Legislators say money is top issue for session
By Matthew Whittle
Published in News on May 12, 2008 1:46 PM
With smaller-than-anticipated revenues and many state lawmakers likely to be pre-occupied with their re-election campaigns, local legislators are not expecting a busy summer as they prepare to open the General Assembly's 2008 short session Tuesday.
"We've got a tremendous amount of people with a lot of needs, but we don't have a lot of money," Sen. John Kerr, D-Wayne, said. "It's going to be tough. I think there's going to be a lot of ideas and very few things done."
The first step, though, will be to consider Gov. Mike Easley's budget proposal, which the majority of lawmakers were expecting to see the details of today.
"I'll be very interested to see what he is proposing. That will be the first step," said Rep. Louis Pate, R-Wayne.
At the point, they'll be able to begin deciding how best to divvy up the extra $150 million in revenues they are projected to have on hand -- less than the $350 million expected when they left Raleigh last summer, but more than the $50 million they were fearing they would have at the beginning of the year.
"There's not going to be a lot of money," Pate said, especially once they give pay raises to state employees, teachers and teacher assistants.
"That will take a big chunk of it," agreed Rep. Larry Bell, D-Sampson.
But despite the lack of extra dollars, there are projects that each legislator is hoping to have funded.
For Pate, that includes new dropout prevention efforts and a teacher mentoring program. He is also hoping to continue looking at the amount of testing being done in public schools, as well as a comprehensive plan for the state's railroads.
The proposed annexation moratorium that he is helping sponsor also is expected to come up for discussion, but will not be a budget item.
For his part, Bell is hoping that some of the surplus dollars might be directed toward helping offset increasing utility and fuel costs for public schools.
"That's going to be a concern," he said. "I know a lot of local governments aren't going to be able to keep up with it."
He's also hoping to find some money to help schools offset the increasing costs of their nutrition programs.
"We have to find some way to give them some extra funds," he said.
Other funding needs, Rep. Van Braxton, D-Lenoir, continued, include the specialty crop program he introduced last year and mental health -- especially the need for more mobile crisis units and incentives for local hospitals to take on more acute care patients.
He's hopeful that some of that money may be able to be found within the system itself, and not require additional dollars.
More sweeping changes, though, are likely to be put on the backburner.
"I don't think you'll see anything major," he said. "I think anything that will be a long and drawn-out process will not be taken up this summer.
But there are other big ticket items like transportation and water and sewer that Kerr plans to continue championing, as well as the continued progress of the new Cherry Hospital.
Overall, though, he expects to be done by the beginning of July once the new budget is approved.
"I don't think it's going to be long. It's an election year, you've got a lame-duck governor, and I would think everybody would want to get in, do what needs to be done and get out and not hurt anybody," he said. "But I could be totally wrong. I've been there till Christmas before."