State budget surplus likely to top estimates

State lawmakers may have a fatter budget surplus than they originally thought, though it remains far less than in previous years.

Economic analysts for the state legislature now estimate that North Carolina will have a budget surplus of about $150 million for the fiscal year that begins July 1.

Last month, the budget surplus estimate had dropped to as low as $15 million as economists feared the slowing economy was leading to a significant drop in tax collections.

But a new report released Wednesday indicated that income tax collections in April exceeded expectations, giving lawmakers more room to breathe as they fashion a state budget that is expected to reach $21 billion.

The report said the housing recession, rising energy prices and the free-falling financial sector are the main drains on the state and national economy.

Barry Boardman, an economist on the legislative staff, said conservative estimates for economic growth have helped keep North Carolina from ending up with a budget deficit for this year. The report indicates that fiscal staff have revised their economic growth expectations further downward for the 2008-09 fiscal year, from 4.7 percent to 3.5 percent.

Tee time for candidates

Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory, the Republican nominee for governor, seemed as if he was campaigning at the 19th hole Wednesday.

At a news conference, McCrory and Bob Orr, who lost Tuesday in the GOP primary, cracked wise about golf, and McCrory said he first got to know Fred Smith, who also lost in the GOP primary, on the links.

Orr teed off first. He wore a golf shirt and held a ball cap.

"Contrary to what you might believe, I did not bring this hat in order to pass it today," Orr said. "I actually have a tee time at 1:20."

McCrory said he wished he could hit the links like Orr: "I am quite envious at this point in time."

McCrory said that when he and Smith took a trip to the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York, they visited Bethpage, a public course which hosted the 2002 U.S. Open.

"We played for about four holes before we got rained out in one of the most, the hardest golf course in the United States of America, which was the last thing any of us needed at the time," McCrory said.

Two views on government e-mail

Chuck Neely, a Raleigh lawyer, lobbyist and former state representative helping to hammer out a new state e-mail retention policy, emphasized last week to other members of the state's e-mail panel the societal value of the press's watchdog role, even "as troublesome as it is when you have an investigative reporter digging through your files."

Neely urged his colleagues to respect the public's right of access to e-mail and other records.

"Transparency serves a legitimate, strong public purpose as a check on government," he said. "Anything that can ease that I think we ought to be doing."

Panel member Mac McCarley, Charlotte's city attorney, gave the group a different take on the relative importance of public access to government e-mail.

"Everything that's interesting isn't required to be kept; it has to have continuing value," he said. "It's not built to write a reporter's story. It's built to do a job at a reasonable price."

What about scores on access tests?

The e-mail panel is expected this week to endorse testing and training some government workers on the state Public Records Law.

The proposal includes giving employees who handle records an online quiz on the law, with certification upon passing.

So Dome asked: Would the results of the public employees' tests on public records requirements be public themselves?

Probably not the scores, Dome was told, but maybe each employees' certification status.

"If the results were reported, that might deter people from getting the training," said panel member Staci Meyer, chief deputy secretary of the state Department of Cultural Resources, which archives public records.

What's more, test scores are not normally among the parts of state and local government workers' personnel files that are public.

Even so, panel chairman Franklin Freeman, one of Easley's top aides, said later, "I would think that the certification would be public record."