The state Senate's kingpin, Sen. Marc Basnight of Manteo, wanted to use some fine print slipped into the state budget to do something worth doing. Namely, he wanted to put the brakes on new landfill permits while the state took a deep breath and considered whether its landfill regulations were adequate.

In recent years gone by, Basnight's wish on a matter like this would have been the General Assembly's command. Such are the perquisites of the president pro tem. But with House Speaker Jim Black taking extra care to keep legislative business looking squeaky clean -- a few gravy splotches having shown up on Black's tie, as it were -- the verdict from the House was that a landfill moratorium written into the budget was going to have to be written right out of it.

So, the budget informally agreed to by the House and Senate doesn't dig into the landfill issue. Considering proposals in the works for several huge new landfills in Eastern North Carolina -- including the Black Bear project near the Virginia line in Camden County -- a moratorium as favored by Basnight actually makes good sense. (Camden officials want the landfill for the taxes it would bring in, but there's plenty of opposition from residents and those concerned about environmental impacts. The county happens to be in Basnight's district.)

There's a solution, in the form of a bill sponsored by Sen. Clark Jenkins of Tarboro. The bill would suspend new landfill permits until the beginning of 2008, allowing for study of North Carolina's suitability as a host for the new mega-dumps.

Basnight opted for the budget provision because Jenkins' bill looked as if it might not fly in the House. He also might have wanted to underscore what he sees as the value of special provisions in the budget. They have rightly been criticized because they can escape proper scrutiny.

Now, though, Black should announce that if the Senate sends the bill over, he'll get behind it. For North Carolinians concerned that their state is poised to become the East Coast's landfill central, passage would be a case of all's well that ends well.

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