Legislative leaders say the state budget proposal they agreed on Thursday would do more than keep classrooms, prisons and mental hospitals operating: It would boost the economy by borrowing $857 million for construction, much of it at UNC campuses.

Senate leader Marc Basnight said the projects, to be bid over the next several years, would generate about 20,000 construction-related jobs. Those jobs, he added, would generate about $85 million in taxes and other income for the state. "You get people working in some pretty difficult times, and you get some taxes back, and you get people into buildings that are heavy in science and technology," Basnight said.

Much construction would land in the Triangle, with projects at all three UNC campuses. A $107 million complex in downtown Raleigh would include offices for the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources, an expansion of the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences and a parking deck.

Not everyone is excited about the level of borrowing in the proposal, roughly $300 million more than what the House proposed and about $180 million more than the Senate's spending plan.

"Good gracious," said Senate Minority Leader Phil Berger, a Rockingham County Republican. "I am just concerned about the level of debt -- just about a billion dollars in debt."

Berger said that much borrowing should require voters' approval, instead of letting lawmakers make the call when they vote on the $21.3 billion spending plan next week.

"If we are going to tie down the taxpayers' future, in terms of paying down the debt, we really ought to let them have a say," he said.

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