue directly about the Commerce submission last week, but did today after the Council of State meeting.

Perdue said that marketing of the High Point Furniture Market was important, particularly with challenges from other venues.

"I mean with (Las) Vegas trying to come in and take some ground from North Carolina we really must stay committed to the show itself and the market it opens up globally for North Carolina," Perdue said.

It's good news for High Point that she can speak in those terms. It would make it much harder for those lobbying to win support if they had to explain what the market was to Perdue from scratch.

That said, Perdue said that all budget items "were on the table" as potential cuts and she could not commit to what might happen with the market one way or the other.

"My heart's in the right place, I just don't know that the state's pocket book is in the right place," she said.

Click here to listen to her full answer. (40 seconds)

The General Assembly is in the process of inviting Gov. Bev Perdue to give her annual State of the State address on March 9 at 7 p.m. (The governor cannot just show up in the General Assembly and start yacking. There are rules and tradition that govern these sorts of things.)

A governor delivers the State of the State once every legislative session - that's every two years to normal folks. Typically, the governor uses the speech to talk about their budget priorities and what other legislation she would like the General Assembly to work on.

When I saw her after the Council of State meeting this morning, I asked Perdue what she might tell the honorables.

"Would you like to help write the speech? We don't have one yet," Perdue joked. She added that meetings on the state budget, both the current year and the proposal for the budget that will take effect July 1, have consumed most of her time.

Click here to listen to her full answer.

Gov. Bev Perdue is putting together her budget proposal for the tax and spending plan that would take effect July 1. Because the state is facing down a budget shortfall that's somewhere in the $2 billion-to-$3 billion range, she asked agencies to give her potential budget cuts.

Unhappy with the first round of suggestions, she asked agencies to go back and look for more things that could be cut.

The results of that new round of suggestions were boiled down into this spreadsheet, which details options the agencies have offered up as budget cutting alternatives.

The spokeswoman who passed this along stressed these are OPTIONS, not recommendations and not things the governor necessarily will do.

But worth noting for High Point: The Commerce Department recommends doing away with $866,250 in recurring funding for the Furniture Market. That's money that goes to promote the market and was mentioned as vulnerable in a story I wrote for today's paper.

Also among the potential cuts is reducing state funding for the Shakespeare Festival, which is based in High Point.

These cuts were the "deeper, more programmatic changes" Perdue asked for after getting the first round of optional budget cuts. They only add up to about $74 million, which does not get you that big of a dent on a $2 billion (or more) budget gap.

On a related note, the governor's office sent this along late today:

As part of Gov. Perdue’s ongoing efforts to manage the current fiscal year budget shortfall, she is taking the following steps under Executive Order No. 6:

Asking most state agencies for further reduction amounts from 7 percent to 9 percent. Governor Perdue will continue to protect public education as much as possible while managing the shortfall.

As a precautionary step to manage cash flow, the state will transfer up to $300 million dollars from several special accounts into the General Fund. The money will be put into a reserve and may be used to support General Fund obligations if necessary. These transfers will be managed so that existing activities supported by these special funds aren't impacted. The state annually faces cash flow issues between mid-February and April 15. The state's cash position is more heavily impacted this year because final corporate payments are now due by April 15, 2009, rather than March 15, 2009.

Reserve Transfer Amount Current Cash Balance

Education Lottery
Reserve Fund $ 50 million $ 50 million

Clean Water
Management
Trust Fund $100 million $251 million

Public School
Building
Capital Fund $100 million $316 million

Public School
Textbook Fund $ 50 million $ 65 million

Total $300 million $682 million

“The state constitution requires that I balance the state budget, and I will do that while protecting public education as much as possible,” said Gov. Perdue.

Gov. Bev Perdue is making her way around the state today announcing various road projects she expects to fund with $466 million in stimulus money. Click here to read the full list, including two projects in Guilford County.

You can read the news release that came along with the list after the jump.

Gov. Bev Perdue's office just sent this list of what stimulus spending will mean to North Carolina.

The thing that jumps out at me right away is it doesn't look like there's any money for school construction, which just strikes me as odd. There is money for Head Start, Special Education and Educational Technology.

Update: That's no mistake. School construction funding was eliminated from the bill. From the Washington Post:

House Democrats were particularly incensed that language relating to school construction had been eliminated -- along with nearly $20 billion in funds -- and that governors would be restricted to paying for school renovations and repairs out of a $54 billion pot of money that included other education projects.

Gov. Bev Perdue has written a letter from her undisclosed vacation spot to members of Congress asking them to speak up for certain items in the stimulus package.

Click here to read the letter.

Click here for the latest story on the stimulus from the Washington Post. It notes that negotiators have trimmed the price-tag of the bill about $50 billion from what the Senate approved earlier in the week.

Perdue outlined two groups of items she considered vital to North Carolina. They're grouped together here:

1. Funding for the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund at the level of $79 billion over two years, as included in the House version. This will deliver $1.1 billion to North Carolina for education and provide the flexibility to effectively direct $716 million for other urgent funding gaps we suddenly face.

2. Making the funds available immediately, as the Senate version directs, upon enactment rather than waiting for July 1, 2009. Waiting until the start of our state’s next fiscal year will be too late to help us with the revenue shortfall we face today.

3. Making the funds eligible to sustain current state commitments to education, as the National Governors Association recommends, so that states like North Carolina are not penalized for keeping up with our commitments to education by sacrificing much-needed services in other areas.

4. Maintain the House provision providing approximately $364 million to North Carolina school districts. These funds would put people to work immediately on the $1.1 billion in “shovel ready” school projects.

5. Provide maximum level of funding for the wastewater and drinking water projects. The estimated $1.25 billion in wastewater and $124 million in drinking water infrastructure “ready to go” projects in municipalities, and the $309 million “ready to go” in rural areas only cover a portion of these needs.

6. Support the House version of funding for various law enforcement assistance. That version will provide more near-term jobs and have a greater impact on public safety in our state.

7. Include Unemployment Insurance extension and modernization language and funding. This bill must address these issues, particularly if we face a lengthy and deep recession.

State agencies have sent Gov. Bev Perdue a list of things they could cut in order to close North Carolina's $1.1 billion $1.8 billion $2 billion $3 billion really big budget deficit.

Click here to peruse the list.

A spokeswoman for the governor stresses "these are only options, not recommendations, promises or anything like that."

There's not enough detail to tell much about what might specifically impact Greensboro or the surrounding area.

Update: After speaking with Chrissy Pearson in Perdue's press office, she says the governor is unhappy with the cuts suggested.

"She wants to get a little bit deeper. ... We're talking about making government work more efficiently," Pearson said.

Most of the cuts, she added, were compiled by folks working for Gov. Mike Easley's administration. Perdue has asked her own cabinet secretaries to go back and take a look at what might be cut.

"Some of these options look like they might be reasonable; there are some other things that may not be so reasonable," Pearson said.

I would think some of the public safety or HHS items on the list might go in the unreasonable, or at least likely to cause a ruckus, pile, including:

• * Closing: McCain Correctional Hospital
• * Cutting the DOT funding of the Highway Patrol by $5.8 million
• * Freezing health choice (the state's CHIP program) enrollment to save $4.8 million

It's a foggy, rainy morning here in Raleigh as the General Assembly prepares to fire up the session.

For the uninitiated: Elections were held in November. The General Assembly that convenes today is a brand-spanking new one. The honorables will have to elect officers, rearrange the deck chairs, swap offices and chairmanships, etc.

As for meeting the bosses, they're pretty much the same as the old bosses. House Speaker Joe Hackney and Senate President Pro Tempore are widely expected to be re-elected. Of course, Gov. Bev Perdue is less than a month into her first term, and her relationship with the legislature will be closely watched.

From Guilford County: There's only one new player. Sen. Don Vaughan has taken U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan's place. Otherwise, your scorecard is the same as last year.

Issues? Yeah, the honorables have got some issues to deal with - complicated policy problems to solve, as well. There's:

• * the budget
• * environmental issues
• * the budget
• * or say ...the budget
• * and did we mention the budget?

The honorables swear to protect, defend and obey at noon today. You can find an audio stream of the pomp and circumstance here.

For those marking their calendars: The session is expected to run through sometime this summer, probably adjourning in late July or August. Then they should go home and return in May 2010. That doesn't account for special session or veto sessions. It's what would happen if everything goes as expected, which may be a bit much to ask this year. Budget problems have a history of making things drag out in unexpected ways.

Everyone buckle up, it's going to be a bumpy ride.

I'm still working through exactly what Gov. Bev Perdue's drive to appoint the same person as public schools CEO and School Board Chairman means.

Click here for a PDF of the bio Perdue's folks handed out on William Harrison, who is currently chief of the Cumberland County schools.

AP's Gary Robertson takes an early swipe here, and I'll have a story for the paper tomorrow.

In the meantime:

• * Click here to listen for yourself as Perdue explains the major changes.
• * Click here to listen to Perdue answer questions from reporters.

Gov. Bev Perdue sends word this morning that she will make "a major policy announcement" at 4:15 p.m. today. This being a new administration, I have no gauge on exactly how major "major" is.

Worth noting: We're a couple weeks in to the new administration and the new governor does seem to be keeping her pledge to be out in the open more than her predecessor.

Update: This was the announcement, from the governor's office:

RALEIGH – Gov. Perdue today announced a major restructuring in education leadership that will change the way we do business in North Carolina. In keeping with Gov. Perdue’s commitment to a 21st century education system that affords every child the opportunity to learn, today’s announced changes establish a clearly defined leadership role for seeing through the policies and requirements to ready North Carolina public schools for the global economy.

"I have heard from educational leaders across the state, and their frustrations echo my own experiences serving on the Board," said Gov. Perdue. "We need to have a clear line of accountability and better structural support to implement new policies."

"At the same time, the buck stops with me when it comes to North Carolina's education system. These are changes that are coming at just the right time to kick off a new era of educational innovation and progress."

Gov. Perdue is asking the State Board of Education to redefine the duties of its chair to include the responsibilities of the newly created Chief Executive Officer, who will manage operations of the public school system. Gov. Perdue is appointing Dr. Bill Harrison to the Board and is asking the Board members to select him as their chair.

Dr. Harrison is currently the Superintendent of Cumberland County Schools — the fourth largest school system in North Carolina. He has also served as Superintendent of Orange County and Hoke County Schools. He began his teaching career in 1975 in Fayetteville.

In addition, Gov. Perdue is appointing Howard Lee to serve as the Executive Director of the North Carolina Education Cabinet, a group she has pledged to reinvigorate. Lee is currently the chair of the State Board of Education.

"Dr. Harrison and Chairman Lee are strongly committed to improving our public schools," said Gov. Perdue. "Their leadership and experience will be invaluable as we continue to strive to make our schools world-class in a global economy."

"I'm excited about the opportunity to work with Gov. Perdue in making our public schools they best that they can be," said Dr. Harrison. "Strong schools mean a stronger economy."

"I'm honored to have the opportunity to help Gov. Perdue implement her vision for great schools and to work with the state’s top education leaders to build a seamless system that works for all of our students," said Chairman Lee.

Superintendent of Public Instruction June Atkinson will continue to be the state’s education ambassador, working with superintendents, education leaders, schools, business leaders and others to strengthen our public schools. In addition, Gov. Perdue asked Atkinson to lead a new Blue Ribbon Task Force on Career Development and Workforce Issues.

Also today, Gov. Perdue named Myra Best as special advisor to the Governor on education and education innovation. Best is currently director of the Business Education Technology Alliance and of the E-Learning Commission. She has 14 years of teaching and counseling experience in public schools.

"Myra has been instrumental in helping me put more technology in our schools," said Gov. Perdue. "She will help us continue to reach our goals of providing 21st century learning options in every corner of our state."

"Gov. Perdue is a long-time leader in improving our public schools, and I look forward to continuing our work in building strong, 21st century classrooms," said Best.

The governor continues the process of selecting an education advisor and a teacher advisor

If anyone was wondering what exactly the budget "freeze" ordered by Gov. Bev Perdue might look like (I wasn't real clear to tell you the truth) her staff laid it out in news release this afternoon:

Gov. Bev Perdue today instructed state agencies to take several steps to balance North Carolina’s budget. The budget management plan is in response to the executive order she signed on Tuesday after new estimates showed the shortfall increasing to $2 billion.

"The global recession has forced our state to make tough financial decisions," said Gov. Perdue. "North Carolina has earned a reputation for managing our money wisely, and I will continue our state’s practice of sound fiscal management. I will meet my constitutional obligation to balance the budget, and I will meet it responsibly."

The executive’s orders budget balancing steps include:

1.) Require agencies to cut spending by 7 percent. This is an additional 2 percent cut, added to former Gov. Easley’s previously ordered 5 percent cut.

2.) Stop the purchase of all goods or services, unless specifically approved by a department head. This does not apply to the purchase of supplies, equipment and materials schools require for classroom instruction.

3.) All travel and training is suspended unless it involves public safety, public health, job requirements, economic development opportunities or emergency situations. Any exceptions to the directive must be approved by department heads.

4.) All pay-as-you-go appropriations for capital improvement and repair and renovation projects are to be placed on hold.

5.) A hold on hiring for vacant positions, unless a prior commitment has been made. Vacancies may only be filled if they are approved by a department head as an extraordinary exception to the directive.

Emily Stephenson, helping out from her D.C. base at the Scripps Howard Foundation Wire, provided the video below. It's a bit shaky and I haven't cleaned it up, but it'll give you a sense of what Perdue was talking about up on Capitol Hill today. (Previously: Perdue in Washington.)

Gov. Bev Perdue is in Washington today pressing her case for North Carolina to get its share of federal stimulus dollars. (Background here.) She was meeting with North Carolina's Congressional delegation and members of President-elect Barack Obama's transition team.

Emily Stephenson, who served ably as a newsroom intern last summer, is doing a tour in D.C. with Scripps Howard Foundation Wire and provided me with a report from Perdue's travels today.

Perdue said Tuesday that she expected to see a $2 billion (give or take a few hundred thousand) shortfall in the current year budget earlier this week. That's higher than the $1.2 billion Gov. Mike Easley had been predicting before the transition.

She told reporters in D.C. that she's asking for two pots of money from the federal government: one for infrastructure items and one to help bolster the state's budget.

"I learned a long time ago … that you take a time like this of tremendous challenge and you use it to retrofit or change the system," she said.

Perdue told reporters that she had identified a list of projects that are "shovel ready." I spoke with some of Perdue's aids this afternoon, who said that it's not so much a list as a collection of e-mails that are being compiled into something resembling a coherent list. It should be done by this weekend.

Perdue did have a one-page handout she gave to lawmakers (Click here for a PDF) that contained gross totals for the kind of money she could put to work. That sheet says, for example, there are $2.8 billion in projects cities could do right away, but it doesn't list those individual projects.

At any rate, those projects are things that could be under way by March 14 if North Carolina were to get the money Thursday.

"This is a tremendously realistic list," Perdue said, adding, "My criteria was, don't give me people's wish lists. I want projects that are shovel-ready...I think the president-elect's team and the president-elect himself understand this is critical money."

The handout contains and interesting reference to Medicaid funding and says that a federal infusion into the Medicaid program would be welcome.

"Additional FMAP funds would ameliorate the need to make draconian reductions that ultimately impact our ability to provide quality services to our citizens."

Perdue took a dig at the North Carolina Congressional delegation members who have been skeptical about the stimulus and (in her opinion) were letting reelections determine their votes.

Emily ran into Rep. Mike McIntyre (ran into him in the hallway) who originally opposed stimulus stuff because he thought it ignored rural areas, and 85 counties in NC can be considered rural. He thinks Perdue's proposal does account for rural areas since transportation, airports, clean water are everywhere.

"It's not targeted just to one sector or one industry," he said.

Two news releases came in late today. First up, U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan received her committee assignments today. From a news release:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Kay R. Hagan (D-NC) was named to the Senate Armed Services and Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committees today. Legislative work in Congress is divided among committees based on jurisdiction, and “A”- level committees are considered the most important.

Former Sen. Elizabeth Dole, who Hagan defeated this fall, sat on armed services. Hagan will join Richard Burr, a Republican and North Carolina's senior senator, on the HELP committee.

Hagan and new North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue are scheduled to talk about priorities Wednesday. And as it happens, our second release comes from the governor, who says the state's current year budget deficit will hit $2 billion.

Governor Bev Perdue today signed an executive order to address the increasing fiscal year 2008-09 budget shortfall now predicted by the Office of State Budget and Management (OSBM) to reach $2 billion or more.

The order outlines options to address the shortfall. Perdue will provide a more detailed management plan by the end of this week to ensure the state’s budget is balanced on June 30, 2009 as required by the state Constitution.

“Like most states, North Carolina is being deeply impacted by the global recession,” said Governor Perdue. “As Governor, I have a constitutional requirement to balance North Carolina’s budget, and I intend to do so responsibly. North Carolina has a track record of responsible fiscal management as demonstrated by our AAA bond rating. That’s the same approach we take today.”

Click here to read the executive order.

The order seems to make good on something Perdue said yesterday, when she said the state may have to freeze spending. While this doesn't cut any programs off, it does seem to put a hold on spending for things the state might not have to buy right away.

I would translate it as the governor saying, "Don't spend money we don't have." AP's Gary Robertson is, as usual, a little more precise in his delivery. From the Associated Press story:

Perdue's executive order told budget officials to keep holding back on monthly allocations to state agencies at her direction. They also may be called to retain cash set aside for capital projects that haven't yet been placed under contract and to take money from other pots within state government to keep the general operating fund flush.

The news release said Perdue's budget officials set the $2 billion figure because taxes withheld from paychecks - a key indicator of employment - slowed to 1.2 percent growth during the three months ending Dec. 31. Sales tax collections also fell 10 percent in the second quarter.

The declining stock market and the state's highest unemployment rate in 25 years also will lead to revenue problems, according to her office.

If the economy continues to sour, Perdue and legislators could face having to draw up a budget for next year that must fill a $3 billion gap between projected revenues and expenditures. Filling the gap would likely include making a cash infusion to the health insurance plan for state employees and giving small raises to employees and teachers.

From Gov. Bev Perdue's office:

Governor Bev Perdue today announced that she is appointing Charles Perusse as the state budget director.

"Mr. Perusse has a firm understanding of the entire North Carolina State Budget," said Governor Perdue. "During this time of revenue shortfalls and impending budget cuts, Mr. Perusse’s expertise will be a tremendous asset to my office, to our state agencies and to the people of North Carolina."

Mr. Perusse has 15 years of statewide budget and financial management experience. He served as deputy state budget officer from January, 2002 to September, 2008. In September of 2008 Mr. Perusse was appointed acting state budget director.

Prior to his work as deputy state budget officer, Mr. Perusse spent eight years as a fiscal analyst for the General Assembly’s Fiscal Research Division. He served three years as budget coordinator for the North Carolina House of Representatives.

During his career, Mr. Perusse helped North Carolina regain its AAA bond rating with Moody’s, led the development of the state’s results-based budgeting initiative that emphasizes program performance and accountability, and assisted with the transition to a market and competency-based compensation program for state employees.

Mr. Perusse holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from North Carolina State University, and a Master’s degree in Public Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

"North Carolina is currently faced with challenging financial times," said Mr. Perusse. "I look forward to working with Governor Perdue to meet this challenge and prepare the best possible budget for the people of this state."

Gov. Bev Perdue talked to reporters for the second time in one day (we're stilling getting used to this) during her first day in office. This time, it was after her cabinet secretaries were sworn in.

She was asked about her upcoming trip to Washington.

"The purpose the trip is very simple. They are in the process of putting together what appears to be a very significant stimulus package for states," Perdue said. She wants to bring a list of projects North Carolina is ready to get going on to officials in the incoming Obama administration.

And, she said, she wants to impress upon officials that money should be distributed in such a way that is equitable to states like North Carolina with large and growing populations. There has been some talk, she said, of distributing funds based on the greatest budget deficits.

North Carolina, Perdue said, should not be punished for managing its budget relatively well.

When asked about a state tax hike for next year, Perdue didn't say "absolutely not" but she didn't sound real warm on the prospect.

You can click here for that part of the presser.

Several of us noticed that the new governor had a baseball bat propped up beside her desk in her office at the Capitol.

"It's to hit to reporters with who are unkind to me," Perdue joked.

In reality, she said, "That was something presented to me in Wilmington when they were named some kind of all American baseball city."

And, she added, "It's a derivative of the Lieutenant Governor's office, not a weapon of intent or malice."

When asked if she has moved into her government-funded housing, Perdue said it will take about 30 days to make the transition. Among the things that have to be done are checks to make sure a mold problem that cropped up during the Easley administration did not start creeping back.

Click here for that part of the presser.

More to come.

Update: Perdue also talked about her idea to hand control of state road construction contracts to the DOT Secretary rather than have those be approved by board members.

She said that she hoped the General Assembly would play nice.

"I really look forward to my first sit-down with the Speaker and Pro Temp," she said.

Click here for that part of the conversation.

Gov. Bev Perdue swore in her cabinet this afternoon. Among them was Linda Carlisle, a Greensboro businesswoman and former lottery commissioner who now serves as Secretary of Cultural Resources.

I talked to her during a reception for the new cabinet today and you can click here to hear the full audio of that conversation.

The summary:

• * I asked her if she would live in Greensboro or Raleigh. She's buying a second home in Raleigh.

• * I asked how she could sell the General Assembly on maintaining arts funding at a time when the budget is squeezed and the economy is struggling.

  "What we have to do is continue to tell our story well," she said. "I think so often people understand what cultural resources are but they forget to really put a price tag on what the value is to our citizens, what the value is toward building a good place where businesses can grow."

  Carlisle said she would be looking for ways to expand arts in North Carolina without spending a lot more dollars. The word "volunteer" came up a lot.

  "Frankly, I'm not really satisfied to maintain status quo," She said. "I think even in today's environment, there are creative ways that we can look to expand on the offerings we have."

• * Libraries fall under the purview of Carlisle's department. And every year, libraries come begging to the General Assembly to defend their funding.

  "Everything you read and hear tells you libraries become a greater resource during economic downturn times," Carlisle said. She added that she would do her best to defend funding for libraries.

  "Our funding for our libraries is abysmal at times," she added.

• * So, how did she get the job?

  "It wasn't a plan," Carlisle said. "In fact, I feel like back in Greensboro there's a lot of egg on my face because I've told people for a very long time that I was not aspiring to take a job in Raleigh."

  But Perdue called her and asked her to take the job. Carlisle is a known quantity to folks in Raleigh from her service on the UNCG Board and as one of the commissioners who started the state's lottery.

  "I had to think about it, not because I wasn't flattered ... but simply because it wasn't on my game sheet. But Bev (Perdue) said to me that, 'Sometimes, the good Lord has better plans for you than you have for yourself.' So she trumped all of my arguments. There was nothing else I could say to that."

• * I asked about the Charlotte Hawkins Brown site in Sedalia, the state's only African American historic site and one that frequently comes up during budget discussions.

  "I am aware of the desperate need for funding and for R and R (repair and renovation) kind of funds to help support that. What I need to do is look at it in the total context of what the needs are."

From today's paper:

• Gov. Perdue takes the oath of office.

• Gov. Easley grants some clemency before leaving office.

If you were hoping to find out about last minute actions by the Easley administrations (like, say, pardons or commutations) and logged onto the official website after noon today, you were out of luck.

Shortly after she took the oath of office today, Gov. Bev Perdue was rocking a brand new official website. The vestiges of the Easley website had been swept away, along with archives of news releases and other items that might have been useful.

Sigh.

At any rate, click here for the new all-Perdue all the time site. It's pretty spiffy, complete with a blog and links to web 2.0 stuff like Flickr and YouTube.

Happy NC Inauguration Day everyone.

I am reliably informed by one of the lawyers involved that Gov. Mike Easley granted two commutations on his way out of office. I'll try to get more on those today.

Otherwise, Gov. Bev Perdue should officially take office sometime between 10:30 and 11:30 a.m.

Update: After talking with Gov. Easley, I can say for sure he commuted sentences for three (not two as listed above) people during his last hours in office. He said he issued no pardons.

One of those whose sentence was commuted is from Guilford County. I'll have more once I confirm her name.

Update: I've been able to confirm the names of two of the three people to whom Easley granted clemency.

Vernishia Nicole Kilpatrick, now 36, a 1994 UNCG graduate, was sentenced to life in prison for the 1994 stabbing death of her boyfriend, Bruce Barron.

The defendant in one of the other cases was Christopher Matthew Brown, a Bucombe County teenager who was convicted in connection with a fatal accident involving aggressive driving. His attorney is Greensboro lawyer Don Vaughan, who will soon take office as a state senator.

These commutations by Easley does not expunge the crime from someone’s record or cause their immediate release from jail as a pardon could. Rather, according to Easley and one of his chief advisers, he lowered Kilpatrick’s sentence so that the North Carolina Parole Commission can consider her release sometime in the next one-to-three years.

I'll have more in the paper tomorrow.

A friend who walks in Democratic fundraising circles passed on this copy of an invite to a Jan. 22 Bev Perdue birthday party-cum-fundraiser.

A $10,000 donation will get you "host" privileges, although a "friend" can get some cake for $500.

Still, better be good cake, no? I'm thinking extra-thick frosting or something.

The invitation is putatively from the Democratic Party and according to this ABC 11 story, a spokeswoman for the party says funds will go to the state party's general fund.

But since neither a spokesman for Perdue nor the Democratic Party bothered to return calls my way - hey, my cell phone works north of Kerr Lake, even up here on the shores of the Potomac - I feel no guilt in sharing an alternate theory:

The same person who passed on the invite said there is a great deal of speculation among fundraisers that the money might go to help retire some campaign debt.

He points to Perdue's latest campaign finance filing from 3Q of 2008, which shows over $1 million in loans and other outstanding debts -- lines 21 and 22 of the form.

According to this first quarter form, at least $500,000 of that appears to be from Perdue herself.

So my source's theory goes like this: Perdue needs/wants to raise money to repay those loans but can't do it under her own banner (looks bad, $10,000 is outside of guidelines, etc...) so she'll do it under the party banner and the party will help retire her debt.

I'll throw that in the "maybe" column. Sounds plausible but doesn't sound in keeping with Perdue's "I'm going to clean up government" mantra from the election.

Of course, even if the money IS going to the Democratic Party itself, there's this question: does having a governor headline a high-dollar fundraiser thrown in honor of her birthday at a time when $500 (much less $10,000) looks like a lot of dough to people struggling to make rent giver her political opponents an opportunity to be, um, critical?

Even admirals were cancelling Christmas parties last year due to the recession.

So while I've been wandering about D.C., there have been happenings at home.

Governor-elect Bev Perdue completed her cabinet Tuesday.

(By the way: thanks to my colleague Gerald Witt for picking up my slack on Perdue's Commerce and cultural resources appointments.)

The head-scratching pick of the day might be Lanier Cansler as HHS secretary. There's two ways to view this appointment:

The guy is a consultant knowledgeable about the health care, has served in the agency so knows the lay of the land and is a Republican to boot - giving Perdue some bipartisan cred. (Lanier is a former legislator and gave advice to state Sen. Fred Smith during the campaign, according to a March 17 story in the Asheville Citizen Times.)

Then again ...

The guy was a consultant in the knowledgeable about the health care field: Specifically, Dome reports he is a registered lobbyist for a company that has sold the state a Medicaid bill-paying system. (Perdue told reporters in the state that Cansler is detached from his private industry dealings.)

He has served in the agency so knows the lay of the land: Specifically, he was deputy secretary from 2001 to 2005, right about when the mental health system started its rock-sled ride to perdition. And fixing mental health will be one of the DHHS secretary's most high profile tasks.

He is a Republican - okay, that's not a potential failing, is it?

-=-=-=-=-=-=

Both the North Carolina Democratic Party and North Carolina Republican Party will be looking for new leadership in the new year.

In a statement, GOP Chairman Linda Daves:

"Serving as the Chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party has been a great honor. The ability to serve the interests of the people of North Carolina has been one of the great privileges of my life. The best part of this job has been the ability to meet the many diverse people who make up the fabric of our state. I have spent many years working alongside dedicated, hardworking Republicans in North Carolina as a grassroots activist. It is these good people who make up the heart and soul of our party. Having the ability to see their commitment to making our state the best that it can be has given me renewed hope for our future each day.

There was also the small matter of the state GOP getting a butt-whoopin' last fall. A gain of one seat in the state senate is far outweighed by losing the state auditor's office, losing the state's presidential electors for the first time since 1976 and losing a senate seat held by a well-known incumbent.

One prominent North Carolina Republican told me this week "the party is in shambles," referring both to its national standing and its operations in state. Rebuilding it will fall to the next chairman.

There doesn't seem to be a line out the door for the job. State Sen. Fred Smith doesn't seem to be going hard at it.

Former Guilford County GOP Chairman Marcus Kindley has been stumping for the job. Four years ago, he drew a lot of support from rural areas of the state.

-=-=-=-=-=-=

On the Democratic side, many folks have seemingly expressed interest in the job - if not said they were running outright. The most widely known name being floated might be Jim Neal, who ran against Sen. Kay Hagan in the Democratic primaries. He wrote this in an e-mail Tuesday:

Many members of the State Executive Committee (NCDP SEC) have been urging me to run for Chair of the NCDP which Jerry is vacating. Some I got to know during the primary campaign; others I'm talking to for the first time. They've got my ear and I am considering in earnest.

Initially, I was approached over the summer about seeking the office at which time I passed. Six months later.....I'm willing to listen as my life has settled since the aftermath of the elections. I'm intrigued and have no doubt that I would be an effective representative and leader. The sheer cross-section of folks across the SEC who've been calling is telling and exciting. Whomever is elected as the next Chair will have to continue to build upon the impressive coalition of traditional and newer party activists whom Jerry did such an effective job of uniting during this past election cycle.

I have not declared my candidacy as such but I am seriously considering doing so. I simply have not made a decision as yet. I have not been in contact with legislative leaders; it is premature to do so and they've all got a lot on their plates at this time. I certainly will do so should I decide to run.

According to news reports: Luke Hyde, the 11th district Democratic chairman, is actively running for the job. There are at least three other names in the mix according to Dome.

Whoever inherits the State Party Chairman Jerry Meek's job will have the opposite problem of their Republican counterpart. Rather than rebuilding, they'll be at the reins of an organization that just won big - so the bar will be pretty high.

Two things caught my attention as Gov.-elect Perdue delivered prepared remarks during her news conference this afternoon.

(Update: AP has more on the appointees here.)

Perdue said she had given all her new appointees marching orders to seek out problems:

"I want a listing from them of the five most pressing challenges or problems that they see facing their agency. And let me say very seriously that all five of those can't have to do with money or the budget because we all know clearly that's a major challenge for all of us," Perdue said.

Now, this might seem like a reasonable thing for any new governor (or any new executive of anything, for that matter) to do when she comes onboard.

But the language, to me, presumes there are things that are broken or at least things that will present problems in almost every agency of state government.

Perdue is taking over from fellow Democrat Mike Easley. Despite being from the same party, there doesn't seem to be the assumption on Perdue's part that all the bilge pumps on the ship of state are operating as they should.

Given problems in the mental health and probation systems, that's probably not a bad attitude to have, although it does seem a bit undiplomatic toward the outgoing governor.

The second quote that caught my ear was this one:

As I picked the secretaries, my goal has been pretty simple: to find the folk with the best experience, the most complete experience to run the agencies, because the state government agencies actually for most part are - it's like running a huge corporation. And I wanted somebody who had the courage not to just accept the status quo but to shake things up if that was needed. I wanted leaders who could get the bottom line results that I expect from everybody who works for the state of North Carolina. And I also wanted a bit of track record.

Perdue added to that notion later on: "You can see I looked at the pedigree of these leaders - I wanted people who could make it happen."

From all that, it seemed like Perdue wanted cabinet secretaries who were both fish and fowl. She wanted people to come in and shake things up – but – those same folks needed a proven track record and needed to know their agencies.

In some respects, this echoes the dilemma of her campaign. She was someone who had long service in the state senate and eight years as lieutenant governor. But she frequently campaigned as if she was the person furthest removed from state government on a day-to-day basis.

The result during the campaign was at times a mixed message that didn't always appeal to voters. It seemed to me voters got confused when Perdue would say that she had been a strong leader who had been in a position to (help) save the state's military bases but was so far distant from any of the state's current budget or operational problems that she bore no responsibility or knowledge.

The results of her first few appointments seem to be a stirring of the deck. No doubt the folks she's chosen are qualified in their own ways. But all five of today's appointees have some sort of job in the current administration, and none are really properly called outsiders - at least to my mind. (For those who disagree, the comments link is active.)

Perdue said she's been "really aggressive" in seeking out applicants, taking applications online and interviewing "lots of people." It bears watching to see if any of her appointments will show the results of that wider net being cast.

Governor-elect Bev Perdue appointed five officials to public-safety-related posts today. They are:

• * Reuben F. Young – Secretary, Department of Crime Control and Public Safety. Young is currently Gov. Mike Easley's chief legal council and did five years as an assistant attorney general.

• * Major General Gerald A. Rudisill, Jr. – Chief Deputy Secretary, Department of Crime Control and Public Safety. The job should be familiar since he was named the Chief Deputy for Crime Control and Public Safety on Sept. 1, 2007. He is the former Adjutant General of the North Carolina National Guard.

• * Colonel Alvin Keller, Jr. – Secretary, Department of Correction. Is a former military lawyer and judge and is currently an assistant AG.

• * Jennie Lou Lancaster – Chief Operating Officer, Department of Correction. Is a 32-year veteran of the N.C. Department of Corrections.

• * Linda Wheeler Hayes – Secretary, Department of Juvenile Justice & Delinquency Prevention. She is currently chair of the Governor's Crime Commission.

For those looking for "shake-ups," most of these names are maybe minor tremors but very familiar to those around state government. Col. Keller is the sort-of exception to that, having spent most of his career outside of government. Still, he's in the current chain of command.

Perdue also said that everyone in state government who is an "exempt" worker - policy folks like department secretaries and deputy secretaries - have been asked to turn in their resignations. That's fairly standard practice when a new governor is coming in.

Update: A commenter on Facebook suggests that there are a lot of "exempt" workers and that replacing all of them might be quite the chore. While that's the exact word that Perdue used, that may not be exactly what she meant. I've asked for clarification but have not gotten it yet.

What seems clear is that most of Gov. Mike Easley's policy folks should be ready to head to the exits. (end update.)

Update: A clarification was forthcoming from the campaign:

For all of you who were at today’s press conference – I wanted to make a quick clarification about the letters going out to exempt positions: these letters are for policy-making exempt positions only. This is different from managerial positions and is a much smaller number.

I've asked for a total number on this, but if I were to guess, I'd say you're probably looking at 20 to 30 folks, rather than 200 to 300 folks.(end update.)

This was the first presser of Perdue's tenure and she repeated a lot of phrases we heard on the campaign trail in terms of wanting to be "hands on" and accountable.

During a question and answer period with reporters, she said that all her new department heads would be given 60 days to go into their agencies and give her a list of five things that needed to be corrected.

In her prepared remarks, Perdue said that she would demand four things from her cabinet secretaries: high standards, hands on leadership, early disclosure of problems and accountability to the public.

Perdue said she "hated surprises, " and wanted to know about "anything that would give you pause" before it showed up in the papers or on television.

Audio is coming as soon as it loads onto the server.

Update: For those who are interested, audio is now loaded:

• * Click here to listen to the prepared remarks from the news conference. (17 minutes 13 secs) It includes comments from those getting appointment, all pledging to work hard and saying they're in sync with the governor-elect.

• * Click here to listen to the Q+A with reporters. (8 minutes 45 secs.) It’s probably the more interesting of the two.

I put out the audio earlier, but click here for my Q+A with Gov. Easley. Commentary on the interview has come already from Doug Clark on our editorial page and James at BlueNC.

My other story this weekend is something all us scruffy media types tend to write a dozen times over: what's coming up next year during the General Assembly session. This year's story, no matter who has been writing it, pretty much focuses on the gap between what the state wants to pay for and the money it can raise.

Elsewhere in the big wide media world, the N+O's Rob Christensen demonstrates the perils of political prognostication, but goes ahead and forecasts for 2009 anyway.

Winston Salem's James Romoser explores the fact that only one NC inmate was sentenced to death in 2008.

Charlotte's Lew Powell offers his year in review, worth clicking on if only for the graphic.

And by way of confession, seeing this cover from Vanity Fair in the local Target prompted me to surf to the site for the first time in a while:

If you go, this profile of Tina Fey is worth reading, even if it was written by Maureen Dowd.

Now, as I've said to my oldest child this morning, go play outside - it looks like a nice day out.

I spent some time earlier this week interviewing Gov. Mike Easley, who will wrap up his second term in office next month. Although one never says never, Easley sounded pretty certain that he would not return to elected office.

I'll have a Q+A in the paper sometime over the weekend, but here are some audio clips of the more interesting bits of the conversation.

-=-=-=-=-=

Early in his career, Easley prosecuted a bunch of local corruption cases. Then he started prosecuting folks in drug-running organizations, who in turn started threatening to kill him.

"They're all getting paroled at the same time I am," Easley said. "I hope they're not as poor sports as when they got convicted for trying to kill me."

Click here for the full segment.

-=-=-=-=-=

Since he had prosecuted so many corruption cases early on in his career, I asked him if he weas surprised by the likes of former Speaker Jim Black, former Rep. Thomas Wright and others who went to jail during his term.

"I was surprised at the level at which it occurred," he said.

Click here for the full segment.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

A question has been rattling around in my head for Easley since the primaries: Why, with about a week to go before the May vote and every poll in the field showing Barack Obama was going to take North Carolina, did he back Hillary Clinton?

The short answer: He made a promise early on, even before the Iowa caucuses. The same promise, by the way, is what kept him from campaigning for former Sen. John Edwards in Iowa, as he had done in 2004.

Click here for the segment.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

One of Easley's big policy pushes has been to help kids get college credit while in high school. He says that idea was pushed over the edge by an encounter with Unilin, a flooring company that was expanding in Davidson County.

Click here for the full segment.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

So has the lottery lived up to his expectations? Easley said yes - it's money he's glad is in the treasury.

Click here for the full segment.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

What's next? He doesn't know, but it won't be full-time legal work: Click here for the full segment.

Easley talked about trying to get away by himself during the early part of his run and why he doesn't like deer hunting but does like shooting birds: Click here for the full segment.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

I asked Easley about efforts to fix the mental health system: Click here for the full segment.

And he said the state still might not have the systems in place to right the ship. I asked him how much of this or any problem could be laid on his desk: Click here for the full segment.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Offered without comment: Easley talked about his relationship with the media, particularly the Raleigh and Charlotte papers: Click here for the full segment.

Gov. Mike Easley is spending some time here toward the end of his term doing interviews with us scruff media types. The barkeep's is here, News 14's is here.

My turn is scheduled to come tomorrow (Tuesday). So what should I ask? What do you want the man to look back on after eight years in office?

When I asked this question on Twitter I got this suggestion:

It would be interesting to see if Gov Mike is happy where the Lottery is today? Has it done all he thought it would?

What's your thought? Get 'em to me by Tuesday mid-morning.

From my contribution to today's paper:

Even as issues of energy supplies and conservation have gained national and international importance, a legislative oversight committee responsible for keeping watch over the state’s utility regulators and power companies has met just once during the past six years.

The Joint Legislative Utility Review Committee has been dormant even as the state has enacted new and sometimes controversial laws to encourage conservation and new energy technologies.

Although the committee’s mission may be more important now than when it was formed in 1985, advocates and other legislators complain its co-chairmen have passed on exercising their oversight powers. And, they note, both chairmen are beneficiaries of campaign donations from the power industry and one of them now works for a power cooperative.

"There's never been a more important time to be thoughtful about energy policy," said Rep. Pricey Harrison , a Greensboro Democrat and one of the panel’s 10 members. "This committee is precisely situated to engage in that kind of discussion and oversight, and it’s very frustrating to me we’re not engaging in that."

Click here for the story.

Other good stuff:

• * My colleague (and fantasy football commissioner) Jason Hardin writes about the life of undocumented immigrants here in North Carolina. One anecdote:

  Moises Campos Palencia was on his way to realizing the American dream — a wife, a young daughter, a business he started from scratch.

  Until it all fell apart at a traffic light in High Point a few months ago.

  A police officer pulled him over, saying he’d turned left on red. The next thing Palencia knew, he was in a detention center in Georgia, awaiting deportation.

  Although he had lived in the United States since he was a boy, brought here by his parents, Palencia hadn’t been able to attain citizenship, despite his efforts.

• * The N+O revisits the probation and parole office in force:

  Since the start of 2000, 580 people have killed in North Carolina while under the watch of state probation officers -- 17 percent of all convictions for intentional killings.

  The high profile killing of UNC student Eve Carson is part of this story, as are hundreds of other cases. The killer line in the story is the quote from Corrections Secretary Theodis Beck:

  "This is not something we would have expected to deal with," Beck said. "We're here because of the failure of two cases out of 117,000."

  Granted this is something that three reporters and a team of others at the N+O spent a year on. But if a group of outsiders can figure out this stuff, surely the people who own the data and actually manage the system can...right?

  The N+O has two more parts to this series coming, and I wouldn't expect them to be warm and fuzzy follow-ups.

That's the early take this morning. Let me know what you're reading.

Update: This came to me by way of a Facebook link posted by an acquaintance of mine at the Inky: Smoke and Mirrors: The Subversion of the EPA. It's worth a read and listen.

President George W. Bush (remember him!) was in Greensboro today. My friend and colleague Gerald Witt has the story here.

(Credit: Jerry Wolford / News & Record)

Meanwhile, Gov. Mike Easley (remember him!) and governor-elect Bev Perdue were up in Pennsylvania today talking about federal aid for states.

(Credit: The Associated Press)

The Associated Press reported:

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) _ North Carolina Gov.-elect Beverly Perdue says Barack Obama is speaking her kind of language when it comes to an economic recovery plan.

Perdue was on hand Tuesday as the president-elect spoke to current and soon-to-be governors in Philadelphia. Obama pledged to make quick work on an economic stimulus package that would include tax cuts and federal spending.

Perdue told The Associated Press in a phone interview she liked that Obama is interested in giving states money for water and sewer upgrades and other improvements - and not just road repairs. She also appreciated Obama saying that state leaders aren't to blame for the bad economy.

Perdue said she talked with Obama on Monday night during an event for Democratic governors.

Outgoing Gov. Mike Easley also was in Philadelphia.

Meanwhile, important people in the legislature will be running to stay important this month.

Legislative Republicans are due to meet in Greensboro this Sunday to choose leaders.

Rep. Paul "Skip" Stam is running again for minority leader in the House, and there's no mention of a challenger in the rumor mill.

Meanwhile, Rockingham County Republican Phil Berger will have competition for his seat. Sens. Bob Rucho of Mecklenburg and Pete Brunstetter of Forsyth are running for the right to lead the 20-seat Republican minority in the Senate.

I don't know either Brunstetter or Rucho well. I will say that Berger and Stam are cut somewhat of the same cloth. They don't play angry, take their victories where they can get them, are confrontational with the majority when it suits their purposes but not overly so. Brunstetter seems like he may be from that same mold but those that know him say Rucho may be a bit more inclined to get in Basnight's face a bit.

Democrats will hold a similar leadership election exercises later this month (Dec. 17) and House Speaker Joe Hackney and Senate President Pro Tempore Marc Basnight are expected to hold onto their posts.

(Editor's note: I've deleted a final sentence that was in an earlier version of the post that was copied and pasted into the post out of context and, in fact, made no darned sense as written.)

Lt. Gov. Bev Perdue is seeking some advice as she prepares to take over from Gov. Mike Easley.

In a news release today (click here to download) Perdue says she will hold open meetings in 14 topic areas. From the release:

The meetings will be staffed and run by professional facilitators from the N.C. Small Business Technology Development Center. The groups will be asked to review materials and presentations from the state’s cabinet agencies, discuss missions and programs, and provide feedback and recommendations that will be delivered to Governor-elect Perdue.

The meetings are open to the public; anyone interested in participating should contact the transition office at 919-715-1540 or visit bevperdue.com. Locations and dates are subject to change.

Each group is expected to provide diverse input rather than reach a single group consensus. While some groups may schedule follow-up meetings as necessary, final recommendations will be submitted to Governor-elect Perdue’s transition team by Dec. 8.

The groups in question will meet from Nov. 19 through Nov. 24. They're due to cover Aging, Commerce, Corrections, Crime Control, Cultural Resources, DENR, Education, Energy, Health, IT/DOA, Mental Health, Military, Revenue and Transportation.

I'm back at the day job after hosting Capitolbeat 2008 with the Barkeep and able assists from Jordan, Eszter and James.

Speaking of Capitolbeat, locals may be interested in former N+O reporter Pat Stith's reflections on investigative journalism. Stith was our keynoter Saturday night and we were honored to have him.

In the mean time, Lt. Gov. Bev Perdue is getting ready to become Gov. Perdue early next month.

The Junior League here in Raleigh is hosting a series of inaugural events, including a big shindig the night before the actual swearing in.

NOTED: the sponsors of the events include AT&T, Duke Energy, McGuire Woods, GlaxoSmithKline, University of Phoenix and BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina. In every case, I can think of one or two things they might be asking various organs of state government over the next four years. (And full disclosure, my Capitolbeat conference had quite a few sponsors, including Pew and the national Wine and Spirit's Wholesalers.)

In other newly elected governor news:

• * Perdue has put up a "suggestion box" on the internet. "During this transition period I believe it's important for citizens to be engaged in their government and to have input – this is a way for them to do that," Perdue said in a press release.

• * Zach Ambrose will be Perdue's chief of staff when the new administration takes hold. According to the news release, "Ambrose served as Lt. Governor Perdue’s Chief of Staff from 2005 – 2007 and managed her gubernatorial campaign. A North Carolina native, Ambrose has degrees in Electrical Engineering and Russian from MIT and served five years in the US Navy."

Looking toward the General Assembly, the legislative calendar is filling up with a bunch of study and oversight committees in advance of the honorables scheduled return on Jan. 28.

Recommendations from the study committee don't have a whole lot more procedural oomph at this point than bills filed cold, but you can get a sense of what leadership considers critical issues for the upcoming session. Consider there are the following:

• * Municipal Incorporations, Joint Legislative Commission on
• * Dropout Prevention and High School Graduation, Joint Legislative Commission
• * N.C. Zoological Park Funding and Organization Study Committee
• * House Select Committee on the Legal Aspects of Using Lottery Proceeds for Charter School Funding
• * Potential Impact of Major Hurricanes on the NC Insurance Industry, Joint Select Committee on the

That's in addition to the regular litany of oversight and study committees.

And just to round this out to the third branch of government, the N.C. Supreme Court is due to take up Dept. of Correction v Medical Board, which is the case involving the issues that have the state's death penalty in a virtual deadlock. I found the AMA brief useful in understanding both sides of the discussion.

With all that going on, what's on your mind? What corner of state government ought to get a check-up in the coming months? Drop me a line via the comment link below.

From today's paper:

RALEIGH - Governor-elect Bev Perdue says O. Max Gardner, a governor and Democratic power broker in the first half of the 20th century, is one of her favorite political figures in Tar Heel history. Gardner was in office at the beginning of the Great Depression, and Perdue said he set an example relevant to the current economic crisis.

"He used the time as a transformational period for the state of North Carolina," Perdue said. Instead of simply cutting the state's budget, Gardner invested in roads and universities so the state would be positioned to prosper when the economy turned around.

And even as North Carolina faces a budget shortfall that could be as large as $1.6 billion this year, according to state economists, Perdue says the state needs to invest in education, transportation and other pillars of economic development.

"The day I take office, I'm going to be prepared to deal with a global economic crisis," Perdue said.

Gov. Mike Easley, whose term ends in January, has ordered state agencies to cut as much as 5 percent from their budgets. The goal, according to officials who briefed legislative leaders last week, is to have $1.2 billion extra on hand to plug shortfalls in the $21 billion budget the General Assembly passed last year. That doesn't account for extra cuts that would be needed if problems worsen, or another $300 million shortfall faced by the state-funded employee health plan.

Click here for the whole thing.

Related.

The Joint Legislative Commission on Government Operations is just about as much fun as the name implies. Basically, it's the legislature's way of keeping tabs on things even when the General Assembly is not in session.

Today the members got some reports that may make them wonder why they bothered running for re-election.

In particular, Economist Barry Boardman of the Fiscal Research Division and Charles Perusse, Director of the Office of State Management and Budget, dropped these little nuggets:

• * The government is managing what looks to be a $1.2 billion hole in the budget, give or take $400 million or so. If you want a quick overview of what is going on with the economy, check out this presentation. I would point especially to page 15, where collections of real estate transfer taxes fall off the edge of the Earth.

• * That shortfall doesn't include what's likely to be a needed $300 million fix to the state health pan.

• * As a result, the governor has upped the ante on budget cuts. Agencies originally asked for 2 percent trims are now being asked for upwards of 5 percent cuts.

According to Perusse, savings will come from several places. The Medicaid program is not sucking up as much money as was budgeted, due in part to lower costs in the mental health programs. He warned, however, that could and most likely will change.

The state is putting off some pay-as-you-go construction projects, although bond-funded projects are still on track. Agencies that are being asked for 5 percent cuts in several areas, including most general government functions, Environment and Natural Resources and the Commerce Department. DJJDP, the juvenile justice agency with in DOJ, is also being asked for 5 percent. There is some flexibility, Perusse said, for "hardship agencies" that would not be able to make cuts without cutting critical services.

Still, to completely balance out the $1.2 billion hole, if it gets that big, the governor's staff relies on $287 million from the state's rainy day fund. That wouldn't wipe out the fund, but the idea didn't sit well with some legislators.

Rep. Mickey Michaux of Durham, for example, said that the rainy day money might be better spent on the health plan's problems rather than plugging holes in revenues.

The good news is that officials are aware of the problem and are making cuts and otherwise addressing the problems so the state's books will remain in the black. That means Bev Perdue won't have a big old deficit to manage when she walks into office.

"He (Gov. Mike Easley) was adamant in his direction to me that he wanted a management plan in place that would allow the next government to inherit a balanced budget," Perusse told the committee today. Also in the relatively good news column is the fact North Carolina is not as bad off as some other states where cuts have been more immediate and Draconian.

The bad news, of course, is constructing the next state budget is going to be absolutely no fun at all. Boardman projected that the downturn in the economy (which creates a downturn in tax collections) will last well into 2010. That means right as demand for government services (unemployment benefits, Medicaid, education, etc...) goes up, the state is going to have less money to put into all that stuff.

Gov. Easley chatted with reporters after yesterday's Council of State meeting. AP moved a story yesterday with Easley's comments that he may ask state agencies for further reductions in spending as a hedge against a weakening economy.

North Carolina, Easley said, finished the fiscal year that ended June 30 with a bit of a surplus, which was uncommon except for states that don't produce oil. But caution is warranted.

"We've got to believe we're not going to be immune from the impact of the national recession and this downturn," he said. "So what I want to do is hold back enough so that I know the next governor will not step into an unmanageable mess, keeping in mind unlike '01 when I came in we do have a rainy day fund."

Actually, when Easley came into office he had "negative reserves," a nice way of saying the back account is empty and you've put some big purchases on the ol' credit card. Right now, the state's rainy day fund is about $800 million.

The idea, he said, is if all this turns out to be unnecessary, the next govern can give back the money to agencies. If belt tightening is called for, then the next governor will have 12 months of savings to work with rather than just six.

"It's a whole lot easier to be Gov. Santa than Gov. Scrooge. If the next governor comes in and I have held too much and they're able to release that money to the agencies and the projects, that would be good for them," he said.

Easley said he is waiting to see numbers for September before ordering further cuts or deciding to stand pat. A decision could come before the end of the week, he said.

The current cuts, he said, ad up to about $700 million that would be available in addition to the rainy day fund if tax collections really tank.

For a look at what has been held back so far, click here for an MS Word document. The table shows both percentage cuts and real dollars.

The governor's office also made a memo on the economy available, which you can read by clicking here. That memo has two rays of sunshine. One is that the state gained jobs over the past year, measured from August to August. I'm betting those gains are going to be wiped out by the Wachovia mess. And there's this:

National and state forecasters anticipate the economy will strengthen in early 2009 as the credit crunch stabilizes. This would allow the next Governor to loosen restrictions and release additional funds if revenues begin outperforming expectations.

I'll let you evaluate whether you think that's a bit too hopeful or not.

One other note from Tuesday's council of state meeting:

The state issued some non-voter-approved debt, borrowing to do things like build buildings and put sprinklers in dorm rooms at UNC-CH.

"The total debt of the state is still within acceptable levels," said Treasurer Richard Moore.

Other members of the Council of State asked Moore if now was the best time to be putting limited obligation bonds on the market and Moore said he wasn't having any problems moving the debt. That's despite a credit crisis that making it difficult for businesses, homeowners and just about anyone else to get a loan. North Carolina, I guess, is a safe haven for investors.

And by the way: we're doing "limited obligation bonds" now rather than "certificates of participation." What's the difference? Not a whole lot. It's still debt issued by the state without the full faith and credit of its taxing power, which means the interest rate is a bit higher.

"It's essentially the same thing," Moore said. "It's just got a little better label on it." That better label knocks a few basis points off the debt issue. You still don't get to vote on it, though.

From the governor's press office:

RALEIGH – Gov. Mike Easley will join Roy Underhill in the fall season national premier of the public television show “The Woodwright’s Shop,” to air at 4 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 4 on UNC-TV, North Carolina's statewide public television network. Some stations may air the show on Saturday, Sept. 27. The episode, “The First Woodworker,” was originally taped last October and had a special preview showing only on UNC-TV last December.

In the opening episode of the show’s 28th season, Easley and Underhill make a “Po-Boy” table. In less affluent times, before reuse and recycle were popular design concepts, Easley made this type of table by salvaging scrap walnut from a furniture maker and using different sized paint cans for a template. Easley is the first North Carolina governor to appear on the show.

For more information about “The Woodwright’s Shop with Roy Underhill,” go online and visit: http://www.pbs.org/woodwrightsshop. To view a clip from “the first Woodworker” episode, visit: www.governor.state.nc.us and go to the link highlighted on the lower right side of the homepage.

Every year when Hurricanes start rolling into the state, Gov. Mike Easley goes through a predictable series of steps. He gets his emergency response guys together and holds press conferences telling folks to stockpile water and food and generally stay safe. As the storm gets closer, he switches from business suits to what we scruffy media types call "disaster casual," kaki pants and opened collared shirts with logos. After the storm, he goes riding about in a helicopter to survey the damage, declares disasters, etc... You know, governor stuff.

So a couple of news releases from Sen. Dole's office had us confused. Here's the latest:

Friday, September 5, 2008 6:15 p.m. MEDIA AVAILABILITY

Dole will meet with the North Carolina State Emergency Response Team (SERT) to discuss preparations for Tropical Storm Hanna and Hurricane Ike. Yesterday, Dole spoke with North Carolina Governor Mike Easley, Department of Homeland Security Undersecretary for Federal Emergency Management R. David Paulison, who heads the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and officials at the American Red Cross to help coordinate an effective response to the severe weather.

North Carolina Emergency Operations Center
Administration Building
116 West Jones Street
Raleigh, N.C.

It's not just that senators don't have a whole lot to do in disaster given that whole lack of executive authority thing. Honestly, I can't remember her ever doing this before for any previous hurricane.

You don't think this could have something to do with it being an election year, do you?

Update: I had ask Dole's office this afternoon if she had ever done anything like this. I got a response back saying that she had and listing all the times. The problem with the list is most (if not all) are touring damage after the fact, not getting ready for it. But by way of full disclosure, I'll post the list after the jump. My point remains that there's not much for a federal (or state-level) legislator to do in preparation for a hurricane.

Update 2:And by way of fuller disclosure, Dole spokesman Wes Climer takes issue with my characterization, saying that Senators have a role in marshaling the resources of the federal government and "encourage and advise" on the placement of public resources.

"Senators work with state officials and federal officials to ensure a smooth response," he said.

Even after hearing that, I'm still am a bit dubious. But here's the jump, and you can look through this list yourself and decide.

Gov. Mike Easley says it's going to get windy. Click here for video from our friends at the AP.

If you want to make some last minute preparations but aren't sure what they should be, these guys are from the government and are here to help you.

Of course, the guys running the street festival outside my window say they're just going to batten down the hatches and ride out the storm. Big Mama E is sounding pretty good coming through my window right now, though.

H 2499, a bill aimed at letting the state government better manage through a drought, became law today. Gov. Mike Easley signed the thing during a news conference this morning. (Click here for the release.)

The new law gives the state more powers to tell local communities to create drought management plans and use them should it look like the state is hitting a dry spell – like the one we’re in right now.

Easley was asked if he would have liked to have seen anything else in the bill or if there are additional steps the state ought to be saying. He said no, he had gotten what he wanted out of it.

But House Speaker Joe Hackney weighed in: “I just want to say this is a good first step, but there’s a lot of water wasted in North Carolina and we need to do something about that as we go forward. An example, are our leaky pipes in almost every municipality or water system in the state.”

Click here for audio from that.

-=-=-=-

As the drought bill was going through the General Assembly, there was a lot of discussion over private wells and what exactly the state could or should do to encourage the owners of those wells to conserve. So what changed in the final bill, Easley was asked.

Not much, Easley said. The state really can’t do anything now that it couldn’t do a day ago.

Click here for audio from that.

-=-=-=-

After the drought talk, Easley went off topic for a while. He was asked about national independent expenditure groups spending money in North Carolina gubernatorial campaign between Lt. Gov. Bev Perdue and Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory. The state, Easley said, had done it’s best to keep 527s at bay, but the courts have ruled you can shut them out entirely.

“The truth of the matter is the squirrel always finds a way into the bird feeder.”

Click here for audio from that.

-=-=-=-

At the end of the news conference, Easley was asked about his shoulder and why it wasn’t in a sling.

“There’s always some specific moment you remember that really made one of the shoulders hurt,”

Pray tell?

“When Barack Obama came, and I welcomed him, he came up on the stage and we did the little fist bump…”

Ah, so it didn’t just look awkward…go on:

“…and then he wanted go up high with that right arm, his left and my right, and he was grabbing that right shoulder. I was smiling but I was saying you know, I got to get this fixed.”

Click here for audio from that.

As the AP Reports, Gov. Mike Easley signed 25 bills into law today. Among them was the video slot ban, which goes into effect Dec. 1.

For the full list of bills that became law today, click here.

By the way, the governor's office reports Easley came through his surgery just fine. Here's the verbiage from the release:

Raleigh - Gov. Mike Easley underwent successful arthroscopic surgery on his right shoulder this morning. Dr. Bill Garrett and Dr. Dean Taylor “removed spurs, excised a bursa, and debrided the cuff tendons.” The governor will be in a sling for several weeks and then can progress through rehabilitation.

The governor was not sedated, watched the procedure, and is back at work. He joked with the surgeon during the procedure and was in good humor. But Garrett cautioned: “I expect the governor’s mood to change when the nerve block wears off.”

From our friends at the Associated Press

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) _ North Carolina state budget director David McCoy will be the next state controller.

The House on Thursday unanimously confirmed his nomination to the post. He is charged with keeping the state's books, monitoring cash flow and managing state payroll. The Senate confirmed Gov. Mike Easley's choice in May.

McCoy will replace Robert Powell, who has served since 2001. Controllers serve terms of seven years.

McCoy has served as budget director during Easley's two terms in office. He previously was transportation secretary under Gov. Jim Hunt and directed the state's recovery donations program following Hurricane Fran in 1996.

Controller is one of those jobs in state government that most folks normally hear about, unless something goes wrong. Although, if you get a check from the state, the controller is the guy who signs it.

In a comment on a prior post, alert reader Doug asks why the News & Record hasn't written about the latest Mike Easley flying about on state aircraft story.

There are two ways stories make it into the paper: one, the AP or other wire services we subscribe moves a version we can use - that hasn't happened of a staff member like myself writes it. I've been assigned to other tasks this week (with varying degrees of success) and I'm not sure how this story would rank priority wise at any rate. Here's why:

The latest story in question was this one in Carolina Journal, a publication of the Conservative John Locke Foundation. It reads:

RALEIGH — When Gov. Mike Easley and the first lady fly in state aircraft, most of their trips include a connection to Brunswick County, where the couple owns two homes. Easley does not reimburse the state for any portion of the coastal trips, although state documents apparently require that he do so.

Easley and his wife, Mary, flew on state-owned aircraft 237 days over the past four years, according to records obtained by Carolina Journal from the N.C. Department of Commerce, which is charged with managing the three aircraft available to the governor. The actual period of study was from Jan. 1, 2004 through April 10, 2008.

It's interesting stuff, but one reason the story may not be causing much of a ruckus - I've not seen it in the N+O or Charlotte O or other papers - is that the gist of it is not new. Consider, the News & Observer wrote the following in 2002:

Easley has been flown to or from his home on the Cape Fear River 16 times this year in the state's Sikorsky 76, a seven-passenger helicopter operated by the Department of Commerce.

Easley spokeswoman Cari Boyce said the governor travels to Southport frequently because he lives there. In addition, she said, Easley has a southeastern office in Southport, although she did not elaborate whether it is in his home or somewhere else in Southport. There is no line item for such an office in the budget.

In any event, an analysis of Commerce Department flight logs shows that Easley has traveled by helicopter to Southport for as many as seven weekends this year. He has used the 4-year-old, $6.8 million helicopter to go home more than for anything else.

And he has done so at a cost to the state of roughly $2,050 per flight hour, according to the Department of Commerce. That adds up to more than $30,000 in the first five months of the year. Easley flew far less last year, making just five trips to Southport or Bald Head Island, another coastal resort where the governor owns property.

There is no policy in North Carolina prohibiting the use of state aircraft for personal use -- leaving the choice ultimately up to Easley .

Boyce said the governor's method of travel is purely a matter of security and is determined by Bryan Beatty, secretary of the Department of Crime Control and Public Safety and the man ultimately in charge of protecting the governor.

Beatty said convenience and time management are also factors. Easley is the chief executive of a government that spends $26 billion in federal and state dollars and employs 227,000 people. His schedule is tight. His drop-offs and pick-ups at Southport are usually on the way to or from official state business -- a speech in Charlotte, a school appearance in Goldsboro.

It often makes sense from security and time-management standpoints to travel by air, Beatty said.

Easley, I believe, ended up reimbursing the state for some expenses back then, although seems to have retrenched from that, if I read the CJ piece right. There have been, if memory serves, periodic follow-ups on the governor's flying habits - including whether helicopter use was consistent with calls for fuel conservation in the aftermath of Katrina.

One odd bit from this week's Carolina Journal piece made me scratch my head a bit:

Other frequent flyers on the state aircraft were UNC Chancellor James Moeser, who made 71 trips, and State Treasurer Richard Moore, who made 46 trips. Unlike Easley’s flights, all of Moeser’s and Moore’s trips appear to be solely for public business, where the trip started and ended in Raleigh. Neither was delivered to or picked up at locations not associated with the public business for which the aircraft were requested.

Well, no. Moeser's frequent use of the state aircraft to go schmooze bigwigs at various sporting events actually prompted the legislature to change the state law governing the use of the aircraft. I wrote a story, linked from this blog post, which said:

House budget writers want to make it more expensive for state officials to travel to athletic events on state aircraft, a provision apparently aimed at UNC-Chapel Hill's use of two state airplanes.

The Commerce Department owns two planes based in Raleigh...

[snip]

UNC-CH Chancellor James Moeser and other high-ranking officials also used the plane to travel to sports events 15 times in 2006, records obtained by the legislature's fiscal research division show.

For example, an entry on March 17 reads "Chancellor attending NCAA Basketball Championships."

Use of the state aircraft is "a time-management issue," a university spokesman said.

The Indy here in Raleigh also did a follow up piece. While I don't think any of those flights were illegal, there were plenty of folks questioning whether they were necessary or met the strict definition of "state business."

I've talked to some folks who question why the Dept. of Commerce needs an air fleet at all. After all, North Carolina isn't as big or detached as Alaska and that state's governor scored bit-time popularity points by selling the state jet.

Gov. Easley's budget provides money for tackling new problems, such as the mess in mental health care.

But it also would chip away at some long-standing issues that have flown kind of under the radar. One example: subsidized child care.

The state pays to subsidize child care for low income families so the parents can head to work. It's not only a social service, but something economic developers say is useful in creating a stable workforce.

Easley's budget would spend enough to remove 1,110 children from the waiting list, all of it in federal block grant funds. He didn't propose putting any state funding into it.

Just by way of comparison, there are somewhere north of 27,000 kids on waiting lists for subsidized spots.

As part of this story I mentioned that the governor has included three items for the N.C. Zoo in his proposed budget.

The Zoo in Asheboro is an agency under the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and as such, it shouldn't be a big shock that the taxpayers would be called upon to invest in the thing. However, this is going to be a tight budget year and there will be people lobbying for holding the line on taxes and funding various programs for people critters.

So here was my question yesterday when Easley's budget advisor Dan Gerlach took the podium: with all the various interests competing for dollars, how do you sell expenditures on polar bears? (More on them in a second.)

"What we're getting at is the fact the zoo...our capitol people, our hard core number crunchers...I think it's safe to say they're mortified by what they saw at the zoo in terms of the amount of capitol construction and rebuilding that needs to happen," Gerlach said. "The place is, I'm not going to say falling apart, but it needs some help."

The zoo has about 500-acres of exhibits and it can take a lot to keep up with basic maintenance, just ask anyone who tried to go gawk at the animals last weekend.

And in fact, up until last year's budget, the state had not put any big expansion or renovation money into the zoo for 14 years. Last year the zoo got a barn to house some antelope and a shed for its grounds keeping tools - albeit a pretty large one. During those 14 years, the zoo was able to expand thanks largely to private donors. And the General Assembly did make with some smaller repair money.

This year, the governor included three items:

• * $2.7 million to expand the polar bear exhibit, with another $1.8 million coming from donations.
• * $2.7 million to build a permanent children's zoo exhibit, with another $1.8 million coming from donations. There is a temporary children's exhibit there now.
• * $600,000 to plan the replacement of the African pavilion, with another $400,000 coming from donations. It would cost more to fix the old building than to rebuild the whole thing.

Here's the deal with the polar bears, according to the zoo spokesman Rod Hackney:

The zoo had two polar bears up until recently when one died from liver problems. The zoo wants to get some more polar bears but there are none available from American zoos. There are polar bears to be had in Canada.

However, Canadian zoos have more stringent standards than American zoos when it comes to loaning or transferring polar bears. To meet those standards, the zoo would have to double the size of the polar bear exhibit and make some other tweaks. Most notably, the zoo would need to convert the polar bear's pool from a freshwater tank to a saltwater tank.

Polar bear fans will want to keep an eye on this item as the budget goes through the legislative wringer. Somehow I doubt the zoo is going to let the bear come down and lobby in person, in which case I'd bet he'd get his new exhibit pdq.

This picture is from the zoo website, where you can learn more about bears.

Click here for my newspaper story on Gov. Easley's tax and budget proposal.

For a different view, here's the Grand McClatchy Empire's take.

The honorables return to Raleigh at high noon today.

So Gov. Mike Easley released his budget Monday and - surprise! - he wants to raise liquor and cigarette taxes.

The reason he gave for the sin tax hikes were:

• * the cigarette taxes were needed to pay for teacher raises.
  
• * the liquor taxes were needed to pay for mental health improvements.

Click here to listen to Easley talk about how he arrived at asking for the two taxes.

Okay...let's get it out of our systems: Yes, if enacted, teachers would have a conflict of interest when they told their students not to smoke. And sure, it's a little funny that alcohol taxes would fund mental health services, which include substance abuse services.

But seriously folks: Easley has sold them right. Who is going to argue that they can't afford to pay a few more cents for beer if it's going to help the mentally ill, right? And you sort of have a choice as to whether to smoke or drink, don't you?

Still, the smart money around Jones Street has been saying the taxes will have a hard time getting through the General Assembly. After chatting with folks all day, here is the short list of things that argue against the taxes getting into the final budget:

• * Legislators don't have a real good mechanism for earmarking revenue (see: Lottery). That means money from the taxes will just get dumped into the general fund. That sort of deconstructs the won't-someone-please-think-of-the-children/less fortunate argument for levying them.

• * Budget leaders aren't looking for a fight. And new taxes of any sort mean a fight will be a brewing. No, it doesn't matter that they're sin taxes. The honorables want this train to pull into the station on time (July 1) and that might not happen if there's a tax fight. (House Speaker Joe Hackney and Majority Leader Hugh Holliman both made variations of this point today.)

  Click here to listen to Hackney chat with reporters about the political realities of the taxes, as well as thoughts on other parts of the budget proposal.

• * Cigarette taxes mean taking on the tobacco industry. No, tobacco isn't king anymore, but it still knows its way around court. Just think about Lorillard in Guilford County, Reynolds in Forsyth County and tobacco farms throughout the state and you get an idea of the number of legislators with a dog in that fight.

• * You think the tobacco industry has some political clout? Go check your favorite politician's campaign finance report for beer and wine money, particularly money from wholesalers.

• * Easley designated his tobacco tax for education. A couple folks who would ordinarily like to do tobacco taxes say they're more logically apportioned to health programs. So Easley's proposal didn't pick up help from some of this idea's most likely supporters.

• * There secondary constituencies that would oppose the increases, such as retailers who sell cigarettes and alcohol.

• * It's an election year. People are already hacked off about gas prices. Voters across the state have just shot down sales taxes. You do the math.

• * There are a couple other places to get the money. Just as an example, the legislature could decide not to put $61 million into the rainy day fund and just about cover the mental health programs Easley wanted to fund.

Does this mean they absolutely won't be in the final budget? No. But they face some serious handicaps. More on this in Tuesday's paper.

Gov. Mike Easley gave an early look at his budget by way of a news release last week.

(Click here for the legislative preview story from the dead tree edition.)

(Update: Other legislative/budget previews from Charlotte, Raleigh and Fayetteville.)

Easley's budget advisor Dan Gerlach sat down with some of us scruffy media types on Friday to give a further glimpse. As he described it, Easley's budget would have three themes:

• * providing help to the less fortunate - "the least of these" in the in vogue parlance of Raleigh.
• * education. Expect Easley to make the case that his budget raises teacher salaries to the national average.
• * fiscal responsibility. You'll see him put more money in the rainy day fund and project a budget surplus at the end of the fiscal year. Basically, he aims to leave the next governor in better financial shape that was the case in 2000 when he took office.

For those who need it, here's the 90-second budget primer: The state writes a two-year budget in odd-number years. So in 2007, the state wrote a $20.7 billion budget. In even number years, the General Assembly gets to "tweak" the budget, making adjustments, adding new programs, perhaps phasing in or out a tax. Actually, the "tweak" can end up looking like a wholesale rewrite. This year, because of a cruddy economy, tax revenues are down and what gets done this summer is likely to be more in the mold of a tweak - if you can call a few-hundred-million-bucks a tweak.

At any rate, the tweaking begins on Monday when Gov. Mike Easley puts his budget on the table. Then the House goes to work, with the formal "short session" beginning on Tuesday. After the House writes its budget version, the Senate gets a crack. And finally, the House, Senate and governor sit down to negotiate a tax and spending plan that makes almost nobody completely happy.

One last note: technically, there's a budget in place until June 30, 2009 and there aren't any taxes expiring. Therefore, we don't have the prospect this summer of getting into one of those fabulous showdowns where everyone threatens to shut down state government and we have continuing resolutions and there's all that gnashing of teeth. However, the cities and counties who all have to have their budgets done by July 1 and depend a great deal on the state budget, would really like things to wrap up ASAP.

So what does the governor have in the offing? We'll find out in detail at 11 a.m. Monday. However, here are the notes from Gerlach's Friday briefing, in no particular order:

• * The overall budget will go up 4 percent, about half of the increase from the year before.
• * Even though the budget overall will increase, Gerlach said there will be "substantial" cuts in some departments. The reason for this is that the governor wants to do some things - like expand teacher pay - that will cost money. But tax revenues haven't grown fast enough to keep everything in state government as it is and do the expansions.
• * The cuts will not affect classrooms or social services, Gerlach said.
• * Agencies will be given some specific marching orders and in other cases just general guidelines on what to pare back.
• * It is business taxes and sales taxes that are projected to fall off the most.
• * Enrollment is expected to be up in public schools, universities and community colleges. Community college enrollment is particularly seen to be "spiking."
• * The governor will propose no changes to lottery distribution or policy.
• * There will be more funding for support programs that serve military families.
• * There will be a comprehensive package of mental health reforms and funding proposed. In addition to increases, the governor's budget anticipates reducing Medicaid funding for community support programs.
• * For years the state has transferred money from the Highway Transportation Trust Fund to the general fund, basically subsidizing state spending on education and social programs. With the highway fund in dire straights, the General Assembly last year said they were going to stop those transfers. The governor's budget will begin the phase out, meaning less money will go from the trust fund to the general fund this year. Gerlach did not say how much.
• * The governor will designate money that stays in the trust fund to build either urban loops or to jump start construction by the turnpike authority (read: build toll roads).
• * The governor does not plan to offer transportation or other big bond package.
• * There will be some borrowing in the governor's budget, all in non-voter-approved mechanisms and all aimed at finishing projects in process. ("We're trying to wrap things up and not start obligating future governors and legislatures to costs," Gerlach said.)
• * Teacher pay will go to the national average. State employees and community college workers will get pay raises - though it didn't sound like they would be as big.
• * There will be more staff for probation and parole.
• * The governor will propose a sales tax holiday for October on energy efficient appliances.

Now remember, none of this makes it into the final budget with out the legislature sticking it in there. Easley has had a fairly good record of getting his big ticket items in the final budget, but the tighter money gets the harder the honorables tend to scrap - and this year money seems to be on the tight side.

I'll have my own session/budget preview story up online in the morning (I think). (Click here for that.) For now, click on the jump for the Associated Press' budget preview.

All indications are that Gov. Mike Easley will introduce his budget early next week, probably Monday. He gave folks a preview today by way of a news release. He focused on $31 million in additional spending for "those who often are overlooked by society but are the most in need."

Among the items:

• * $10.4 million to match federal child health insurance funding to serve an additional 10,683 children in need.
• * $9 million in federal block grant dollars to take 1,110 children off child care waiting lists.
• * $8.3 million to increase foster care and adoption payments to encourage quality care for more children.

Click here to read the whole thing.

From the Gov. Easley's press office:

RALEIGH - Gov. Mike Easley today nominated current State Budget Director David McCoy to become the next State Controller to replace Robert Powell who is planning to retire before the end of this year. McCoy's appointment, which was submitted to legislative leaders, must be confirmed by the General Assembly.

"David is an outstanding public servant," Easley said. "His vast experience in so many aspects of North Carolina government and the exemplary job he has done overseeing the state budget in both tough and good times, makes him especially qualified to be our next State Controller."

Easley also thanked Powell for his work for North Carolina. "Robert's career in state government is both long and distinguished, as state controller and before that, as deputy state budget director. State government operates better because of his good work."

McCoy is the first American Indian to be state budget director. He has directed the state budget throughout Easley's two terms as governor. Prior to that he served in the administration of Gov. Jim Hunt as transportation secretary, the governor’s deputy chief of staff and chief deputy secretary of the Department of Administration. During the administration of Gov. Jim Martin, McCoy served as chief counsel in the Department of Administration and as assistant director of the N.C. Commission of Indian Affairs.

McCoy is a graduate of the University of Georgia and holds a Master's degree in education from the University of Georgia, a Master’s degree in public health from the University of North Carolina and a law degree from the University of North Carolina School of Law.

Sen. John McCain has proposed giving motorists a holiday from federal gas taxes as a way to stimulate the economy.

Shortly after, during a debate on WRAL this week, Republican candidates for governor embraced the idea on the state level.

During and interview earlier this week, I asked Gov. Mike Easley what he thought of the idea. Let's just say I don't think he'll be putting it in his budget proposal.

"We've capped ours ... and as a result of that, there's no money for roads. The people need to be told the truth, and that is the price of gas is going to go up and up and up, and there's nothing that the state government can do to stop that."

Easley did have some ideas as to what the state ought to be doing on energy policy.

Click here to listen to his full answer.

More to come, including a Q+A this weekend.

With cities like Greensboro and Raleigh standing down from the most severe water restrictions, residents might be feeling pretty cocky.

"The drought is over," I've heard more than one person say. Well, no, really it isn't. Local reservoirs are replenished thanks to a freakish amount of spring rain. But the U.S. Drought Monitory still puts most of Guilford County and all of Wake County in the category of "Extreme Drought."

More importantly, there are still all the long term issues that people identified when we were all contemplating whether we'd have to skip the daily showers: development, a growing population, finite water resources, increasing demands of irrigation and industry, etc... Those haven't gone away.

Gov. Mike Easley makes this point after a fashion in a news release / letter he sent out today:

"As of this morning, all 100 counties are still in some form of drought, with 45 in extreme and 36 in severe. However, even though reservoir levels have risen, our groundwater resources, which help keep our streams flowing, are still extremely low. This makes North Carolina very vulnerable as summer approaches.

"In short, there is the potential for exceptional and extreme drought conditions to return this summer and fall, especially with a long-range weather forecast for drier-than-normal conditions through the end of May. Communities that have previously identified alternative water sources or are working on interconnections to backup systems need to move forward with those efforts.

"The drought of 2007-08 has taught all of us that we need to do a better job of managing our water resources year round. We are currently putting together a package of legislative proposals which I announced in March to help us modernize North Carolina's public water systems, mandate water conservation and efficiency, and upgrade the response to water emergencies. My goal is to make our state drought proof."

Click here to read the whole thing.

When reporting on local beats over the past 10 years here and in Pennsylvania, I've seen water management issues get a lot of attention during the heat of a crisis and then when things get back to normal, folks kind of let them slip from the agenda. It'll be interesting to see whether our new found religion when it comes to water conservation sticks, or whether we'll be back to our heathen ways by the time we're reseeding all those suburban lawns this fall.

From Gov. Mike Easley's office:

Gov. Mike Easley today announced that six North Carolina universities are again ranked in the top 100 by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance as the "Best Values" among the nation’s public colleges and universities. The magazine’s February 2008 edition, available Tuesday on newsstands across the nation, ranks UNC at Chapel Hill No. 1 for the seventh consecutive time. Other North Carolina universities included in the top 100 are: N.C. State University (13), Appalachian State (27), UNC at Wilmington (36), UNC at Asheville (40) and UNC at Greensboro (68).

UNCG's bargain price is $4041.00 in-state, $15,309.00 out of state, although room, board and board will bring that up to $9,763.00 and $21,031.00 respectively.

Click here for the full release from Easley.

Gov. Mike Easley was meeting with some of his chief water conservation folks today. Click here for his news release on the topic.

Our friends at the Associated Press have also put out some video:

Click here for that video. Or click here for the story.

There are a couple interesting things here.

First, click here for the N.C. Drought website that he mentions.

Also, in the video, Easley mentions "conservation pricing," which is essentially charging folks more per gallon the more water they use.

In typical business practice, you get/give a price break the more of something. A widget might cost $1 by itself but if you buy 10 of them we'll sell them to you for 90-cents a piece. To get people to conserve, you flip that model and charge folks more if they use more than a certain amount of water.

That's something Greensboro has been doing for a while. In fact, I've heard Easley give a shout out to Greensboro's water management practices on a few occasions. He also likes the fact that the city has tied itself in with several reservoirs, rather than just depending on its own lakes.

Speaking of Greensboro, you'll notice in the news release that the big drought meeting Easley has called for mid-January will be in the Gate City. I imagine all those scheduled to attend are hoping to be commuting in some lousy weather.

The state's mental health system has been in the news lately and that news hasn't contained a whole lot of happy thoughts whether you're talking about Guilford County or the state as a whole.

During his year-end interviews, Easley was asked for his agenda items going into next year and brought up corrections to the mental health system spontaneously. He began by pointing back to 2001 when the state mental health reform efforts started at the same time there was a severe budget crisis:

"We were all so bogged down with the budget we weren't paying enough attention to it. It all happened just overnight in late October," Easley said. He said much of the authority for mental health decision making had been transferred to "Local Management Entities," such as the Guilford Center in Guilford County.

"They do not answer to the state. All we are is the banker. You know, we can audit and we can offer suggestions, but they're not accountable to (the Department of Human Services). DHS has been getting a black eye over the system not working and they don't have any way control it.

"They (Local Management Entities) don't answer to the board that appointed them and they don't answer to the county commissioners. Most of them are former providers who are now management entities so they tend to be sympathetic to the providers and that's how we ended up with a lot of the stories you all wrote and saw of what we thought were abuses in the system.

"Now, having said that, some of these LMEs are doing a great job, and some of them are doing a very poor job...The intention was to put more local control on mental health and these people care very much about what they're doing. They really do want to help the mentally ill. It's just are you really doing it the right way and if you're wasting dollars then it hurts.

"So we have to go back and get some kind of control on that and we have to do it in a way that includes the hospitals, because the (public) hospitals have been part of this, and we have to do it in such a way that does not deter or break the moral of those who are offering good service now."

The follow-up question was something like, "Are you talking about bringing more power over mental health care back to the state level?" His answer:

"Back to somebody. Because they don't answer to the legislature either. So I think we're going to have to bring some authority back to the state. How much, I don't know.

"If you had asked me this same question in March or April of last year, I would have laid out a whole plan for you. But since (DHHS Sec. Dempsey Benton ) has gotten into office, we've had some conversations and I've concluded that the plan I had at that point is probably not the best and I'm letting him work through this and I think we'll get some resolution and have to work with the legislators on it."

Click here to listen to Easley's full take on what needs to happen in the mental health arena.

See also Jordan's take over at Capital Letters.

When Gov. Mike Easley did his annual year-end interviews with us scruff print media types, he got asked a few questions about immigration.

First off, he was asked a general question about what he thought might happen with immigration policy over the next year. Click here to listen to that answer.

Secondly, he was asked about the UNC System's Tomorrow Commission and its recent engagement in the immigration debate. You can click here to listen to that answer.

And lastly, he was asked if, since he wasn't running next year and therefore was out of the election fray, he might try to lead the state somewhere different on immigration policy.

"A good rule of thumb is to pretend like you're running, because you have to have the support of the people to do anything. The legislature is not going to vote for something just because I'm for it when they know the people won't like it. So I don't think there's much you can do...Washington has to act."

Click here to listen to his full answer.

For those of you not in a listening mood, I've transcribed a good deal of his answer to the first question. You can find that, after the jump:

Well, at least Sen. Stan Bingham can stop worrying about the state throwing him in the pokey for putting french fry grease in his car:

Gov. Mike Easley today signed into law Senate Bill 1272, "An act to exempt biodiesel that is produced by an individual for personal use in a private passenger vehicle from the motor fuel excise tax." The new law exempts biodiesel produced by an individual, for use in their own private vehicle, from the motor fuel excise tax. State law defines biodiesel as "any fuel or mixture of fuels derived in whole or in part from agricultural products or animal fats or wastes from these products or fats."

Click here for the full release.

As expect, Gov. Mike Easley vetoed HB 1761, which would have given some no-strings-attached incentives grants to Goodyear Tire.

Easley said he took "no joy" in vetoing the bill.

"I was hoping to get through this legislative session without having to veto a bill," he said.

However, the measure would allow Goodyear to layoff up to 700 workers and still get nearly $40 million in state grants, something Easley said didn't make sense. He also said it was unfair to single out one company for aid when its competitors weren't getting the same thing.

More from the press conference, including audio, on the veto, transportation and Michael Decker is coming in a bit.

Update: It's never a good sign for your bill when the governor walks into the room and says he has to "deal" with it.

Click here to listen to Easley giving his rationale for returning HB 1761 to sender.

And click here to read his veto message to the General Assembly.

More after the jump.

An administrative law judge ruled today that the Council of State should reconsider its death penalty decision from earlier this year and take arguments from lawyers in the case. The judge also said the N.C. Medical Board over-reached when it prohibited doctors from taking part in executions.

Easley was asked if he thought the Council of State should go back and revisit its decision.

"No," he said, "If you open it up to the Council of State trying to listen to the lawyers and be the judges that'd be a mistake."

The Council of State is made up of 10 statewide officers, including the Commissioner of Agriculture, the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, the Insurance Commissioner and the State Auditor.

"They're not in any position to make those types of legal decisions," Easley said.

Click here to listen to his full take on the two questions he was asked.

Gov. Easley signed a trio of new ethics bills into law today. The most notable puts contribution limits and disclosure requirements on legal defense funds.

My question for the governor was whether or not any of these laws would have headed off recent high profile cases, such as the one that sent former House Speaker Jim Black heading off to jail.

"There are certain things you cannot legislate, which (are) character and integrity," Easley said, adding that there were some thing that came up that the laws do now address. Black's use of an unregulated legal defense fund was one such change.

"But, I mean I want to be perfectly honest with you about the cases you refer to, the high-visibility ones this year. There's nothing we have passed in the past couple of years that would have made that activity illegal. That's been illegal since the beginning of the Republic," Easley said.

Click here to listen to more of Easley's take on this topic.

Judge Robert Farmer, who heads the state ethics commission, speaks up after Easley on that bit of audio, saying that he's happy the ethics board will be able to open up its meetings. And, he adds, the commission will be holding is first (nearly) fully open meeting Friday and will be considering sanctions against those who have not filed their ethics disclosure forms.

Gov. Mike Easley called a news conference to talk about signing a trio of ethics bills, so of course we scruffy media types wanted to talk about everything else under the sun. (More on the ethics bills later.)

Among the things he was asked about was whether he might call a special session of the legislature for transportation and what the state might do to keep up with the needs of its aging roadways and bridges.

Easley talked about getting a bipartisan group of legislators, DOT and others together to come up with an answer to the problem of funding highway construction and repair.

"Hopefully everybody recognizes we're going to have to come up with a solution for transportation, it's going to require more money and there's never a popular way to find more money," Easley said.

Click here to listen to Easley's full answers to transportation questions asked today.

He pointed out that the formula used to pay into the highway trust fund doesn't seem to be working any more. Increasing prices for construction materials, more fuel efficient cars, the gas tax cap and other factors have put the state behind.

As for a special session, Easley said he only wants the honorables to come back to town if there is a plan for them to work with and pass.

Talk of a special session got started following the bridge collapse in Minnesota and this year's budget, which didn't do much by way of beefing up infrastructure. In fact, a last minute effort to throw some money toward the toll road authority croacked because of its funding mechanism.

Early reports out of Lowe's Motor Speedway seem to be that Gov. Mike Easley took some trouble-free laps around the track, defying fate . . . or at least expectations.

From our friends at the Associated Press, here's Easley climbing into his ride:

(AP Photo/Chuck Burton) Click to enlarge.

From Gov. Mike Easley's office:

RALEIGH - Gov. Mike Easley announced today that Dempsey Benton will become the next Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. He will succeed current Secretary Carmen Hooker Odom, who is leaving at the end of the legislative session to become president of the Milbank Memorial Fund.

Click here for the full release.

From the governor's office:

RALEIGH - Gov. Mike Easley will take the wheel of Casey Mears' No. 25 National Guard/GMAC "American Heroes" Car Saturday (May 19) to raise money for the North Carolina National Guard Family Readiness Program. The Governor, who will race a few laps around the track prior to the start of the NASCAR NEXTEL All-Star Challenge at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, has already received numerous pledges for the program from private donors.

"The men and women in the North Carolina National Guard make significant sacrifices being overseas serving our country," said Easley. "Their families feel their sacrifice and our National Guard Family Readiness Program helps out with such things as car repairs, late mortgage payments, or things that families with an unexpected drop in income would experience. I am asking every citizen and business to join in giving a little bit back during race week."

Click here for the full release, which includes how to donate.

A worthy charity, no doubt. But don't these folks know what happens when the governor gets behind the wheel?

Our friends at the Associated Press remind us:

Easley has had his share of adventures _ and misadventures _ behind the wheel of a stock car.

In May 2005, the governor kicked off a legislative session by driving Jimmie Johnson's No. 48 Chevrolet from the Executive Mansion to the Legislative Building less than two blocks away. As he drove away from his official residence, Easley fishtailed and nearly hit a parked car, but caused no damage.

Two years earlier, he wrecked another of Johnson's cars while driving at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

Can someone please move the Lt. Governor to a safe location with plenty of water, a bible and judge until this little adventure is over? Just in case, you know.

Gov. Mike Easley was on a conference call this morning geared at calling attention to the needs of the National Guard. Easley not only has worries about how North Carolina might handle certain situations, but he's the point man for the National Governor's Association on the issue.

The problem, as Easley sees it, in a nutshell: A lot of guard troops and equipment are heading overseas to Iraq and Afghanistan and that might not leave sufficient personnel back here to deal with tornados or pandemic disease or the like.

The problem is not just the level of guard troops in one state, but the availability among states. Typically, if there is a big event (massive tornado, wildfires gone crazy, etc...) a governor can call in help from other states.

And usually, governors are happy to send guard troops and equipment to help out, like North Carolina and others did in the case of Katrina.

"I'm reluctant to let any go right now, because if a hurricane comes I need them in North Carolina," Easley said.

There was a lot of extraneous noise on the line because many of the reporters didn't seem to be able to find their mute buttons.

But you can Click here to listen to Easely flesh out that idea a bit more: "Common sense tells you there is a limit to how much people can do,"

Although Easley and Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy talked mostly about the need to fund the guard, they did get into the more systemic problem.

"The problem is they have been moved in to the operational strategy of the army," Easley said of the guard. He added later, "I don't think we can continue with the guard in this operational role much longer."

Easley also said that it's not quite panic time, but that he will need to call for outside help if we get a big tornado or big floods (think Hurricane Floyd) or something else beyond your run of the mill Cat. 3 Hurricane.

"The bigger problem we worry about is if you have a terrorist attack, if you have a pandemic, those are the things we are specifically concerned about," Easley said.

Click here to listen to Easely talk about that idea.

From Gov. Mike Easley's office:

RALEIGH - Gov. Mike Easley today declared Friday, April 20, a day of mourning in memory of the victims of the Virginia Tech shooting. He is asking all North Carolinians, as an expression of solidarity and respect, to observe a minute of silence at noon to honor those who were killed and injured during this week's tragedy.

"We mourn for the losses suffered by our neighbors in Virginia, share in their sorrow and offer our support," said Easley. "While it will take time for the wounds from this tragedy to heal, we are confident in the resilience of the university community and thankful for the outpouring of support for the injured and the families of those who lost loved ones."

Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine on Thursday encouraged other states to join with him in declaring April 20 a day of mourning for the victims of Monday's shootings at the campus in Blacksburg, Va., which left 32 dead. North Carolina is joining with at least 30 other states in the observance, according to the National Governors Association.

(Audio link below.)

Gov. Mike Easley was on a conference call this afternoon for Pre(K)Now, a group that lobbies for early childhood education programs.

Basically, the group was touting the fact that 29 governors labeled Pre-K programs as one of their top budget priorities.

Speaking of budget priorities, you may have heard the governor wants to shift how lottery money is raised and spent. He's doing that so he can add more Pre-K slots, something on the order of 20,000 over the next couple years.

So can he do that without the changes to the lottery he's asking for? After all, some legislators are leery of doing anything with the state-sponsored gambling program, for fear of incurring the ire of the voters or inadvertently giving opponents an opportunity to delete the darned thing.

Short answer: He says yes. If nothing else, he said, the money will have to come from the general fund (read: tax revenue).

Click here to listen to the somewhat fuller explanation.

From Gov. Mike Easley's office:

RALEIGH - Gov. Mike Easley today ordered all North Carolina state flags to be flown at half-staff in honor of the victims of the tragic shootings Monday at Virginia Tech University. In addition, all U.S. flags will be flown at half-staff at state buildings.

"We join those in Virginia and around the nation who mourn the loss of loved ones at Virginia Tech," said Easley. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to those who are suffering because of this senseless act of violence."

Flags will be flown at half-staff until sunset on Sunday, April 22.

These next two links have little to do with one another, other than they pick on Gov. Mike Easley:

• Scott Mooneyham says Teflon Mike's coating is beginning to flake off. In talking about the Jo Ann Sanford whoopsee-doodle, Mooneyham writes:

  These are the kinds of shenanigans that a governor must stop, or his public will only conclude that he is a part of them.

  And the Easley Teflon will quickly peel away.

• Meanwhile Jack Betts digs into the new official history of North Carolina's governors, stopping to spend a little time on Easley's entry:

  Alas, the entry on the state's current governor, did not read with the same kind of raw-material, bark-still-on candor. Gov. Michael Francis Easley's entry read more like a public relations pamphlet. (Indeed, the book's introduction notes, Easley's entry was written after consultation with his press office.) Among other things, it referred to "[T]he more than $400 million in annual funds generated by the new lottery" for schools - except the lottery hasn't generated that kind of money yet.

  It also noted he "successfully led North Carolina through its transition to become a major competitor in the new global economy..... Easley provided the tools need to attract successful new industry and to grow existing businesses. These tools will help secure a strong, healthy economy for north Carolina years into the future."

  Whew! Even Easley's admirers will find that spread on a little thick. Perhaps state officials should wait until governors have left office before they try to assess their gubernatorial terms.

  Yeah, you really shouldn't need hip-waders to read a history book.

Last month, we scruffy press types were reported that Gov. Mike Easley had written a children’s book. And he said that he wanted to get a copy into every school in North Carolina.

Easley’s press folks, responding to conservatives who suggested this was a complicated way to have taxpayers line his pockets, said that no taxpayer funding would be used to pay for the book. But they couldn’t say how it would get to every school in the state.

Well, Easley was visiting Greensboro today, reading his book to kids at a local elementary school. Education reporter Morgan Josey was on the scene and offered to lob a few questions at the governor for me. I asked her to ask about this. From her field report:

He said he plans to sell his book in retail stores and the proceeds will go to an education foundation to pay to put a copy in each classroom. He’s also hoping to get some private donors to contribute.

“The problem is the kids who really need to get this book, their parents aren’t going to buy it,” Easley said.

Gov. Mike Easley has written a children’s book, which is a sentence I didn’t think I would ever have a chance to write.

Even better, one of the state’s conservative groups say it’s all a ploy to pocket taxpayer money.

Even better than that, the governor’s office says the accusation is unfounded but that the book will, somehow, make its way to every school in the state.

For those interested in the topic, Easley sent out the following with regard to the OLF:

“I am writing to express my frustration and disappointment with the Navy’s decision to again identify Washington County as its preferred site for the proposed Outlying Landing Field (OLF) through its draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS).

“I have spent a great deal of time with the higher command of the Navy and top Pentagon officials, and with people here and in Washington discussing alternatives to the Washington County site. Our Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources has repeatedly talked with the Navy leadership in charge of this project, and our OLF Study Group has worked hard to identify viable alternatives. As the draft SEIS shows, the Navy remains unwilling to even fully consider reasonable alternatives.

“I believe this matter can be resolved, but spending millions of dollars to build the proposed OLF next to a world-renowned wildlife refuge for migratory birds is not an acceptable resolution. Congress controls the purse strings for this project, and Congress should withhold funding until the Navy is willing to consider reasonable alternatives.”

Update: Click here to listen to the governor explain what he's doing with lottery funding in the budget.

Gov. Easley released his budget this morning. Click here for his release and click here for the AP story.

A couple of things to note:

• The budget keeps sales and upper income taxes where they are. Under prior budgets, they had been due for quarter-percent drops as part of the elimination of “temporary” taxes put on back during the fiscal crunch earlier in the decade. Easley allowed this morning that under his budget, those temporary taxes are no longer temporary. (He did get rid of half of the temporary taxes in last year’s budget.)

• The trade-off for keeping the sales and upper income taxes at current levels would be eliminating income taxes for roughly 600,000 people and cut income taxes in half for another 600,000 or so.

• The governor does not favor a state Earned Income Tax Credit, which he called “an administrative nightmare.”

• The governor will request legislation to monkey with the lottery. This goes back to the lottery proceed distribution formula that was in put in place with the 2005 law. Back then, lawmakers said 35 percent of the lottery’s gross profits had to go toward education.

  The governor wants to lower than to just over 29 percent so that the lottery can pay out more in prizes.

  The idea is if you give out more in lottery prizes, more people will play and you will earn more revenue overall.

  “I can’t spend percentages, I can spend money,” said Dan Gerlach, one of Easley’s budget folks.

  Expect this idea to get a lot of push-back from several quarters, including people who didn’t like the lottery in the first place and will say the state is reneging on promises.

• The governor wants to put a bond issue on the fall 2007 ballot, to the tune of $1.41 billion to be issued over five years. It would mainly pay for university buildings, prisons and state buildings. No high school funding was included.

Remember, this is only a first step in the budget process. The House will now take a swing at writing their budget. Then the Senate will get a shot. Things really get down to brass tacks at the end of the process when budget writers try to reconcile all three versions.

More later.

Gov. Mike Easley will release his proposed budget at 11:30 a.m. Thursday.

Remember, this is the (public) beginning of the long march that is our state's budget process which, if the honorables hold true to form, they’ll finish up around the beginning of July.

Gov. Mike Easley is giving his final State of the State address right about … now.

• Click here for the news release.
  
• Click here for the text of the speech. A note on these: Easley frequently goes off book, so what’s written down might not be exactly what he says.

After a quick read-through, here are my highlights from his speech:

• Easley urged the lawmakers to take more steps on ethics reform, but did not call on them to pass a specific proposal. And, at least in the written text, does not mention former House Speaker Jim Black by name.

  “Lastly, you took needed steps toward ethics and campaign reform last session. But, this year and every year to come, there will always be more work to be done and more improvements to be made.”

• Easley called for the expansion of his Learn and Earn high school initiative, a program that allows students to earn college credit while still in High School.

  “My budget will include support to take Learn and Earn early college high school statewide. It is only fair to give every student in every corner of every county in North Carolina the opportunity to take college-level courses and earn an associate's degree at their high school, and they can do it for free.”

• Easley said his budget would create a grant program to help poor students go to college.

  “But students, I want you to hear me clearly. This plan is not a free lunch. You have to earn it. With every opportunity comes accountability. We will supply a grant, but you have to keep your grades up and be willing to work 10 hours a week. If you do, you can graduate from college in North Carolina debt free. “

• Easley called on the state to provide health care for children in the foster care system until they were 21-years-old. Currently, they leave the state health insurance rolls at 18.

• Easley proposed eliminating income tax for the state’s poorest families.

  “Tonight, I propose that we eliminate the income tax entirely for almost 600,000 North Carolina taxpayers and cut it in half for over 600,000 more. This will send a message in a loud and mighty voice that we place a premium on work and we mean for it to pay off for hard-working people.”

Does anyone else remember Gov. Easley saying we had a de facto moratorium on executions?

From the Department of Corrections this afternoon:

Execution date set for Archie Lee Billings

RALEIGH - Correction Secretary Theodis Beck has set March 2, 2007, as the execution date for inmate Archie Lee Billings. The execution is scheduled for 2 a.m. at Central Prison in Raleigh.

Billings, 33, was sentenced to death June 5, 1996, in Caswell County Superior Court for the first degree murder of Amy Jackson. He also received consecutive sentences of 34 years and five months for first-degree rape, 10 years and nine months for assault with a deadly weapon with intent to inflict serious injury and nine years and 11 months for first-degree burglary.

On May 8, 1998, the North Carolina Supreme Court affirmed Billings’ conviction and sentence of death.

On January 8, 2007, the Supreme Court of the United States denied Billings’ petition to review the decision of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, dismissing his appeal and causing this execution date to be set.

((SNIP))

Execution date set for Allen R. Holman, Sr.

RALEIGH - Correction Secretary Theodis Beck has set March 9, 2007, as the execution date for inmate Allen R. Holman, Sr. The execution is scheduled for 2 a.m. at Central Prison in Raleigh.

Holman, 47, was sentenced to death April 7, 1998, in Wake County Superior Court for the first degree murder of Linda Holman.

On August 18, 2005, the North Carolina Supreme Court affirmed Holman’s conviction and sentence of death.

Holman declined further appeals efforts and requested that an execution date be set.
On December 14, 2006, a federal judge ruled Holman was mentally competent to withdraw his appeals.

The Council of State ended up approving the death penalty protocol this morning. I’m not sure this moves the state of things forward or backward much, but the deed is done.

LaborInsurance Commissioner Long, Sec. of Education Atkinson and Sec. of State Elaine Marshall voted no. The rest of the members voted yes.

The one thing everyone agreed on at the meeting: the Council of State should be taken out of this process.

AP's story is here.

As was reported earlier this week, the Council of State is going to take on North Carolina’s thorny execution debate Tuesday.

The specific problem in this context involves what role, if any, the law requires health care professionals play in the death of an inmate.

The Council of State agenda came out today with two items specifically related to the execution debate attached:

• Click here for the first form. It appears to be a brief explaination of the court order that sent it to the COS.
• Click here for the other form. Appears to be the not protocol that the COS will be asked to adopt on Tuesday.

This is one of those serious discussions where you had to inject politics in the discussion. Yet, this is very definitely going to be a decision with political consequences.

The Council of State is made up of the 10 North Carolina Officials elected statewide. There are no legislative leaders on the council.

Although this is a decision that could have consequences for any of the 10 as they seek re-election or election to other offices, three have more skin in the game than others.

Both Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue and Treasurer Richard Moore are likely – read: all but declared – candidates for governor in 2008, so the political ramifications may most immediately affect them. AG Roy Cooper will almost certainly face a re-election challenge in 2008.

All three are Democrats and in the simplest possible terms, all three face the following choice from a political perspective:

• Establish their law-and-order credentials and sign off on the new execution protocol. This would win points with conservative dems and some Republicans but alienate some voters in the activist Democratic base.
• Vote against the execution protocol and open themselves up to criticism that they are soft on crime and criminals. This would win them points with the activist base but open them up to attack from the philosophical right.

Of course, one hopes that all 10 folks concerned are making the choice that they believe is righteous and that somehow the aggregate of those 10 reactions lead to an overall decision that is correct, whatever that may be.

But I’m not quite naïve/optimistic enough to think that politics will be ignored.

The state is buying Chimney Rock Park.

Click here for the news release.

Click here for more info on the park.

Gov. Easley has appointed Merle C. Green, of McLeansville, to the Governor’s Task Force for Healthy Carolinas. You know her better as Merle Green, director of the Guilford County Health Department. From the release:

Green is health director at the Guilford County Health Department. She is regional chair of the N.C. Association of Local Health Directors, a member of the Guilford Adult Health Board of Directors, the Smart Start Board of Directors and Sisters of Mercy Diocese Board of Directors. Green received her Bachelor’s degree in public health from N.C. Central University, her Master’s degree in health behavior from UNC at Chapel Hill and Master’s degree in business administration from Elon University.

Click here for the full release.

Note:For the impatient: Click here for an audio link of the governor.

------

Okay, no bears. And yes, I said in this post that I wasn’t going do much more with last week’s confab with Gov. Mike Easley. But this actually responds to a request from a reader.

During the discussion, he was asked about annexation and whether the state’s annexation laws should allow cities to bring people into their boundaries against their wills. Easley artfully dodged the question itself, saying it needed to be looked at in context of a larger tax and government reform modernization effort. (Click here for a good backgrounder from the AP via Fayetteville.)

At any rate, the governor got to talking about those other things that he hoped the tax study commission would deal with and that would have to work in concert in order for a meaningful reform to happen:

“These issues are all going to have to be addressed along with what does the state pay for, versus what does the county pay for. We’re going to have to address Medicaid. We’re going to have to address highways, the loops ... We’re going to have to deal with revenues, does the state give the county’s additional revenue options and if so, what will they be.”

Some will be interested in that because the governor talks about Medicaid and the fact that the counties have to chip in for the health insurance program that covers poor folks. I’m told he hasn’t really addressed that particular point, which is a sore one with local officials. Some will see the “additional revenue options” and get interested, because that basically means “new taxes or fees.”

Click here to listen to his whole riff. The clip starts by glossing over the annexation question, and then launches into the other issues.

One final quote from the governor that may entice you to listen:

"If the state is ultimately responsible for education as the constitution says, then the state probably ought to be paying for it and probably ought to be picking up any of the cost from the locals. But in doing so, you're going to have to pick up some of the revenues as well."

Click here to read the Q+A featuring Gov. Mike Easley that ran in today’s paper. It is from the same interview session that generated posts and audio earlier this week:

• On the sales tax.
  
• On his political future.
  
• Fun and games out at the western residence.

I’m not planning to turn out any more audio from this interview, but if you see something that catches your eye and you want to hear it, let me know and I’ll post it if I have time.

Have a restful Sunday.

Note: Audio link here or below.

Yes, we scruffy media types are still processing our sit-down with the governor from earlier this week. Charlotte’s Jack Betts makes the latest contribution:

Reporter Kerra Bolton of the Asheville Citizen had asked him how often he used the Western Governor’s Residence in Asheville and tried to get him to tell some funny stories about the place. Easley wouldn’t tell a story about an old patrol car the staff keeps nearby to discourage mischief, but "It does run, I'll tell you that." Or at least did. There must be more to this story.

But Easley told one story about the time he lit an old gas grill that was just under the residence's garage roof. This may be an exaggeration, but it sounds as though he nearly set the place afire when the flames came rushing out of the top of the tank. He managed to finally turn it off after getting a wet towel to smother the flames, which must have been impressive.

“I had flames coming sky high,” the governor said to the enjoyment of the assembled scribes. “Singed all the hair off my right arm.”

It gets better. Go to Jack’s place to read on, or if you want to listen click right here to listen to the governor tell his tale.

This is just further evidence that governors need to stop betting on stuff.

Gov. Mike Easley and Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney today agreed to a “friendly wager” on the outcome of tomorrow night’s NCAA Division 1-AA football championship between the Appalachian State University Mountaineers and the University of Massachusetts Minutemen. At stake is a box of Ashe County cheeses along with a basket of North Carolina treats including summer sausage, Blue Ridge Mountain dried fruit mix and some Cheerwine. Romney has countered with a New England Lobster Clambake with all the trimmings.

Cheese? We’re betting cheese now? Is the state treasury so depleted we can’t come up with barbecue and hushpuppies? Or are we just afraid the New England palate isn’t sophisticated enough to appreciate ‘cue?

As I’ve noted here before, there has been some speculation about what Gov. Mike Easley might do after 2008, when the state constitution puts him out of a job.

Some of that speculation has centered on a possible run for U.S. Senate, despite him saying last year he wasn’t really interested in serving as part of any legislative body. He reinforced that point earlier this week when meeting with us scruffy media types.

“I think I would find the legislative process frustrating,” Easley said. “I just don’t think the Senate would be my highest and best use.”

Click here to listen to him riff on the idea for a minute or so.

So, what about a job in some future Democratic administration?

He’s not really enthusiastic about that idea. Click here to listen to him put the damper on that idea.

Then why are you taking a higher public profile of late as your administration draws to a close?

“I know I’m out there more now doing national speeches and that kind of thing to a national audience. And I do plan to be engaged in that debate, and I want to be because , like so many other people, am frustrated by what I see in Washington.”

Click here to listen to Easley vent that frustration.

Note: Audio link below.

This post and
this story regarding Easley talking about keeping the remnants of the temporary sales tax on the books has stirred some e-mails, phone calls as well as comments on other sites.

In summary: folks don’t seem to be happy with the idea. There is a strong sense that Easley is suggesting the state break a promises that has already been bent somewhat.

He was conscious of that yesterday when he spoke, saying the state had committed to reducing its share of the sales tax down. If nothing else, this whole episode will contribute to a big old chorus of “yeah, right” (said with skepticism) the next time anyone brings up the idea of a temporary tax.

“We ought to try to keep that commitment unless we find a better way to give the money back to the people,” he said.

He spoke for about three minutes regarding the sales tax. The original question was whether he thought the state budget could balance next year while still phasing out both the sales tax and the upper-end income tax.

Click here to listen to his full answer.

Notice that one of the things he suggests putting the extra sales tax money toward the EITC, or a state-level Earned Income Tax Credit. That would create an interesting dynamic, with one tax break being funded by what amounts to an off-setting tax hike.

Update: More from an e-mail from Phil Berger:

In response to Governor Easley’s comments regarding his desire to keep the quarter-cent sales tax increase that is slated to expire next year, Senate Republican Leader Phil Berger (R-District 26) released the following statement:

“One of the lessons from the recent election was that voters do not like it when politicians say one thing and then do another. Governor Easley and legislative Democrats have repeatedly broken promises about the end date for "temporary" tax hikes passed in 2001. Now we are being told that the Governor wants to again deny North Carolina's families promised tax relief.

“The Democrats' failure and refusal to keep their word is apparently driven by an ongoing desire to continue to grow state government at rates that far exceed the rate of inflation. It is time to reform our state budget process and exercise fiscal discipline; the first step will be to keep the promise to end these "temporary" taxes. The Governor and legislative Democrats should control spending instead of continuing their non-stop raid on taxpayers’ wallets.”

Gov. Mike Easley held his annual chat with reporters at the governor’s mansion this morning. I’ll have more on this later, including some audio, but for now I’ll offer up his thoughts on the sales tax.

You may remember a few years back that the state imposed an extra half-cent sales tax to help deal with an ongoing fiscal shortfall. And you may recall that half-cent was added with the understanding that it would come off.

The legislature took half of it off last year, effective Dec. 1. That makes the effective sales tax rate in most of the state 6.75 percent.

During his chat with reporters today, Easley said the legislature should talk about keeping the other .25 percent.

“The question I want to take up with the legislature is, ‘is there something we’d rather do with that quarter cent,’” Easley said. He said that the revenue the tax generates – about $200 million – could be put toward programs that have been reduced by the federal government or aren’t otherwise funded.

“I don’t want to get to far out there with that,” Easley said, noting that he hadn’t talked to legislators yet.

The pitch sort of struck me as a trial balloon. Easley points out that if you spent $750 on Christmas presents this year, that extra quarter-percent cost you about $1.87. Still, you can expect some pretty fierce push back from both conservatives – who will say the state is breaking a promise to reduce taxes – and more progressive/liberal folks – who complain that the sales tax is regressive.

From the light governor’s office:

Raleigh: Today, Lt. Governor Bev Perdue announced the formation of the North Carolina Military Foundation. The Foundation will identify and pinpoint new and existing avenues to bolster a military economy in North Carolina. The Foundation board is comprised of highly-decorated military leaders and the state’s top corporate citizens.

“We intend to nurture and grow a defense industry economic presence in North Carolina. The military base economy is critical to North Carolina with a tremendous economic impact,” said Lt. Governor Bev Perdue. “This military presence is significant and strong. I’m working with the North Carolina Military Foundation and others to make it an even bigger part our state’s economic future.”

Click here for the full release.

Just in case it doesn’t go without saying, Perdue is a likely candidate for governor in 2008 and keeping military bases in North Carolina from closing will be a big part of the portfolio she brings to the voters.

There’s nothing like a hazardous chemical storage facility going boom to focus the mind. To try and prevent future conflagrations, Gov. Easley has appointed a new hazardous materials task force, which includes Greensboro fire chief Johnny Teeters.

Three quick links:

• Click here for today’s story on Gov. Easley’s plan to audit high schools.
  
• Click here for audio and other stuff from yesterday’s news conference.
  
• Click here for more info from my friends at the Chalkboard.

Audio Update: Click here to listen to the off-topic Q+A with Easley. (Audio server is back up.)

So Gov. Easley was giving a news conference Tuesday and darn but if those pesky reporters didn’t up an ask him some questions not on his agenda.

As you may know, the federal trial of Kevin Geddings, (reg. req.) who by all accounts lied to state officials when he was appointed to the lottery commission last year, begins Wednesday.

Now, Easley didn’t call all us scruffy media types to talk about anything related to the lottery or corruption on Tuesday. Nope – he had a bunch of education folks like state BOE chairman Howard Lee and legislators like Sen. Kay Hagan up on the dais with him to talk about improving low performing schools.

But when reporters only get to lob questions at the governor sporadically, well, your nice little education news conference is going to get all gummed up with corruption questions.

So all the assembled honorables and education folks got to stand awkwardly, some shifting their weight from one foot to the other, and hope they weren’t in the camera shot as Easley answered questions about whether he knew Geddings worked for a lottery vendor before assigning him to the lottery commission.

I’m sure those running for re-election must have been really happy to be standing in front of a room full of reporters while the biggest public corruption scandal in the state since we packed an Ag Commissioner off to the federal pen was discussed.

Easley did, by the way, say that he didn’t know if anyone on his staff was going to be called to testify at the trial and that his own knowledge of the affair was limited.

“I did not know he was involved with Scientific Games when he was appointed,” Easley said. “Based on my conversation with the Speaker (Jim Black), I don’t think he knew either.”

Gov. Easley announced that the state would conduct performance audits of every low performing High School in North Carolina as a way to get at problems in low performing schools.

Click here for the news release. Come back in a few minutes for updates, including audio.

Update4: Click here for links to Guilford County's own audits of its low performing schools.

Audio Update: Audio from this morning’s announcements: (I'm told our audio server's issues have been fixed.)

• Click here for Easley’s opening spiel, along with some comments from State Board of Education Chairman Howard Lee.
  
• Click here for an initial round of Q+A on the audit effort.
  
• Click here for a second round of Q+A on the audit effort.

Update3: Click here for the AP's take on all this.

Update2: From Terry Grier, Superintendent of Guilford County Schools: “This is the first I’ve heard of it … We’ve not heard anything about this, but by the same token we welcome it.”

Grier said that Guilford County has already done an audit of its three low performing schools.

Update: Easley was joined as the news conference announcing this by a host of education and legislative folks, including Rep. Maggie Jeffus and Sen. Kay Hagan, both Greensboro Democrats.

Both legislators said they thought this was a good idea.

Jeffus said she often hears from folks, regular people and campaign opponents alike, that the state cannot simply throw money at public schools and expect to fix the education problem.

“This is one way we can show whether it (money) will help or not,” Jeffus said.

I asked Easley if this audit was requested by the local schools or whether superintendents might feel this is at all heavy handed by the state. Some quotes in response:

• “I don’t expect any push-back from superintendents,” Easley said. He said he has been assured all superintendents are on board with this effort.
• “This is not a gotcha thing,” he said. “We are from Raleigh and we’re here to help.”
• Said that during the last legislative session the General Assembly gave local school districts a lot of funding in terms of teacher salaries, extra money for struggling students, etc… “It’s not as though we’re trying to police something we haven’t given them the resources to do the job.” I think that meant that the state wants to make sure all that money is doing something.

The state has budgeted about $10.8 billion on education for the current fiscal year.

With help form our crack education staff back in Greensboro, I’ll be asking the folks back there whether this is a good idea or no.

((Audio below))

I’m just back from a news conference with Gov. Mike Easley who says we should be on the look out for Ernesto, a tropical storm that probably has a chip on its shoulder because it’ll be 4 M.P.H. shy of a hurricane when it lands tonight.

Specific for Greensboro, Easley said state emergency officials expected Buffalo Creek to flood somewhat as the Ernesto cuts through the state. So if you’re in an area that has problems when Buffalo Creek gets too full up, expect some problems over the next day or so.

Oddly enough, your Labor Day beach plans are probably solid, since the storm is expected to miss all by a sliver of the N.C. Coast. It's the center part of the state, from Greensboro to New Bern, that looks to be in for most of whatever mess happens.

More to come, including audio, as soon as I get it sorted out.

Updates:

• Click here for the news release from Easley.
  
• The audio from this morning's briefing is about 15 minutes. Click here to download and listen.
  
• Easley: “The national weather service has identified some areas where they do expect guaranteed flooding … Buffalo Creek in Greensboro, in the Triad … all urban creeks are expected to have some flooding, that is those smaller creeks in urban centers as the runoff gets to them …”
  
• Ealsey: “Please pay attention to flooded waters and don’t try to drive through them.”
  
• Click here for some mpas of the North Buffalo Creek watershed from the USGS.

Gov. Mike Easley was down Wilmington way today reminding folks to be prepared in case of a hurricane. That’s fine advice.

Part of the news release from the event points to Ready NC, which has some tips and links on being ready if disaster strikes and links to other sites.

My favorite bit about the site is the handy navigate-by-icon methodology, which tells you how to

or be ready in case of things like .

The governor has vetoed Senate Bill 542, “An Act To Allow Reasonable Access To State Facilities And Employees For Certain Employee Associations.”

From a release on the veto:

By enumerating the right of certain associations to have access to state facilities and employees to sell products offered on the commercial market, the legislation would also give an unfair competitive advantage to insurers affiliated with these particular employee associations. This provision, at the very least, gives an appearance of endorsement of these products by the state of North Carolina, which is inaccurate and therefore not acceptable.

Click here for the full release.

I’m sure the honorables will just be tingling with the possibility of coming back to town for a veto over-ride session.

I hauled myself downtown this morning to catch Gov. Mike Easley’s bill signing of HB 1896, “an act to amend the sex offender and public protection registration programs.” Click here for bill text and info. And here is the governor’s news release on the bill.

I had hoped to bring you some audio of a Q+A session with the governor today. But you can't record what doesn't take place.

In my relatively short time covering Cap City, Easley has usually taken the occasion of bill signings to field a few questions from us scrubby media types. He doesn’t do regular briefings, so sporadic announcements and bill signings are usually his only opportunities for Q+A.

Today, however, he bolted from the room before anyone could fire off a question.

I’m told by and older, wiser and longer serving hand that the move “is unusual, but not unprecedented.”

Now maybe Easley had a pressing lunch engagement. Maybe he needed to get his dog to the vet or meet the plumber or something. Heck, maybe he just woke up on the wrong side of the bed and didn’t feel like dealing with us.

But it sure felt like he was avoiding questions related to our friendly local Speaker of the House and the upcoming legislative elections.

I could be wrong, but I would bet big money that at least 80 percent of the reporters in the room had questions in their notebooks regarding Speaker Black. And I think Easley would have made that same calculation as well.

The governor’s office sent along a reminder that this weekend is North Carolina’s sales tax holiday. For new comers:

Consumers will not pay sales tax on: clothes and footwear costing less than $100 per item; school supplies such as pens, pencils, paper, notebooks, textbooks, book bags, lunch bags, encyclopedias, dictionaries and calculators costing less than $100 per item; sports and recreation equipment costing $50 or less per item; athletic and nonathletic uniforms costing $100 or less per item; cycling items such as shoes, shirts and gloves costing $100 or less per item; computers including the central processing unit, monitor, keyboard, mouse and speakers totaling less than $3,500.

This year, the state’s 5th annual sales tax holiday starts at 12:01 a.m. Friday, Aug. 4 and ends at 11:59 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 6.

There is a comprehensive list of items that qualify for sales tax holiday at the N.C. Department of Revenue’s web site at: http://www.dornc.com/taxes/sales/salestax_holiday.html

Gov. Mike Easley signed the minimum wage bill into law today. Effective Jan. 1, the state’s minimum wage will go up $1 to $6.15 an hour.

Click here to listen to the bit of the signing ceremony and the questions he got regarding the minimum wage. You’ll notice that Easley was not real committal on the next steps.

Although he did say that he thought the federal government ought to raise the minimum wage, he was more tentative on what North Carolina’s next step should be in absence of a move by the feds. He was asked point blank about indexing, a way of having the minimum wage rise year after year automatically:

“It’s very difficult for states to take these steps on their own without the entire nation doing the same thing because you don’t want to put yourself at a competitive disadvantage,” Easley said.

Easley also talked some about the tone deaf political move de jour, in infamous ferry ride over July 4 weekend.

“I don’t think it was a smart move,” Easley said. He went on to say he wanted to get to the bottom who knew what when, but didn’t say if any heads would roll over the shindig.

Click here to listen to some questions about that and other items.

But wait, there’s more. there’s more. He was asked about it a second time.

Gov. Mike Easley will sign the bill raising the state’s minimum wage by $1 at 11 a.m. today.

Meanwhile, the legislators will continue to thresh through bills in hopes of leaving town next week.

From today’s paper:

• Finding information on long term care homes might get easier, but maybe not as easy as it could be. My friend and coworker Eric Townsend has been doing a lot of good work on long term care homes. Click here to read more.
• Yes, everyone agrees the ferry thing was a bad idea. What I can’t figure out is how anyone either believed it wouldn’t come out and/or was thought it was good idea in the first place.

This isn't my geographic bailiwick, but some of you UNC-CH grads may be interested:

The Council of State this morning gave approval for the university to demolish something call West House on campus. I’m not familiar with the building but this group says it’s worth saving. Apparently, it is one of the only (or the only) known example of a private dorm surviving on a U.S. college campus, according to Sen. Ellie Kinnaird. She spoke against the demolition at the meeting, but was only allowed to address the council after they had voted.

The local paper had this to say about the pending demolition.

Gov. Mike Easley will roll out his budget request for next year tomorrow (Tuesday 5/9). He's been dropping hints for days as to what this thing will look like. For his latest click right here.

Suffice it to say, the governor has some ideas on how to spend that $2 billion (sort of) surplus everyone is chattering about around here.

Meanwhile, the honorables are officially back in town tomorrow as well, kicking off all the fun and excitement of the short session at noon-ish.

We haven't done one of these in a while. According to his office, Gov. Mike Easley has appointed:

• Chip Roth of Greensboro to the North Carolina Commission on Workforce Development. Roth is an international representative with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. He is a member of the Future Fund and the Prelude Society. Roth received his Bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania. Board duties are to enhance and develop strategies that produce a skilled and competitive workforce through various powers and duties.

Okay Doug, Ed and whoever else was worried about this, I have an answer.

Someone in the administration made a math error.

For those of you not in the loop, Gov. Mike Easley has protested the planned sale of federal forest land in North Carolina. In a letter to the Bush administration, Easley said that the sale of 9,828 acres would amount to nearly 9 percent of the federal forest land in the state. Whoever did that math was a decimal point off - the sale really amounts to nearly 1 percent of federal forest land in the state.

Seth Effron, a former News & Record staffer from back in the day who is Easley's deputy press secretary, says that a corrected letter is being sent to Washington, D.C. and that a correction is being sent to the Associated Press, which wrote the story most our readers saw.

However, Effron said Easley was still opposed to the sale.

Update: News release here. AP story here. Audio below.

Gov. Mike Easley held a news conference today. The main thrust was to announce he had appointed Judge Robert Farmer as head of the state's ethics board. Farmer is currently undertaking a rewrite of the state's lobbying laws.

Easley also said he had asked Farmer to look at all the various ethics and lobbying reform proposals that have come up in the past few months, and try to mesh them into one comprehensive proposal.

You can listen to the pre-scripted announcement by clicking here. This is a link to a real audio file.

Of course, if you want to hear the fun stuff and good quotes, I recommend this link to the second half of the news conference. (Also a real audio file.) This second link has Q+A time with us scrubby media types. Some highlights:

• Easley doesn't like the feds' proposal to sell thousands of acres of national forest in North Carolina.

  "The reasons for selling it to me seem pretty silly," Easley said. Although he didn't sound enthusiastic about the option, if it came down to it, Easley said, the state may look at buying the land from the feds rather than letting it go into private hands.

• "It's not over until it's over and I've seen a lot of deals fall through at the last minute." Yeah, he's talking about the NASCAR Hall of Fame locating - or not - in Charlotte.

• Quote of the Day: "The people have a responsibility to look at the candidates who run for office and see if their conduct meets the standard we want in this state. Voters ultimately make that decision. On the other hand you cannot legislate ethics or morality. But you can make it hurt for people who don't demonstrate good ethics and morality. And Judge Farmer has been one who has shown over the years who has shown over the years that if you don't see the light, he can make you feel the heat." (Comes about 16 minutes and 11 seconds into the audio.)

• Not the quote of the day: "I think there's more than enough blame to go around. What we're looking for right now is solutions."

• Listen for: a press aid to say "last question." There will be about five or six questions after that.

My story today dips into the renewed buzz surrounding the supplanting debate over the lottery.

The bullet is this: Easley's folks want to pull some tax money out of a couple education programs and use it elsewhere in next year's education budget. They will replace the money they move out of pre-K and class size reduction efforts with lottery proceeds.

They argue: that as long as the education budget increases over all, the lottery funds are not supplanting.

Supplanting is a term lottery opponents have used to describe what happens when additional money generated by the lottery displaces tax dollars rather than boost spending for education.

Critics argue: that what Easley is doing is the very definition of supplanting.

Some remainders that didn't make the story:

From Paul Luebke, a Durham Democrat and UNCG prof.: Luebke voted against the lottery but is now in the curious position of being a finance chairman in the House where he'll have a say on how the lottery money is processed through the budget.

Luebke takes the strictest possible view on supplanting, saying that lottery dollars should not push tax dollars out of any program they're going to now.

He predicts that more folks in the House might share this view, where the lottery passed by just one vote. The folks in the other chamber, he speculated, might be more flexible.

"My impression is that the Senate is more comfortable with supplanting," Luebke said.

If the House and Senate can't agree on what exactly constitutes supplanting or whether they'll do it or not, it could make for a long short session beginning in May.

Speaking of the Senate...

Sen. Kay Hagan, a Greensboro Democrat, was getting ready to throw a big dinner party when I talked to her yesterday. Her quotes on the topic:

"It is my strong feeling that any lottery money should be new, additional money for education," Hagan said. "I think it needs to be new money, laid out in accordance with the language that's in the lottery bill."

So how does she feel about the supplanting issue? Yeah, I'm not sure either. Looking at my notes, she's left herself a lot of wiggle room.

My sense is she'll make sure the lottery money stays in education but may be more flexible than Luebke.

Fellow Senator Phil Berger...

...expects there to be supplanting. He's a lottery opponent who is a glass-half-empty kind of guy on all things lottery, including how the money will be spent.

"I think this is what folks were saying all along would be the net result," Berger said. "It's just additional money for the government that will free up money that's currently going to education for other things."

Berger points out that the original version of the Senate budget would have used lottery money to replace construction money that already goes to school districts. Currently, part of the money raised by the corporate income tax goes to counties.

The lottery law creates a new program that provides construction aid to counties.

However, Berger believes that what Easley is proposing is only step one down the supplanting path. He expects step two to be a merging of the two school construction programs.

It'll be interesting to see if that plays out. Cutting the corporate income tax has been a big priority for the governor and the Senate, not so much for the House. In fact, the House pretty much nixed a cut to the corporate rate last year because the budget did nothing to reduce the taxes they saw as a priority: sales tax and personal income.

Using lottery dollars to replace -- yes, supplant -- money from that tax would allow budget writers to cut (slightly) the corporate rate without imposing more sales or income taxes or cutting programs.

Berger may just be on to something.

And just to round things out, the full statement Gov. Mike Easley issued yesterday reads:

Education lottery money will supplement, not supplant existing spending for education and I will not recommend nor sign legislation that reduces the state’s spending for education.

Since 2001, when we began pre-k and class size reduction efforts, I have consistently said that once an education lottery was enacted, we would use the proceeds to fund these priorities permanently. The lottery will always be the source of funding for these programs in good and tough economic times. In addition, the education lottery funds college scholarships and school construction as provided by law.

Okay...discuss among yourselves.

I've got a great new party game. Tell me who said this Thursday:

“The General Assembly budget process often results in decision being made at the last minute and middle of the night without open debate.”

Now I know you might be thinking John Blust, the Greensboro Republican who has long-railed against the way the General Assembly puts together its budgets.

But think again.

It was Attorney General Roy Cooper, sounding one part like a candidate for governor (hey, the 2008 elections are just around the corner!) and one part like a member of the legislature's minority party (Blust's Republicans).

Cooper was pitching to the General Assembly - by way of a news conference - a series of reforms he said were aimed at "fighting public corruption." Most were typical prosecutor stuff: make it a crime to lie to state investigators, allow state prosecutors to empanel investigative grand juries like their federal counterparts, etc...

Fair enough.

But then he confused his audience - not hard when you’re dealing with us scrubby media types - and said he also proposed AS A CORRUPTION FIGHTING TOOL reforms to the state budget process.

When asked if he was inferring the stat budget process was, well, corrupt, Cooper issued the above quote. And indeed, it sounded a lot like Blust. (It didn't answer the question mind you...)

This is the second time Cooper a potential candidate for governor (correction on 1/28) has seemingly ripped off an idea that a member of the Greensboro delegation has championed.

I'm beginning to think these boys must be sneaking into town for Cheesecake and political advice.

I'll have a story on all this (at least the Cooper sounding like Blust thing) in tomorrow's (Friday's) paper.

Gov. Easley has appointed the following local (Guilford County and surrounding area) folks who are landing appoints to various boards and commissions:

• Willie A. Johnson of Greensboro to the N.C. Auctioneers Commission.

  Johnson is an auctioneer and owner of Willie Johnson Auctioneer & Associates and a realtor and owner of Willie Johnson Realty. He is president of the N.C. Auctioneers Association and a member of the National Auctioneers Association, National Realtors Association, N.C. Realtors Association and Greensboro Regional Realtors Association. Johnson served in the U.S. Army and is a Vietnam veteran. He attended Guilford Technical Community College and N.C. A&T State University.

  The commission protects the public from incompetent or unqualified persons engaging in auctioneering activities and preventing deceitful practices, willful misinterpretations or fraudulent and dishonest dealings. The commission has five members, each serving a three-year term.

Stateline.org recently did a story detailing what the nation's 50 governors say when they send greeting cards this time of year. From the story:

A Stateline.org survey found that 37 of the 50 state leaders – 18 Democrats and 19 Republicans -- are sending wishes for a happy -- nameless -- holiday. Nine governors – two Democrats and seven Republicans -- are explicit in wishing the joy of "Christmas."

It continues:

The distinction between Christmas and holiday cards came to the fore this year when President Bush’s card – featuring a snow-draped White House with no holiday bunting -- was drubbed by conservative activists who claimed the president gave in to political correctness by failing to mention “Christmas.” While the majority of governors’ cards also use all-inclusive holiday language, their messages can’t be categorized as neatly as Santa’s naughty and nice list.

For those of you who are wondering, Gov. Mike Easley's cards read: "At this time of the year, we want to extend our best wishes. May God bless you and your family during this holiday season," according to material that ran with the story giving the text from all the governor's greetings.

Some governors stuck with a simple one line greeting, while others got really wordy. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee are neck and neck for the verboseness prize.

But it's Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina who wins the award for sending a holiday greeting that also serves as an admonition to his fellow pols: "May we all live honorably, walk humbly, and give abundant thanks to the Lord for our many blessings this holiday season," a quote from Micah 6:8.

Good afternoon. So far today, there’s been only one appointment from the governor with obvious local ties. Easley has appointed:

• Edward W. Kelly III of Greensboro to the N.C. Employment Security Commission.

  Kelly is a retired human resource and safety manager with Dow Corning Corp. He is a member of the Guilford Technical Community College Chemical Advisory Board, the Human Resource Management Association of Greensboro and the Society of Human Resource Management. Kelly received the N.C. Department of Labor’s Apprenticeship Award for Outstanding Service and a Public Service Award from Dow Corning Corp.

  The commission rules on appealed unemployment insurance claims and tax matters serving as the highest administrative voice. The rulings are then appealable to the N.C. Superior Court. The commission has seven members, each serving a four-year term. The governor appoints all members.

Update: Here's the AP's story on yesterday's chat with Easley.

Earlier this week I had asked for questions that you might want to ask Gov. Mike Easley. While I didn't use any of the questions verbatim, I think we may have gotten at the spirit of a few of them.

So as I sit and ponder what to do with 100 minutes worth of notes and recording from Easley's end-of-year chat with members of the press corps, you can ponder Easley's answers when asked about the Jim Black saga. (If you need background, here. If not:

Click here for a real audio file. It's just shy of six minutes.

The first question you'll hear is whether Easley thinks legislative leaders have too much power. There's a short, somewhat silly interlude after the answer to that question when Easley talks about being the only right-handed male in his family. Then he gets two questions about Speaker Black, including whether he thinks Black should step down.

"At some point ... people are going to want to know what the explanation here, and how did this happen and what are your going to do to fix it," Easley said, but didn't get close to saying that Black should step down.

But you should listen to the whole thing.

From the e-mail box:

RALEIGH – Gov. Mike Easley urges North Carolinians to remember our veterans this holiday season, especially residents in N.C. State Veterans Nursing Homes. One way to do this is to send cards, wish-list gifts or monetary donations to benefit residents.

“We must not forget the contributions made by our veterans to protect our country,” Easley said. “Especially at this time of year, we should do all we can to let them know how grateful we are for their dedication and sacrifice.”

Citizens, organizations and businesses can send cards and make holiday donations to provide cheer to residents at the state veterans nursing homes in Fayetteville and Salisbury. A monetary contribution will be used to give a resident a gift personally selected for them by staff. Contributions received through the nonprofit Friends of the N.C. State Veterans Homes are tax deductible.

Contributions can be made to Friends of the N.C. State Veterans Homes and should be addressed to Holiday Cheer, c/o James Woodard, N.C. Division of Veterans Affairs, 1315 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, N.C. 27699-1315. Donations may be accompanied by a signed card or given anonymously.

In addition to cards and monetary contributions, there are other wish-list items for the nursing homes, including new videos, DVDs and games. For details, call Woodard at 919/733-3851 or visit www.doa.state.nc.us/vets/va.htm.

The Division of Veterans Affairs in the N.C. Department of Administration administers the 150-bed Fayetteville facility, which opened its doors in 1999, and the 99-bed Salisbury facility, which admitted its first residents in 2004. Wartime veterans receive priority in admission.

Gov. Mike Easley is scheduled to meet the press Tuesday morning (10/06) next week. There's no specific topic, as he's basically granting an end-of-year interview request to a bunch of people at once.

So what would you ask him?

Yes, I have some questions of my own. But chances are at least some of you out there have something on your minds that I wouldn't have thought about.

And between the lottery, Dell's arrival, the newly empanelled legislative ethics committee, teacher salaries, teacher qualifications, the state budget, voting machine issues, recent executions and everything else going on related to state government, there's plenty of fertile ground to plow.

Just so you don't get too excited, here are a couple caveats: An individual reporter will be limited by time and the number of others in the room as to how many questions he can get off. Also, questions that are more political needling than actually aimed at eliciting a response aren't going to be much good to me.

Other than that, serve 'em up.

Reply via the comments link below or direct to e-mail at mbinker@news-record.com. If you want to make sure I get your question, send it by 5:30 p.m. on Monday.

My plan is to post audio of the session if I get a clean enough recording. Any of the questions submitted by you folks in the blogsphere that I use will get posted here with their answers Tuesday afternoon.

I haven't had cause to do one of these posts lately, but we'll kick off this Friday Appointments post nice and early.

Gov. Mike Easley has appointed:

• Michelle Gethers-Clark of Greensboro to the N.C. Agricultural and Technical State University Board of Trustees. Gethers-Clark is senior vice president of Card Operations for American Express. She is a member of the International Civil Rights Center and Museum Board of Directors.
• George W. House of Greensboro to the N.C. State Museum of Natural Sciences Advisory Commission. (This is a reappointment) House is a partner with Brooks, Pierce, McLendon, Humphrey and Leonard LLP and is chair of the commission. He is a member of the N.C. Bar Association, Virginia Bar Association and Greensboro Kiwanis Club. House was named Best Environmental Lawyer in North Carolina by Legal Elite Magazine in 2005.
• J. Donald Cline of Greensboro to the N.C. State Museum of Natural Sciences Advisory Commission. Cline is president of Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute. He received his bachelor’s degrees in math and physics from Guilford College.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know all you folks out there in the Internets think everyone is a turkey down here in Raleigh.

But Gov. Mike Easley sent out this release to remind folks how not to get sick from the real thing.

And in all seriousness, Clostridium botulinum is not a guest you want at Thanksgiving.

Have a safe and happy Turkey Day. We'll see you back here full time on Monday, Nov. 28, with only one or two updates between now and then - if all stays relatively quiet here in Raleigh anyway.

Gov. Mike Easley is notorious among the capital press corps for what some perceive (I think rightly) as his pretty limited availability to reporters, at least compared to some other governors.

So today's news conference, called mainly in response to all the problems surrounding the lottery, was actually a pretty nice change of pace.

(Update: Click here for the AP's take on Easley's Q+A.)

Click here to listen to the whole thing. This is a file for our broadband friends, since it's an about 11 Meg MP3 file. It lasts 50 minutes. As I said, the focus is mainly lottery, with some bird flue and ethics questions thrown in for good measure.

I've done zero editing, so you get the whole thing. Reporter's questions will sound a little fuzzy at times, but Easley should be nice and audible. You'll also get all his jokes and asides and what not, and the tape starts with him talking about one of his staff member's child's school reports.

For those who don't have the time to listen, I expect to do a summary of some sort for tomorrow's paper.

...what would it be? Use the comments link below or e-mail me (mbinker@news-record.com) by 10:30 a.m. Tuesday (11/8).

Click here for the story from the paper on the teacher pay raises.

I'd have more to say, but the lottery commission starts meeting at 8 a.m. and I'm off to that...and my friendly local coffee merchant.

Update: Click here for the governor's press release. More to come in tomorrow's paper. For all you teacher's out there, this means more money in November's paycheck.

Click here for the rush story from AP.

-----

Gov. Easley is scheduled to make an appearance at a Raleigh elementary school this afternoon to announce a plan to raise teacher salaries. Although this has the trappings of a dog and pony show, there actually is going to be some real news out of this one.

Back when the final state budget was negotiated this summer, about $85 million was set aside for to help raise teacher salaries in some way.

Basically, the legislature told Easley to figure out a way to use the money to make North Carolina's teacher salaries more competitive with other states. The string attached to the money was that the legislative leadership had to sign off on it before the governor could use the money.

Well, apparently they've hit on something that Easley, House Speaker Jim Black and Senate leader Marc Basnight can all agree to.

The announcement is schedule for 1 p.m. today. We'll have a story in the Wednesday's paper (you remember, the thing that gets thrown on the doorstep every morning) and we will, no doubt, update online this afternoon.

Some other background on this after the jump:

Gov. Mike Easley's Friday appointments this week include:

• Gwennella Lamberth Quick of Greensboro to the N.C. Council on Sickle Cell Syndrome. According to the governor's office:

  Quick is a clinical assistant professor at the School of Nursing at NCA&T. She received her bachelor’s degree in nursing from NCA&T and her master’s degree in community health nursing from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

  Board duties include advising the Department of Health and Human Services and the Commission for Health Services on the needs of persons with sickle cell syndrome and making recommendations to meet these needs. The board has 15 members, each serving three-year terms. The governor appoints all members.

• Shirley T. Frye of Greensboro to the Guilford Technical Community College Board Trustees. According to the governor's office:

  Frye is the former vice president of community relations for WFMY-TV in Greensboro. She is chair of United Way of Greater Greensboro and the Joseph M. Bryan Foundation. Frye received the Athena Award from the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce and the Brotherhood Humanitarian Citation Award from the National Conference for Community and Justice.

It's time for the Friday afternoon appointments from the governor's office. So far, just one today:

• Guilford County Sheriff BJ Barnes has been appointed to the N.C. Emergency Response Commission. Click here for the full release from Easley's office.

I'm catching up on my e-mail from Friday. Only one appointment of local note from the governor's office:

Gov. Mike Easley has reappointed Barbara S. Moore of Reidsville to the Rockingham Community College Board of Trustees.

Moore is the owner of Town and Country Realty. She is a charter member of the Committee of 100, a member of the Reidsville Wachovia Bank Board of Directors and the Annie Penn Hospital Foundation. Moore is a past recipient of the Business Woman of the Year Award from the Reidsville Chamber of Commerce. She received her bachelor’s degree in primary education from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Click here for the whole release.

Here are a couple of updates for you if you missed the weekend papers:

• My colleagues Tina Firesheets and Eric Collins penned this story on Stephen's Law, which closes a loophole in the hit and run statute. The bill was named for a Western Guilford High School graduate. Gov. Mike Easely signed it Sunday.

• Click here for a profile of the lottery commission. Charles Sanders at one time opposed the creation of a state game.

• The governor's press office kept itself busy over the weekend, letting me know that bills were signed. Click here for the release on Stephen's Law and Rachel's Law, which relates to handguns. The governor also signed a bill raising school nutrition standards.

Update: Click here for today's story on this from the dead-tree product.

Gov. Mike Easley has vetoed House Bill 706, which would have made it easier for North Carolina school districts to hire teachers from other states. Click here for prior coverage.

Easley did the veto in public and held a news conference to tell us scrubby press types that he really didn’t like the bill. This is a break from his usual procedure, under which he usually sends vetoes back to the legislature nice and quiet like.

"This bill reduces the North Carolina teaching standards to the lowest in America. It cheats our children out of a quality education and dishonestly classifies unqualified teachers as 'highly qualified,'" Easley wrote in his veto message.

Easley has until Oct. 12 to call the General Assembly back into session to consider whether to over-ride his veto or not.

Legislators and the state board of education have been working on a compromise but those talks fell apart Wednesday night, Easley said.

If nothing changes in the next week or so, expect the honorables to be headed back to town for a day or two.

I just received an e-mail alerting me to this press release by the National Taxpayer’s Union.

It urges Gov. Mike Easley to temporarily lift the state’s 26.5-cent tax on gasoline. Easley was asked this morning whether he would do such a thing this morning. His one word reply: “no.”

Why pass on the seemingly feel-good power play? Easley may just be looking at the numbers.

Cutting 26.5 cents won't get prices below $2 a gallon at my local station. Meanwhile, cutting the state will cost the state somewhere north of $120 million a month - money that's set aside to help build and repair roads.

So, is getting your petrol bill down to, say $2.35 rather than $2.61, worth putting a host of road projects behind the fiscal eight ball? Discuss in the comments below.

Gov. Mike Easley held himself a little news conference this morning to sign a bill and take some questions. You can expect a bunch of these between now and Oct. 2. It's an easy way fro the governor to keep himself in front of the cameras and dole out the odd political favor. (It seems that an invite to one of these shindigs is a big deal for legislative types.)

Here's what was covered:

• The topic at hand was Senate Bill 1048, which carries the formal title of "The Identity Theft Protection Act of 2005."

  Basically, the bill is meant to protect consumers from criminals who steal personal information and then take out fraudulent loans and credit cards or even get arrested and give someone else’s name to the police.

  The marquis provision of the bill will allow consumers to freeze their credit reports, making it impossible for someone to take out a loan in their name. That begins Dec. 1.

• Apparently Easley was asked earlier this week when he would announce appointments to the lottery commission, the group that will run the new state numbers game. At the time he said, "early in the week."

  Well, the early week is running out and he was asked about this again today. His response: "It could be announced as early as today."

  Without the commission in place, nothing else lottery-related can happen.

• When asked about the sharp rise and subsequent slow drop in gas prices, Easley said he was considering joining other Democratic governors in calling on the feds to do something. He said that the recent supply interruption (and subsequent price spike) showed that the U.S. needed more refineries and shouldn't just keep all its supply down in one place (the gulf) where a big storm can interrupt the whole deal.

  Attorney General Roy Cooper, who was at the news conference as well, said his office was watching out for price gouging.

  "We have sent out a warning to retailers across the state letting them know that the price gouging law is in effect," Cooper said. He later said, "I think it's important of Congress to look into this issue."

• Easley actually make a couple of spontaneous funnies today. The first came after Cooper pointed out that there was only one glass of water to share for the speakers, much like conditions working in a tobacco field.

  Easley chortled and replied, "I haven't been in a tobacco patch since I got a drivers' license to make it to construction work."

  The last came at the end of the news conference, when reminded that the water providers were watching an emerging drought across the state carefully. There was a big rain storm here in Raleigh late Tuesday night / early Wednesday morning.

  "I was up late making it rain," Easley joked.

On vacation, thank you very much. Some friends and family spent a few days down at Oak Island, which is a quiet little spot that managed to avoid too much hurricane damage.

Now let's see, what's been going on around these parts?

Gov. Easley has signed a couple bills:

• House Bill 254 lets the state issue about $900 million in grant anticipation bonds. Basically, N.C. doesn't want to wait around for federal grants, so the state will issue bonds, use the proceeds and repay them when Congress finally sends the money along.

• House Bill 750 will allow the state transportation department to change the way it goes about paving unpaved roads. One of the bill's sponsors was Rep. Nelson Cole (D-Rockingham). Basically, it allows a bit of shift toward maintaining small roads that are already paved rather than putting asphalt on in places that don't need it. Fun facts from the news release:

  Secondary roads comprise nearly 64,000 miles of North Carolina’s more than 78,000-mile highway system, and only about 4,400 miles of those roads are unpaved. A recent condition assessment projected a $121 million gap between available funds and secondary road maintenance needs.

Also, there's another bill signing in just about 15 minutes (more on that later) and a big ol' pile of e-mail and snail mail that I'm still sifting through...so more to come.

I've been getting a pretty steady stream of e-mail (okay, it's about one-a-day, but it's a nice break from the spam and people telling me what an ignoramus I am) about House Bill 706, which would allow North Carolina school districts to more easily recruit teachers from other states.

Click here for prior coverage.

As of right now, the most definitive thing I can say is that it's on
the list of bills awaiting action by the governor.

Gov. Mike Easley doesn't like this bill and the local punditry has posited that he will veto this thing. Of course, that's not his only option.

While the General Assembly is in session, the governor has 10 days to decide whether to sign or veto something. If he does nothing during that time, the bill becomes law without his signature.

Nine days had ticked off that clock for HB 706 when the General Assembly adjourned a couple weeks ago until May. That started a new 30-day clock ticking. Similarly, if the governor does nothing during this time period, the bill becomes law without his signature.

The clock expires at midnight on Sunday, Oct. 2.

When folks in Easley's office are asked about this bill, the response has been that Easley is "still reviewing the bill." The rough translation of that phrase is something like: "He may have decided but we're not telling what that decision might be yet." Easley has Ophelia (the hurricane) on the brain this week, so I wouldn't hold my breath to see anything on this soon.

It's a pretty good bet Easley won't sign HB 706 given the amount of venom he's unleashed on it. That would leave two options:

• As discussed above, he could let is pass into law without his signature. That would be a reasonable option, especially given that the bill passed unanimously twice in the House and by a 45-4 vote in the Senate. Those sorts of numbers would handily over-ride a veto any day.

• If he does veto it, the state constitution requires the governor to call the General Assembly back into session to consider an over-ride. It takes a three-fifth vote in both the House and Senate to over-ride a veto. That's a 30 of 50 votes in the Senate and a 72 of 120 votes in the House. (Would-be constitutional scholars can click here for all the nitty gritty.)

So which will happen? I don't know. Which should happen? You can discuss that in the comments section below.

Gov. Mike Easley held a news conference today to let us scrubby press types (and all you folks) know what it is the state is doing to prepare for the arrival of Hurricane Ophelia.

Click here to read the official-looking news release.

Given the problems along the Gulf Coast, it's nearly impossible to view the governor's actions without comparing and contrasting the response in advance of Katrina.

The cynical among us might say that Easley is taking the chance to appear all gubernatorial and in charge now so he can't be accused of not being on the ball later.

And, in fact, as he stood in his news conference room flanked by military, police and other emergency management folks, he was asked whether some of the preparation might be an over-reaction.

"This is the exact same pattern we always follow," Easley said. "This is the way we've always done it."

I'll buy that. But I'll also buy the thinking that says Easley wants to make darn sure everyone knows what the state is doing, even if it is the same old stuff.

At any rate, the governor was asking folks down east who might be in the path of this thing to get out of the way. Given what happened with Katrina, that's probably pretty good advice, whatever the motivation for giving it.

Update: And this tidbit from my notebook shows that even high-ranking government officials have reason to quibble with the weather man: "Ophelia's track has changed . . . on each update I’ve gotten every six hours," Easley said.

By the way, my news reader says Ophelia has been downgraded to a tropical storm.

From the governor's office:

RALEIGH – Gov. Mike Easley today declared a state of emergency for North Carolina. The latest hurricane center advisory projects Hurricane Ophelia will make landfall Monday on the N.C. coast. Tropical storm force winds and rain are projected to begin Monday and will increase to hurricane force winds during the day on Monday.

From Gov. Mike Easley's office re: Katrina:

North Carolina's K-12 public schools, universities and community colleges have opened their doors to children from Hurricane Katrina-affected areas. The State Board of Education and Department of Public Instruction have advised the state's 115 school systems to register and enroll children in school. Information can be found at www.ncpublicschools.org or by calling 919/807-3300. In addition, Communities in Schools of NC is prepared to work with school systems enrolling students to provide school supplies, mentors and other needs to help students make the transition into schools in North Carolina.

This notice came from the governor's office today:

Gov. Mike Easley today announced that victims displaced from their Gulf Coast homes by Hurricane Katrina will be provided shelter in North Carolina. Easley made an initial offer to accept 1000 citizens in Charlotte, Raleigh and Greensboro. More refugees may be accepted as the need develops.

Click here to read the whole thing.(It's a Word document.)

So I got an e-mail this morning announcing the following:

Gov. Mike Easley will make an economic development announcement at 11:15 a.m. TODAY (Sept. 1) at the General Electric plant (3901 Castle Hayne Road) in Wilmington.

What is unusual is that yesterday I sat in a news conference where Easley told us all to conserve fuel and said that he was banning "non-essential" travel by state employees. Is this sort of travel essential? This is the question I posed to his press office this morning by way of e-mail:

The governor asked us all to conserve fuel yesterday and specifically said he was putting a stop to all "non-essential" government travel. What makes an economic development announcement in Wilmington something that's essential to travel to? Why couldn't he make the announcement from Raleigh? Isn't this kind of a bad example he's setting for the public?

I will admit up-front that this is sort of a smart-aleck question, but I think it's a valid one. If everyone should conserve gas, shouldn't EVERYONE conserve gas? Maybe the announcement is just that important, I don't know.

I'll let you know when I get a response and post it here.

Update1: Well, here's what Easley went down there to announce anyway.

Update2: Here's the answer I got from the governor's press office:

"As a part of this deal, the Governor told GE Nuclear officials he would be there today and 200 people will have jobs paying over $65,000 annually plus benefits because he kept his word."

Call me a skeptic, but I think the GE officials would have settled for the "$300,000 One North Carolina Fund grant and a $3.1 million Job Development Investment Grant." Or is a personal appearance by the governor that big of a deal that they would have pulled up stakes and left town? Feel free to tell me I'm off base via the comment link below.

Gov. Mike Easley just delivered this statement urging North Carolinians to conserve gas and detailing steps the government was taking to head off shortages.

I just filed a feed from that news conference. Although it's written in the form of a story, it's more there for the folks doing the heavy lifting on the issue to pull from, pick apart and use as they need:

From the governor's office:

Gov. Mike Easley announced today that Canadian-based Imaflex Inc. will open its first U.S. plastics manufacturing facility in Thomasville, investing $10 million in the area and creating 50 new jobs over the next three years. The announcement was made possible in part by a One North Carolina Fund grant of $125,000.

"Imaflex's expansion to North Carolina will enhance our state's already strong international presence in the plastics industry," said Easley. "North Carolina ranks 9th in the U.S. in plastics manufacturing, an industry that provides well-paying, sustainable jobs for our hardworking families."

Imaflex uses an extrusion process to make polyethylene films for packaging materials. The company utilizes computerized work stations and sophisticated, high-tech equipment to produce a top-quality product. The new jobs mostly will be skilled manufacturing positions that will pay an average of $550 to $600 per week plus benefits, which is more than the county’s average wage of $519.

HB 706 would make it easier for NC school systems to import teachers from others states. Click here for my story from this Sunday.

Among the folks who don't like the bill is Gov. Mike Easley. Because he's made some very unfavorable noises about the bill, folks are a twitter that he may veto the thing. (Come to think of it, a good ol' veto showdown might replace chatter about the lottery.)

The problem for Easley is that there seem to be enough votes in both the House and Senate to over-ride a veto fairly handily. When a NC governor gets a bill, he has three options: sign it, do nothing and wait ten days (in which case it becomes law) or veto it. If he doesn't sign the bill and doesn't want a veto show-down, he could simply ignore the thing and let it become law without his signature.

Stay tuned.

It's Friday afternoon and the weekly deluge of announcements about who got appointed to what from Gov. Easley's office has begun. Only one Triad name on the list so far, but the day is young:

My colleagues in the paper's Rockingham bureau are covering this, but Gov. Easley announced today Alcan Inc. will open a tobacco packaging facility in Reidsville, creating 170 jobs.

Click here for the release.

Remember all that stuff you learned in civics class about how the legislature appropriates money for certain things and the governor executes that plan?

Forget about it.

Gov. Mike Easley announced this morning that he was getting a $75 million head start on next year's budget. (press release here)

Okay, now for that context stuff:

Schools across the state begin in August and North Carolina is under court order to fix disparities between poor schools and wealthier schools. Meanwhile, as loyal readers know, the General Assembly still hasn't passed a budget for the year. They should have had it done by June 30.

Easley's executive order to spend $75 million extra on certain education programs appears to satisfy much of that court order in advance of an August hearing in the case. And in the context of the over-all budget, $75 million won't break the bank.

And, yeah, sure, this is a pretty good way for Easley to show everyone he's working hard while the folks in the legislative branch are having a hard time getting things done.

Of course, Easley might find himself scrambling if the honorables don't include the $75 million in the final draft of the $17.1 billion budget. And, as I alluded to up above, there might be some folks who take exception to the governor shuffling around money that hasn't been appropriated.

If you don't mind some lower-than-usual quality audio, you can listen to the press conference by clicking here. (It's a 20 minute MP3 file.)

If you remember from last week, the governor came out of his office for a bill signing ceremony and saw his shadow. According to local superstition up Cap City way, that means at least two more weeks of budget negotiations.

If you're burned out on prognostications from the oracles of Jones Street, here are some stories from this weekend:

Update, from Monday:

Update: This next had been coming Monday, but apparently you get it Tuesday:

Rep. Earl Jones' bill that requires public bodies to set aside time at least once a month for public comments became law today. The governor allowed it to become law without signing it.

Update: I had e-mailed the governor's office asking why he didn't bother to sign this bill. This is the reply I got from Easley press secretary Sherri Johnson:

"To answer your question about H635, this is more in the nature of a local bill -- and local bills are not ordinarily presented to the Governor to sign."

Gov. Easley says the state will shell out a $200,000 grant from the One North Carolina Fund to Kayser-Roth to help the Alamance County sock maker expand.

Click here to read the release.

Gov. Mike Easley has appointed:

Your humble correspondent is in a foul mood this morning afternoon, so you'll forgive me if this post is a bit snippy. Story ideas for the paper have been crashing left and right all week, and today isn't looking up.

To boot, it appears more and more likely the General Assembly is going to miss the June 30 deadline for having a new budget in place. Off the record, folks are pretty definitive that the differences between the House and Senate budget are too numerous to bridge by then. (It's not that I don't love geeking out on the budget, but there are other fun things to write about in state government.)

On the record, the statements are getting pretty vague. Here's what Sen. Linda Garrou had to say on the Senate floor a few minutes ago: "It is my hope that we'll finish the budget sooner rather than later."

And she's one of the ones in charge of the budget process.

Meanwhile, the Senate has begun moving the continuing resolution sent over by the House through it's machinery. As explained by Sen. David Hoyle: "We need to pass a continuing resolution so we can keep the lights running and the prisoners locked up."

The continuing resolution keeps some key taxes in place, allows the state's bills to continue to get paid and gives the General Assembly more time to deliberate. The question now becomes how much more time.

My guess is we'll be sweating with the oldies down at the legislature well into July.

Meanwhile, Gov. Mike Easley called a last minute news conference that, for my readers, wasn't worth the mileage I'm going to have to write up because I went to it. If you're interested in North Carolina school districts (none of them in Guilford, Rockingham, Randolph, Davidson or Alamance) getting funding for life sciences-themed high schools click here for the news release. (If we have any Winston-Salem folks tuning in, this might interest you.)

Gripe, gripe, gripe. I know. I could actually be working for a living. So I'm off for an iced tea and an attitude adjustment. See you back here in a bit.

I was a little confused by this release from Gov. Mike Easley's office. The lead graph:

Gov. Mike Easley announced today that North Carolina has been named the South's State of the Year by Southern Business & Development magazine. North Carolina and Alabama are ranked in the No. 1 spot for the region's largest business deals in the magazine's 13th annual Top 100 (eds note: bold my own) issue, available on newsstands beginning today.

Um, is my flag missing some stars?

Turns out, this list is from Southern Business and Development magazine's "Top 10s" issue - not the Top 100 issue. (What's a factor of 10 among friends?)

Relieved that the U.S.A. hadn't picked up 50 extra states without sending me so much as a memo, I perused the magazine's online site. Let's just say, these folks make people who are relentlessly upbeat look like slackers. And boy do they like incentives. Here's what they wrote about North Carolina's Dell deal:

In unprecedented fashion, North Carolina won one of the South's most signature deals of 2004, the 1,500-employee Dell project. The recruitment of Dell was unprecedented considering the incentive package the state of North Carolina, Forsyth County and the city of Winston-Salem put together. In total, Dell garnered about $300 million in incentives from the three governments.

Historically, government officials in North Carolina have been the most vocal anti-incentive group of all in the South. Time after time North Carolina would take the "high road" after losing out on another big project, vigorously maintaining that they don't have to "buy" projects in order to compete. Well, with Dell, North Carolina joined other Southern states that have landed huge deals by offering