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Those eager for Gov. Bev Perdue to make a decision on whether to veto the $19.7 billion budget approved by legislators Saturday will have to wait.

Perdue spokeswoman Chrissy Pearson said Sunday that it will likely be "several days" before the governor decides what to do. Under the state Constitution Constitution Perdue has 10 days from when she receives a bill to sign it, veto it, or do nothing and let the measure become law without her signature.

"She's got a lot to review," Person said in an e-mail Sunday.

Perdue, a Democrat, said Friday she intends to read every word in the 343-page budget approved by Republican majorities in both legislative chambers before making up her mind. The GOP position is bolstered by five Democrats who agreed to vote with the Republicans in exchange for concessions that included more money for education and protecting programs in their home districts.

Gov. Bev Perdue sent a feisty letter to Republican leaders at the state legislature Thursday, calling them out for "gimmicks" she said were intended to hide the true size of their proposed cuts.

The Democratic governor called the GOP cuts to funding for local school districts "not acceptable," and said she was willing to work with them to find new sources of revenue to avoid massive layoffs to teachers and teacher assistants.

Perdue also said GOP cuts to emergency management and public safety were "troubling."

"I raise again the concern that the budget as currently proposed will cause severe and avoidable damage to fundamental services of state government and will endanger education, health and public safety for our citizens," Perdue wrote.

From the tone of the governor's letter, it appears she may already have the veto stamp out on her desk.

A copy of the full letter is available below. 

Gov. Bev Perdue says the revised budget released by Senate Republicans this morning is a "charade" that tries to shift responsibility for massive classroom job cuts to the local school boards forced to eliminate positions following reductions to state funding.

“With regard to education funding, the proposed budget appears to be a charade," said Perdue, a Democrat, according to a media release. "While the Senate claims to protect teaching positions, they are actually forcing local school districts to make substantial layoffs of education personnel to the tune of more than a quarter billion dollars – meaning thousands of teachers and teaching assistants will be cut. It also appears to take a devastating toll on early education and higher education.

“Instead of taking the responsible course of extending a portion of the sales tax to pay for critical education needs, the Senate seems to have continued to pursue an ideologically driven effort to unnecessarily defund education and other crucial programs.”

Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue wasted no time taking a shot at the budget proposal released this morning by Republicans in the state Senate.

"This state was built on providing a quality education for all North Carolinians," Perdue said, according to a media release from her office. "Let me be clear: it’s a core part of who we are and what we value as a people. I’ve seen the House budget and I’m reviewing the Senate budget. By the time they come together, they need to send me a budget that protects our schools, community colleges and universities. If they pass a budget that undermines our schools and fails to protect the quality of our education system, then I will have no choice but to veto it.”

Senate Democrats are sponsoring a public hearing tomorrow afternoon on the long-term unemployed who have lost their federal benefits in the skirmish over the state budget.

About 37,000 people stopped receiving benefits a little more than a week ago after Gov. Bev Perdue vetoed a bill that would have extended the benefits but weakened her in budget negotiations.

Legislative Republicans want Perdue to agree to the budget limits, while she wants the legislature to pass a bill without the budget provision.

Senate Minority Leader Martin Nesbitt, an Asheville Democrat, said the legislature should move quickly to restore the benefits. He called tomorrow's hearing "an awareness meeting."

"This just plain and simple should not be a part of our political contest over here," he said. "Surely we can find issues that don't hurt people who are already at the bottom of the barrel economically."

Update:

Senate leader Phil Berger said his chamber has no plans to act on another unemployment benefits bill.

Democratic Rep. William Wainwright asks House members to sign a discharge petition to get a vote on a stand-alone unemployment benefits bill.

About 37,000 long-term unemployed residents could see a second week without jobless benefits, as they remain caught in an impasse between the Republican-controlled legislature and Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue.

A little more than a week ago, the legislature passed a bill that would have extended benefits for the long-term unemployed, and attached to it a provision that would have weakened Perdue's position in budget negotiations. Perdue vetoed it. Benefits for 37,000 ended April 16.

Jordan Shaw, spokesman for House Speaker Thom Tillis, said the House would be wrapped up in budget preparations this week, but if the Senate moves a bill, the House would look at it.

The Asheville Citizen-Times reported that Sen. Tom Apodaca, a Hendersonville Republican and the Senate Rules Committee chairman, told the newspaper's editorial board that legislative Republicans and Perdue would find a compromise "within a week or two."

Apodaca could not be reached for comment Monday.

Perdue spokeswoman Chrissy Pearson said Perdue is eager to sign a  "clean bill." That would be a bill without other provisions attached.

"She'll sign it the same day she gets it, if she can," Pearson said.

Benefits will be retroactive if a bill passes sometime this year.

As expected, House leaders came up with a compromise today that will allow state employees to avoid having to pick up the cost of health insurance premiums for one of the plans (the 70/30 plan). The House voted 116-1 to approve the compromise bill.

Rep. Tim Moore, a Cleveland County Republican, said Gov. Bev Perdue is willing to sign off on the bill now.  She had vetoed a version last week that required employees to pay premiums for the first time in order to help close a budget shortfall.

House Minority Leader Joe Hackney of Chapel Hill urged passage of the bill, and said that he and the governor hope for continued negotiations in order to give retirees a better deal on co-payments.

UPDATE: The Senate rejected the changes late this afternoon. A conference committee will meet to come up with a version that can pass both chambers.

State Board of Education Chairman Bill Harrison decried education cuts the House is considering, saying that chopping more than $1 billion from schools is "extreme and unnecessary."

The House education subcommittee has proposed cutting 8.8 percent from the K-12 budget, 10 percent from community colleges, and 15.5 percent from the UNC system.

"The notion that our schools and our children can do without $1 billion in funding is ridiculous, especially as public school enrollment in this state continues to grow," Harrision wrote.

Republican budget writers want the temporary one-cent addition to the state sales tax to expire as planned. Gov. Bev Perdue has proposed keeping part of the tax next year.

Harrison said it would be better to keep the temporary sales tax another year or look for new sources of revenue. If the proposed cuts go through, per pupil spending in the state could rank last in the South, he wrote.

The communications staff of Gov. Bev Perdue continues to disagree with itself about where the state's chief executive was in the hours after deadly storms rolled through the state on Saturday.

UPDATE added below.

In a new statement issued on Monday, Perdue communications director took aim at an Under the Dome post from Sunday quoting deputy communications director Mark Johnson that the governor was at a Kentucky horse race Saturday afternoon.

"She wasn't actually at the race; state business brought her home early and she of course wanted to be here to help the state recover from the storms," Pearson said in an e-mail quoted by Politico's Ben Smith. "Don't believe everything you read in the N&O."

Pearson originally sent her statement to WWAY, a Wilmington television station.

Dome contacted Johnson on his cell phone on Sunday as he traveled with Perdue as she toured sections of the state devastated by the tornados. Asked where the governor had been Saturday afternoon, Johnson confirmed that she was in Lexington, Ky., visiting fellow Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear.

Asked if that didn't contradict Pearson's statement from the night before that the governor was out-of-state attending to a "family obligation," Johnson responded that his boss had spoken accurately because Perdue and Beshear are personal friends and that their families are also friendly.

At several points in the conversation, which was interrupted as Johnson's cell phone lost service, Perdue could be heard in the background interjecting what to say to the reporter.

Asked if Perdue had attended the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes, a thoroughbred horse race held Saturday afternoon, Johnson responded that he did not know and that he would ask the governor.

Johnson replied by text message a few moments later, at 1:29 p.m.: "Yes, went to race."

UPDATE: Pearson clarified Monday that the governor attended some of the earlier races at Keeneland race track on Saturday afternoon, but that Perdue left for the airport in Lexington well before the highest stakes No. 9 race, which started at 5:45 p.m.

Perdue and First Gentleman Bob Eaves had gone to Kentucky Friday night and Pearson said the governor had made the decision by Saturday morning, before the storms tore through the Triangle, to return to North Carolina early. They had originally planned to stay until Sunday, Pearson said.

"When it became clear from the emergency management standpoint that North Carolina could be in for a beating, the governor changed her plans, made plans to get back on the first flight she could get back, which was a late evening, late afternoon flight," Pearson said.

"She missed the big race. She was able to spend some time at the racetrack. And that's where the mincing of words comes in.

"But the bottom line is, the governor did what she felt was right, she came back to be in North Carolina, to be here where the state needed her and her leadership, and she would certainly do it again. And that's the price she pays as governor, that governors don't get much personal time," Pearson said.

As for not believing what you read in The N&O, Pearson agreed that the earlier Dome posts were factually accurate based on the information provided.

"It was just misleading (in) tone," she said.