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Wed. late: One down...
posted at 2009-04-09 00:47 | Last modified 2009-04-09 00:47
The State Senate’s $20B budget plan sailed through its first vote today 32-16, and looks to be headed for a similar tally tomorrow.
Thursday’s final vote on S202 should be mercifully quick. A procedural move by Sen. Tony Rand (D-Cumberland) cut off all debate after three amendments by Republican senators, none of which succeeded.
- Sen. Neal Hunt (R-Wake) proposed cutting “highly-paid” state workers’ salaries by 5%. A party-line vote left that one lying upon the table.
- Sen. Harry Brown (R-Onslow) tried to move $5M into pilot programs for vocation ed., but was persuaded by Tony Rand to withdraw the amendment.
- Sen. Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) tried to delete a provision that lets the state hold back $60M in corporate taxes originally promised to counties for school construction. That one ended up on the table, too.
"That’s just not right."
Senate Minority leader Phil Berger spoke at length about his reasons for opposing the bill: its spending level (higher than this year, but a lot of that’s federal recovery money), its debt burden, its lack of transparency, and its vague promise of $500M in undefined “tax adjustments.”
That’s a half a billion dollars in tax increases that are coming out of pockets of people in North Carolina that are losing their jobs, that are seeing their businesses fail, that are seeing their pay cut…That’s just not right. Particularly since we don’t know what taxes we’re talking about. Are we talking about increasing the sales tax? Are we talking about increasing the income tax? Are we talking about increasing some other tax that maybe hasn’t been invented yet?
Berger says the budget bill can’t be considered balanced – or constitutional – if the revenue that would cover the spending isn’t included. But Meck Dem Dan Clodfelter disagrees. In fact, Clodfelter says, lawmakers have a tradition of separating spending and tax bills in tight budget times.
Until I know what we are actually going to collect this year, I think it would be irresponsible of us to propose a target number that we actually need to collect this year.
So in other words, it’s irresponsible to propose taxes before you’re sure you’ll need them, but it’s okay to spend money before you know you have it. Got it? Yeah, me neither. Clodfelter’s full remarks on the topic are below (7:21).
Listen Now!
Another Ambulance?
GA police had to call an ambulance this morning for Rep. Jerry Dockham (R-Davidson) after he fell ill at the legislative building. Fortunately, it wasn’t as serious a problem as Becky Carney’s cardiac arrest last week. First responders suspected a kidney stone, and later word confirmed it. No word yet on when he’ll be back at work. Here’s hoping it’s soon!
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