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Wednesday: Spring is in the air
posted at 2007-04-04 22:48 | Last modified 2007-11-14 10:38
It's that time of year again - if the azaleas on the west side of the building are blooming, it means it's budget time.
Mecklenburg Dem Beverly Earle told the Health Approps Subcommittee today they need to have their budget work wrapped up by next Wednesday. Apparently, House leaders are hoping to vote on a budget measure in early May. Riiiiiight.
What's interesting is that they seem to be working with less revenue than Easley's budget. So does that mean tax cuts, or are they just more realistic about actual lottery proceeds than Easley is?
In a Swett
Newly elected UNC Board of Governors' member Purnell Swett has a criminal record, according to a report today by the Fayetteville Observer. Oddly enough, that information didn't feature on his resume.
Back in 1998, after his second tenure leading Robeson Co. Schools, Swett entered an "Alford Plea" (sound familiar?) to a misdemeanor plea of misprision for taking an unapproved 13K from the Robeson County Schools. Misprision is a much better deal than the four felony counts he was indicted for, and would have faced had he gone to trial. At the time, Swett said he pleaded guilty to save the state money. Here's a 1998 article from the Observer's Paul Woolverton. If you want more background on it, read this.
It all makes you wonder what House Ed Approps chair Doug Yongue was thinking when he nominated Swett....or what lawmakers were thinking when they voted for him. If there were ever a good year to vote for a guy who took money he wasn't entitled to, this isn't it.
Back to school
The House today gave final approval to a proposal to allow local school boards more flexibility over their school systems' calendars. But Republicans didn't go down without a fight. Brunswick Rep. Bonner Stiller ran an amendment that would have moved the start date back to 2008, instead of 2007. Supporters argued that teachers, students, and parents already have plans for this summer.
Stiller announced he had the support of Lucas and Bell, the bill's main sponsors. But that support faded quickly when Durham Dem Paul Luebke made his case against the date change. Stiller's amendment went down in flames, as did a follow-up by Carteret Repub. Pat McElraft that, as Robeson Dem Ronnie Sutton pointed out, would have produced calendar committee member rosters in the triple digits.
In the end, the unadulterated bill passed its 3rd reading easily. But that was the easy part. It now heads to the Senate, where it has very few friends. You may never see it again.
I'm sorry?
House and Senate legislators are considering two very different resolutions of apology for NC's role in perpetuating slavery. Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand's bill focuses more on the overall evils of slavery than the state's role in supporting it, though it does at least include encouragement for state agencies to work to undo the damage.
But across the Golden Pond, Forsyth Dem Larry Womble's bill pulls no punches, from recollecting the 1860 de-emanicpation bill to divulging how many lashes state lawmakers approved for teaching a slave to read (39, if you're curious.) It'll be interesting to see who wins this one. You can hear more about it in my interview with Frank Stasio today on the State of Things.
Thursday preview
Don't these people understand the concept of Thursday before a holiday?
Tomorrow at 8:30am, House Finance takes up HB9, which reallocates lottery proceeds. At 10, Holliman presents version 2.0 of his smoking ban bill to the House J1 committee, while Speaker Joe Hackney holds a press conference next door. Should be no shortage of stuff to talk about tomorrow night.
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