Statement from Governor Mike Easley:

“Whether you liked [Helms'] politics or not, he was a national force able to deliver for his constituents.  We last appeared together when the Navy named a submarine after North Carolina at his request. 

He certainly didn’t shy from controversy and you always knew what his positions were.  Whether we were working together to stop international drug trafficking or opposing each other on the campaign trail, he was always a gentleman to me.”

Statement from NCGOP Chairman Linda Daves:

“We are saddened to hear of the passing of Senator Helms, but joyful that we can begin the celebration of such a great patriot on the Fourth of July.  Jesse Helms was larger than life and it is entirely fitting that he would join Founding Fathers Thomas Jefferson and John Adams as making his last day the Fourth of July. 

Senator Helms will be a man who is remembered for loving his country, the state of North Carolina and for doing whatever was in his power to work for the people with their best interests in his heart.  In his five terms in the United States Senate, he not only became one of the greatest advocates for the interests of North Carolina, but he also became one of the first and loudest champions of the conservative movement.  It is no exaggeration to say that without Jesse Helms, there may have been no conservative movement and no Republican Party in North Carolina. 

In the time since his retirement, Senator Helms remained a voice for conservative values and a strong advocate for a culture of life as he dedicated himself to charitable work aimed at the crises of poverty and AIDS in Africa.  No great man, no matter his era, is short of controversy.  I know Jesse would have expected as much.  Those who knew him personally knew him to be a man with a kind, gentle soul who exuded warmth and lifted up those around him.  The truly great legacy of Senator Helms is that he left behind so many great leaders who have been inspired by him to pursue the conservative vision for North Carolina.”

Statement from Senator Elizabeth Dole:

“Bob and I are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of our longtime friend Senator Jesse Helms.  We extend our heartfelt sympathies to his precious wife Dot and their family.

In succeeding Jesse to represent North Carolina in the United States Senate, I knew I could never replace him, but I continue to strive each day to provide the dedicated constituent service he provided the people of our state for 30 years.  As my father would say, Jesse was indeed a ‘watchdog’ for North Carolina and for the nation.”

Comments? Drop me a line.

This just in - Former US Senator Jesse Helms has died.   He was 86.  No cause of death has been announced yet, but he'd been in failing health for sometime.

Helms was elected to the Senate in 1972 - the first Republican to win that post since Reconstruction, I think.  He served 5 terms before retiring in 2002.  He was a hero to hard-right conservatives, but stirred up no end of controversy on the national political scene for his rants against "pointy-headed liberals,"  his fight against reauthorizing the Voting Rights Act in 1982, and his "racial quota" campaign ad that helped him defeat African-American Democrat Harvey Gantt in 1990.

Rob Christensen at the News and Observer (which Helms liked to call the "Nuisance and Disturber," I'm told) has a great write-up on Helm's life and career.

Budget breaks

Senate Leader Marc Basnight and House Speaker Joe Hackney announced they'd reached a budget deal late yesterday afternoon.   It's up for floor votes next week.

No big surprises except for a lot more borrowing - more than 850M, spread over the next few years, to finance construction projects around the state.  Hackney said those projects will put a lot of people to work.

"It’s a stimulus package for the state to get these buildings going.  And we know the growth is coming, so we’re gonna need the buildings.  And we’re within all the guidelines."

I'll have more on it here later, but here's some of the big stuff: 

• The two big tax cuts (gift tax and earned income tax credits) are still there, but their effective dates have been pushed back a year, saving the state a combined $30M in recurring funds.
• It does NOT include a controversial provision giving Gov. Easley the power to increase teachers' raises if extra tax revenue came in. Hackney said that didn't look likely to happen, anyway.
• No other special provisions, either - Basnight said they'd all been turned into studies or directives to state agencies.
• They didn't cut as much as Easley told them to.
  

If you really have nothing better to do on July 4th, you can page through the whole enormous PDF here.   But if you're looking for an overview, Greensboro's Mark Binker has a nice rundown, plus extra video of yesterday's announcement on his blog.

The N&O's Dan Kane has GOP reaction to the increase in borrowing.  And Dome has a hilarious photo of Easley budget advisor Dan Gerlach with Basnight. Thumbs up, everyone!

Comments? Drop me a line.

House State Health Plan oversight chair Hugh Holliman says George Stokes was fired over an accounting error of more than $100M.

According to Holliman, Stokes told the oversight committee the plan was performing so well it would produce a surplus of around $50M. Instead, the committee found itself facing a $65M shortfall. Committee co-chairs Holliman and Rand, displeased by the "communication problem," made the call to fire Stokes.

Holliman says the miscalculation won't factor into this year's budget (whew!), but will have to be addressed next year.

Update: SHP communications director Linda McCrudden says former SHP director Jack Walker is coming back in. It's not clear at this point whether that's on an interim or permanent basis.

More when I get it....

This just in - State Health Plan director George Stokes was fired last night. NCNN's Matt Willoughby says the SHP's oversight co-chair Hugh Holliman confirmed it.

No official word yet on the reason for the firing, though there are (unsubstantiated) rumors of serious accounting problems. The SHP's CFO COO/Deputy Chief Dan Soper resigned a couple of weeks ago.

Update: Wonder if it's connected to Stokes' head-to-head with Auditor Les Merritt?

I'll post more here when I know more. If you've got more on this, send it my way.

Budget (and no, there isn’t one yet)

At a press conference today, Gov. Easley pushed legislators to trim the budget to match a $70M drop in tax receipts projected by the revenue folks.

"I have not signed an unbalanced budget – knowingly – since I’ve been governor.  I walked into a 2 1/2 billion dollar shortfall. ...If there’s any way I possibly can avoid it, I’m not gonna let the next governor walk into what I had to walk into."

Hear it here.

Easley also said he didn’t want to identify what issues might push him to veto the budget.  But he did say he’s no fan of the Senate’s proposal to cut the state’s gift tax.

"Certainly very troublesome to me is the tax cuts for the wealthy. I just don’t think this is a good time to do that... especially when you’re already low on revenues. And that’s about an 18 to 20 million dollar item. "

Easley jokingly scoffed at a suggestion that his lame-duck status would lessen his influence over the budget process. 

"No, they don’t have to worry about me in January.  But they do have to worry about me in July, and August, and September, and October, and especially November. [Audience laughs.] And I want to make sure that we’re all on the same sheet of music."

(What’s he going to do, stump for them?  That’d be novel.)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch …

Binker says Pro Tem Marc Basnight and Speaker Joe Hackney agreed tonight to make $70M in cuts, but not on where they'll make them.

It's more complicated than you might think.  If it were just a question of shaving off $70M any-old-where, they could take it out of reserves or the rainy-day fund.  But $45 million of the cuts need to come from recurring money - the kind everyone wants.  Reserves and rainy-day funds are one-time money, so they can’t cover the whole tab. 

So where’s it coming from?  No one knows yet. Basnight and Hackney said they’re asking the “professional staff” to find cuts.  They’re still hoping to have a compromise plan to read in by Wednesday night.  That’s not impossible, but it isn’t looking likely, either.

Per diems in Estonia

The other hot topic of the day was the N&O story on expensive European arts trips taken by First Lady Mary Easley.  The Gov got testy with a couple of reporters (one from TV who earned it, and one from the AP who didn’t) when pressed on details like the chauffered Mercedes.

"If you go overseas, that’s what you see. You don’t get off the plane in Rome and tell them you want a Crown Vic.  The taxis are Mercedes. Now it sounds like a big deal here. And somebody’s got to drive it. If you’re in Ireland, or Belgium, or England, they drive on the other side of the road. We don’t know how to do that."

Right side, left side, whatever - we’ve seen the man wreck a racecar, people.  Do you really want him causing an international incident in Italy, or - worse yet - turned loose on an unsuspecting Autobahn?  The mind reels.

Seriously, the car expenses were the least of my issues with any of the trips.  What were they supposed to do, hire random taxis and run a background check on every driver? 

Some burger...

I had a lot less sympathy for other expenses.  Easley made a valid argument for arts exchange trips in general – an earlier one led to the recent NCMA Monet exhibition that brought $24M in tourism into Wake County.  But did that junket require $800 hotel rooms?

Easley says he’s not in charge of “menus or venues,” even though he's the boss of the folks who are.  Hear it here.   

And then there’s “Quarter-Pounder-Gate”:

“Let's be honest about it.  A cheeseburger and onion rings cost 60 dollars over there.  You know, the dollar’s very, very weak now.”

(Weak, yes, but not that weak.  If your burger's more than 30 bucks, it’d better be Kobe.)

“It cost what it cost, and I want Commerce to aggressive as they can be to make sure that we have jobs for people in this state.”

But the question wasn’t Commerce and jobs – it was arts and ballet tickets.  So come on, Gov – admit the expenses got out of hand, offer to cover the First Lady’s share of the tab, and make it go away so we can all move on.

Devil’s Advocate

Easley scored a point today arguing about how the N&O sold the story:  “Mary Easley trips cost taxpayers $109,000.”  That’s not exactly accurate.  The headline makes it sound like the total was her bill, but both trips involved several people.  And everyone involved seems to agree Mary Easley had little say in the planning.

It might have been more accurate to say “NC Cultural Sec'y Libba Evans’ trips cost taxpayers $109,000,” or even to blame it on NCMA’s Larry Wheeler, both of whom had more to do with the bottom line than Mary Easley did.  But then, neither would've sold as many newspapers.

Comments? Drop me a line.

The budget heads upstairs

House Sr Budget Chair Mickey Michaux said tonight that budget talks have gone about as far as they can go, but substantial differences remain in education and capital spending. “We’re just knockin’ heads,” he told a hastily-convened Approps meeting tonight.  “That’s the best I can tell you.”

So negotiators have agreed to “kick it upstairs” – that is, let Speaker Joe Hackney and Pro Tem Marc Basnight hash out what’s left.

Michaux says they did reach agreement on teachers’ raises, ABC bonuses, and fuel money for school buses.  But UNC enrollment growth remains a thorny issue, along with “one or two other little items.”  His comments are here.

They did pass a mini-CR for grant funding, by the way – it made it through both chambers and past the governor’s desk by 9:00pm.  That bill’s here.

Involuntary Annexation

A nine-month moratorium proposal passed the House tonight with flying colors, 99-15. But that was the easy part.  Tuesday, the bill will get more debate plus floor amendments from both sides of the aisle.  There’s a good chance at least one lawmaker will ask for an exemption for his/her own district. Can’t wait to hear how THAT goes.

Video poker redux

House J1 chair Deborah Ross announced tonight they’ll be hearing a gut-&-amend tomorrow – a committee bill that’s had its contents replaced with something else someone decided needs to be heard this year.  This time, it’s (about to be) a bill banning server-based sweepstakes – aka video poker.  Binker has details.

Ars longis, bucks brevis

The N&O’s Ben Niolet reports this evening that state taxpayers shelled out bigtime for “cultural [arts] exchange” trips by First Lady Mary Easley and other state officials. The trips to France, Russia, and Estonia included luxury hotels, four-star dining, and tickets to the ballet. The total tab: $109,000.   (I am CLEARLY in the wrong line of work.)

Okay, sure, in light of a $21B budget, that’s a rounding error.  But it’s all a matter of perspective– and to struggling arts organizations right here in NC, that’s real money.   

Just for context’s sake, here’s a few of the House’s proposed cuts to operational program budgets in the Dept of Cultural Resources - the agency that paid the $109K bill: 

• Basic Grants Program – loses $42K
• Grassroots Arts Program- loses $29K
• NC Symphony Society – loses $11K
• Lost Colony – loses $2500
• NC Shakespeare Festival – loses $2500
• Quiz Bowl – loses $3000
• CSS Neuse – loses $1500
• Maritime Museum – loses $1500
• Vagabond School of Drama – loses $465
• Charlotte Hawkins Brown Memorial – loses $500

That’s $94K worth of cuts right there, all to groups that employ artists, artisans, and cultural experts in NC.   To be fair, some of these programs would get other funding.  But most of them would take a net loss. 

Too bad they don't live in Russia, Estonia, or France. 

Comments? Drop me a line.

Tonight's legislative scuttlebutt:

Budget

It's gridlock time.  Apparently, House negotiators aren't budging on their education proposal, and the Senate isn't budging on its capital proposal.  

I'm told it got so tense that the biggest of the "big chairs" (maybe Holliman, Owens, Michaux, Garrou, and Rand) went into a small room to talk amongst themselves.  No word yet on how that turned out. 

The goal is to get a conference report read in by Tuesday midnight, then vote on it Wed and Thurs.  It IS a two-day bill, thanks to fee increases and COPS spending. 

(BTW, we will see a CR tonight for the grant programs I mentioned earlier.)

Involuntary Annexation Moratorium

No, seriously -- I hear H2367 WILL actually come up for a vote on the House floor tonight.   Tonight's debate, the first, will be short, but Republican leaders say they'll object to a 3rd reading in order to get more floor time and amendments tomorrow.

The Gov

Governor Mike Easley's holding a press conference tomorrow to announce a proposal for an alternative foreclosure method.   It would change the process through which lenders foreclose on certain subprime mortgages known as "rate-spread" loans. 

I'm told the proposal has the backing of the NC Bankers Assn., Bank of America, and the state's mortgage lenders, as well as advocacy groups like the Center for Responsible Lending and the NC Justice Center.  The deal's been months in the making.  

Look for the Governor's plan to show up in a committee substitute for one of the mortgage relief bills currently under consideration.  H2623 could be a good bet.

Comments? Drop me a line.

Word is there won't be a budget report read in tonight when session starts at 7:oo.  Negotiators are still working, and plan to keep at it through the evening, but they're just not there yet.

Imagine - state lawmakers missing a budget deadline.  Shocking, no?

Because we're in the middle of the two-year budget cycle,  legislators don't need a continuing resolution to keep the lights on while they finish up.  But a few programs could run into trouble without some kind of mini-CR.   Mark Binker explains all that very nicely.

Check back later...

Republican gubernatorial candidate Pat McCrory announced this morning he's in favor of "deep sea" drilling off NC's coast, and would sign an executive order opening the coast. From his release:

“The Manteo Project is 45 miles off our coast on the Continental Shelf. Exploration of this area indicates there are nearly 1.5 billion barrels of oil or equivalent gas in the Manteo Project. It has further been projected that it is most likely to generate natural gas, and could contain as much as 5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas which is equivalent to 833 billion barrels of oil.

“Drilling in the deep sea at the Manteo Project would be far beyond the ability to see from shore. If natural gas is discovered, it is free from the spills the alarmists predict. The product would be piped away from the coastal counties to more inland eastern counties for processing. Tourism will not be affected and jobs would be in areas where they are most needed. "

The full release is here. Can't wait to hear what Senate Pro Tem Marc "the man from Manteo" Basnight has to say about this.

If the "Manteo Project" rings a bell, think back to 1989, when Peter Applebome wrote this story about it for the New York Times. The more things change...

Update:  NCDENR has a quick backgrounder here, plus a 2005 presentation on offshore drilling from the Div. of Coastal Management.

Update 2:  Forgot to mention that Dem candidate Bev Perdue is "100% opposed" to the idea.

I'll ask McCrory this afternoon where he's getting his figures. Anything else I should ask him? Let me know.

Governor Mike Easley minced no words in this statement on today's state budget talks.  He says lawmakers need to cut more to balance the budget…

"The General Assembly cannot ignore reality.  The very latest numbers verify that we remain short of the estimates that legislative budget writers are currently using."

…but not from his favorite programs, of course.

“It makes no sense to cut pre-kindergarten for the state’s poorest children just to pay for a 32-cent per week tax cut for families that costs $13 million. ..Teachers get shafted in this budget.”

Sigh. It’s looking like a long week.

Other budget news

The N&O's Dan Kane takes a closer look at a special provision that could hold up the budget this week.

Asheville’s Jordan Schrader says lottery money could factor into the debate, too.

The Insider’s Scott Mooneyham and I talked budget with NBC-17’s Kim Gennardo on this weekend’s At Issue.  It’s online here.

Greensboro ed writer Doug Clark takes a jab at legislative leaders   for closing reporters out of the budget conference process.  G'boro's Mark Binker replies by explaining how state laws technically allow it.  NB: Binker is not endorsing what the big chairs did – just explaining that it’s not illegal.   

I’m with Binker.  Reporters ought to be allowed to watch the whole process.  The only way to ensure that, though, is to change the laws that make it possible to lock us out.  

In non-budget news

The N&O's Dan Kane had a great profile Saturday of one of my favorite Jones St. characters, Senior House Budget Chair Mickey Michaux. 

The N&O's Lynn Bonner says the billboard bill is up again.  Every year, the outdoor advertising folks argue for the right to cut down more trees in front of their billboards.  The business-friendly Senate has already okayed it.  But it’s never made it through the House.  Smart money says it won’t this year, either.

Greensboro’s Mark Binker looks at the likely fortunes of a pack of anti-smoking laws currently under consideration.

In case you missed it:  NC had a second primary Tuesday.  Looks like just about everyone missed it -- the AP’s Mike Baker says turnout was just 1.9 percent.   Charlotte's Jim Morrill reports some precincts in Mecklenberg had one voter each.

The AP’s Gary Robertson reports Pat McCrory is attacking state Dems for filing an open records request he says will cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Republican prez candidate John McCain was in NC today.  The AP’s Liz Sidoti says McCain met with Billy and Franklin Graham at the family home near Montreat.  (Bonus: Ricky Skaggs showed up for lunch!)   McCain’s opponent Barack Obama has also met with Franklin Graham.

The latest from Wilmington

The Wilmington Journal reportedly told print readers Friday that its website was hacked last week.  The only pages deleted were a story critical of State Senator Julia Boseman and a scathing editorial calling for her resignation.  (Both are back up now, by the way.)

Also Friday, the Star's Vicky Eckenrode reported Boseman has requested an audit of the Southeastern Center for Mental Health, much to the surprise of its director.  More here.

The Star’s Gareth McGrath reported Thursday that more properties belonging to Boseman may be auctioned off soon.   Boseman addressed her critics Wednesday after WECT reported on a protest outside her fundraiser.  

This never-ending saga is shaping up to be the year's top political soap opera.   But will it be renewed for another season? Stay tuned.

Comments? Drop me a line.