State workers rally for raises

More than 200 state employees rallied Tuesday for higher pay raises than are in the legislative budget proposals.

State employees are pushing for 3 percent raises, or $1,100, whichever is more, plus one-time $1,000 bonuses.

The budget proposal has 2.75 percent or $1,100 raises for state employees.

The higher base pay raises would cost an additional $8 million over what's budgeted, according to Executive Director Dana Cope of the State Employees Association of North Carolina, and the bonuses would cost between $20 million and $25 million.

The 3 percent raises would bring state employees' raises in line with those proposed for teachers. "Why do we want to split off teachers and state employees?" Cope asked.

After the rally, state employees hoped to make their case face-to-face with legislators. But it doesn't seem as if the employees will get the raises they want.

Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand and Sen. Linda Garrou, two chief budget negotiators, said neither they nor House leaders have budged from the pay raises included in their respective spending plans.

"North Carolina's providing more for their employees than other states across the Southeast," Garrou said.

Pamela Thorpe, a health care technician at Central Prison, said state employees need meaningful pay raises. Thorpe, who lives in Garner, said her family struggles to make ends meet even though her husband works two jobs.

"There are times I didn't have money to make it to work," she said. "The gas is too high."

Rep. Ty Harrell, a Raleigh Democrat, drew cheers when he spoke in favor of collective bargaining.

SEANC is pushing a bill that would allow collective bargaining for public employees and another that would shift control of the state pension fund away from the state treasurer and to an independent board of trustees.

Sex offender law

The state House and Senate need to work out their differences on a proposed law that would make it a low-grade felony for registered sex offenders to use social networking Web sites.

Sen. Walter Dalton, a Rutherfordton Democrat who is running for lieutenant governor, said the House deleted provisions that should have been included, such as making it a felony to lie to an SBI agent and making in-person solicitation of minors and online solicitation separate offenses.

Noelle Talley, a spokeswoman for the state Attorney General's office said the state prosecutor wants those provisions added back to the bill.

Attorney General Roy Cooper started pushing for the law last year. Back then, the proposal included a requirement to have social networking sites obtain parental consent before they allowed children to join.

Since then, MySpace and Facebook came to agreements with state attorneys general to add safeguards to protect minors from sexual predators.

Many sections of the original bill, including the provision that would have required parental consent for a child to join a social networking site, have been removed.

Elders in Raleigh today

Former U.S. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders is going to be in Raleigh today to talk about state Rep. Earl Jones' bill on "alternative methods of pain management in medicine."

By "alternative methods," Jones, a Greensboro Democrat, means medical marijuana or its chemical equivalent. He wants a legislative research commission to study its use.

This is the latest of Jones' heat-seeking bills. Last year, he pushed state support for stem cell research.

Hot over energy plans

Speaking for Sen. John McCain's campaign, Sen. Richard Burr on Tuesday called Democrat Barack Obama's energy proposals "ludicrous."

"I'm not sure he's done anything but mirror the inaction of the Democratic leadership in Congress," said Burr, a Winston-Salem Republican.

Burr joined McCain's energy adviser in an afternoon conference call. They spoke as McCain, campaigning in California, called for higher energy efficiency.

Burr said he supports McCain's call to end a federal moratorium on offshore drilling and let states decide whether to allow it.

"I leave it up to the people of North Carolina, to the leadership of North Carolina," Burr said. "I hope they feel a responsibility to do what I think technologically can be done with very little risk."

(Jim Morrill of The Charlotte Observer contributed to this report)