state budget

The House and Senate Education Appropriation Committee distributed a version of the Conference Budget this afternoon. Our public schools received less funding in the Conference Budget than was included for public schools in the House or the Senate passed Budgets. The Conference Budget is $33.9 million less than the Budget passed by the House for public schools. The Conference Budget is $10.2 million less than the Budget passed by the Senate for public schools.

Following up on the Rural Hope Initiative, BRAC Budget Reform is the Second Installment of Bev's Building a New North Carolina series

Two weeks ago Bev announced her Building a New North Carolina series here on BlueNC. Yesterday, the campaign released the second installment of Building a New North Carolina, BRAC Budget Reform. This initiative is modeled after the federal BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure) process. It is a major budget reform that will reduce the influence of special interests, allow us to eliminate wasteful spending and enable us to focus spending on our most pressing needs.

The federal BRAC process is intensively competitive with each state fighting for their own military bases. But since the beginning of the process in the late ‘80s, Congress has never blocked a BRAC package. The required up-or-down vote with no amendments is an especially good tool to bypass the barriers of special interest influence that often stymie policy change in the legislative process.

Here is how it would work in North Carolina:

Frontpaged by A. I am eager to feature real ideas and will do so for any candidate.

Tonight, in order to meet the constitutional requirement that the budget be voted on in two separate days, the state House is staying past midnight. One standout on the bill — a sustantial increase to the rainy day fund.

The budget just passed on second reading 68 to 51.

Third reading is a little more than an hour away.

Bill and the PCS on the NCGA home page

AP on the debate.

Also right after midnight: Gerry Cohen's birthday.

The NC House Appropriations Committee has released its draft of the state budget.
Committee Report (pdf) for H1473
Appropriations Act H1473 PCS (pdf)

You know when stories like this come out, they never get the press they deserve. And this one deserves a lot, because the people of North Carolina can borrow at a lower rate and save money to help improve our state because the Democrats are fiscally responsible:

North Carolina again has the top-level credit rating from all three bond-rating agencies after Moody's Investors Service upgraded the state Friday.
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The firm cited the state's rebounded economy, good fiscal management and the decision by lawmakers to replenish rainy-day reserve accounts as reason's for restoring the triple-A rating.
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North Carolina is now just one of seven states to have the top government from all three agencies, according to a statement from State Treasurer Richard Moore.

I signed up some time ago for the Action for Children North Carolina email list, and it has been a nice addition. The group sends our semi-regular emails about the latest topics that will affect the Health and Safety of North Carolina's Children. That is where I read about this story from the Greensboro News & Record. It is interesting not only because of the content, but because of the ONE "opinion-maker" they sampled.

Kirk Ross has an excellent review of the miserable state of maintence in state and local government, which has been one of my pet peeves for decades, ever since I was responsible for routine upkeep of the bridge on the USS Charleston (LKA-113), where I was the navigator.

In the Navy, they spend what must be at least a third of their time doing maintenance on equipment and facilities. It's a never-ending job and they're very disciplined about it. Which makes perfect sense given the huge upfront investments we make in ships, aircraft, weapons systems, and more.

We the People make those same kinds of investments in public infrastructure. Whether its a sewage plant, a bridge, a highway, a government building, or any piece of capital equipment, we're spending millions or billions of dollars initially - but then, when the budgets get written and allocated, we're cutting corners like crazy when it comes to maintaining our investments in good shape.