Democrats in the state House have started putting their best spin on the state budget, which is expected to come to the full chamber for a vote this week.
Democrats, who control the chamber and write the budget, incorporated a $25 million jobs package into the budget Tuesday night, which will surely be part of how they try to sell the document. Another key point: Money taken from the state lottery would save about 1,600 teacher jobs from the chopping block.
Republicans are so far focusing on a key number: $18.9 billion. That's the size of the House budget proposal, and the GOP is likely to attack the document because it doesn't cut enough as the state struggles with the effects of the recession.
Other interest groups have found lots to dislike. The UNC system would take deep cuts that system leaders say would affect the classroom. On Tuesday, advocates for people with mental illness and developmental disabilities packed the halls of the legislature because they think the budget doesn't do enough to protect services for them. The budget also banks on nearly $500 million in federal Medicaid funds that may or may not get an extension.
The debate is likely to run long this week, but Democrats think they can get the budget passed by Friday. House members and senators would then try to iron out a compromise.
Mental health money sought
About 200 advocates for people with mental illness and developmental disabilities roamed the halls of the General Assembly on Tuesday to urge legislators to restore $40 million in service cuts that were imposed last year. Many wore red T-shirts with "I survived the budget cuts of 2009" printed across the back.
In its new budget, the state Senate fully restored the funding, which pays for treatment and care for people who don't qualify for federal assistance through Medicare and Medicaid.
In the budget under consideration in the House, only $18 million of the money is restored.
Rep. Verla Insko, the co-chairwoman of the legislative oversight committee for mental health, said she is not optimistic that another $22 million will be found in the House budget to fully restore the funding.
"I don't anticipate any major changes," said Insko, a Democrat from Chapel Hill. "There just aren't any major dollars left out there."
Insko said she hopes for a conference committee compromise between the House and Senate budgets that can find more support for the services, which she said are needed.
"We saw a lot of repercussions from the cuts last year," Insko said.
Transportation fees could rise
The House budget proposal would hike tolls on the state's ferries. The budget directs the Ferry Division to develop a new fee schedule so that tolls collected from ferry riders would cover ferry operating costs, which increased by $11 million this year.
That could mean stiff toll hikes on the Ocracoke-Cedar Island, Ocracoke-Swan Quarter and Southport-Fort Fisher ferries - and perhaps an end to free rides on the busy Ocracoke-Hatteras ferry and the shorter river ferries.
The transportation budget also launches the N.C. Mobility Fund, which Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue proposed to pay for major statewide transportation needs. The House plan ignores Perdue's proposal for DMV fee hikes and her attempt to divert money from the Highway Trust Fund to the General Fund. Instead, it earmarks just $39 million in unspent turnpike money to start the Mobility Fund. First priority for the fund: Widening Interstate 85 near the Yadkin River Bridge.
The budget also halves the 2011 appropriation for Global TransPark, the state-owned industrial park in Lenoir County. House leaders are angry at GTP because it missed a spring reporting deadline.
Staff writer Bruce Siceloff
Other cuts in the House budget
$11.9 million cut from the state's school bus replacement program. The provision was also included in the Senate's budget.
$39.2 million one-time cut from More at Four, a pre-kindergarten program. Going forward, the budget would cut $6 million or 3.7 percent of the program's $165.5 million budget. The program fares better in the House than in the Senate.
$139 million cut ordered to the UNC system.
