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Only one in 10 North Carolina voters support a sales tax on groceries, according to a new Public Policy Polling survey, and many appear uninterested in the House and Senate tax plans.

The Senate tax plan would levy a 6.5 percent state and local sales tax on food -- 14 years after state lawmakers repealed it. Local governments currently can tax food at 2 percent but the state doesn't received the revenue.

The Democratic firm's poll of North Carolina voters found that 81 percent oppose the Senate's idea and another 9 percent are undecided. The House tax plan doesn't touch the food tax.

Asked if they support the Senate's tax plan (without description of what it did), 44 percent opposed the plan and another 42 percent were undecided. Only 14 percent support it. Likewise, the House plan -- which debuted Thursday -- fared about the same with just 11 percent supportive and 41 percent opposed. Another 48 percent were undecided.

Welcome to Crossover Week on Jones Street. Think the action’s been fast so far? Well, hold onto our elephant ears, this week lawmakers will be shoveling as many bills as possible through committee and out to their floors for a vote to meet a Thursday deadline dubbed crossover.

The House and Senate rules say that bills that don’t raise or spend money or propose amendments to the state constitution must pass either the House or Senate by Thursday to be considered during the session. Of course, rules are made to be circumvented, so there are many ways to keep legislation alive. Dome’s favorite: Strip a bill that has already crossed over of its language and insert your bill of choice.

***Thanks for reading the Dome Morning Memo. Read more about the issues hanging in the balance this week at the legislature. And send news and tips to dome@newsobserver.com.***

CIVITAS POLL PUTS McCRORY ABOVE 50%: A Civitas poll puts Republican Gov. Pat McCrory's favorability rating at 54 percent, a touch higher than a poll earlier in the week showing it at 49 percent. His unfavorable rating is 30 percent, according to the political nonprofit that traditionally supports Republicans. Look for more numbers on Dome soon.

IMMIGRATION ADS PROVIDE GOP COVER: Americans for a Conservative Direction, a group backed by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, is airing an ad in North Carolina that defends the immigration legislation. The Hill reports that it is targeted at six red-leaning states and designed to support Republicans who favor the plan. From the story: "Anyone who thinks that what we have now on immigration is not a problem is fooling themselves," (Marco Rubio) says in a news clip featured in the ad. A narrator goes on to say that "conservative leaders have a plan," and cites news outlets like McClatchy, CNN and the Washington Post in describing it as "the toughest enforcement measure in the history of the United States," "bold" and "very conservative."

***Happy Friday! Thanks for reading the Dome Morning Memo. A quiet day in N.C. politics. No legislative action and the governor lists no public events. Find more news and analysis below. ***

VOTER ID WEEK BEGINS: A highly partisan voter ID measure that could cost more than $3.7 million gets heard in an appropriations committee Tuesday but the outcome is set. The House plans to reserve Wednesday and Thursday for floor debate. The State Board of Elections suggested as many as 318,000 registered voters may not have driver's licenses.

FOXX CLOSE TO BECOMING OBAMA APPOINTEE?  The FBI has been backgrounding Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx, who’s reportedly a candidate to be U.S. Secretary of Transportation, sources say. The FBI typically backgrounds potential candidates for federal appointments, Jim Morrill reports from Charlotte. Foxx, who has said he won’t run for a third term this year, has been mentioned for the transportation post now held by Ray LaHood.

***Thanks for reading the Dome Morning Memo -- more North Carolina political news and analysis below.***

THIS WEEK IN POLITICS: The action at the legislature will resume full-speed this week with more intra-party fighting among the GOP on a bill to sweep clean state boards. An amended version is before the House for final approval and then goes to a reluctant Senate, setting up negotiations in conference committee. House Speaker Thom Tillis will hold a news conference Tuesday to outline plans for a voter ID bill, despite mixed messages that such a measure would not require a photo ID. Gov. Pat McCrory will make an economic development announcement Monday in Charlotte and Tuesday will host metropolitan mayors at the governor's mansion, a group close to his heart as the former Charlotte mayor. On Friday the N.C. Mining and Energy Commission meets amid legislative changes to speed the fracking timetable in North Carolina.

***Thanks for reading the Dome Morning Memo. This is Severe Weather Awareness Week, so declared by the governor, so go get a disaster kit. Send tips and items to dome@newsobserver.com***

North Carolina's Republican state politicians have been in for quite a few barbs lately for both their substantive actions -- rejecting an expansion of Medicaid coverage and lopping off unemployment benefits, for instance -- and the diversions into medical marijuana, topless women, opposums and cursive handwriting.

But both Gov. Pat McCrory and the General Assembly have seen higher approval ratings, according to a new poll by the free-market Civitas Institute.

The poll showed the state legislature's image improving from a 36 percent approval rating in September to a 40 percent approval rating in February.

McCrory's approval rating increased, too, from 41 percent in January to 46 percent now. Yet the biggest shift in opinion came in the form of a big jump in the percentage of those who aren't happy with the job he is doing: 11 percent unfavorable in January and 28 percent now. Fewer are up in the air: 26 percent don't know or are undecided about the governor, compared to 48 percent in January.

The Civitas Poll of 600 registered voters was taken Feb. 21, 24 and 25, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percent. Voters interviewed had to have cast ballots in at least one of the past two general elections or were newly registered since Nov. 3.

FLORIDA GOP JOINS MEMO-GATE: A secret strategy memo designed to weaken Republicans in North Carolina is also getting attention in Florida, where elements of the plan were derived. Florida GOP Chairman Lenny Curry issued a memo to tie Florida Democrats to the plan: "In short, this document is as disgusting as it is alarming, and shows that Democrats do not want to reach across the aisle to find common sense solutions. Instead, they seek to divide and conquer. But this strategy is not just limited to North Carolina. These tactics actually have their roots right here in Florida, as the leaked document, public records and news reports make abundantly clear." (More on Florida memo below.)

TODAY IN POLTICS: Gov. Pat McCrory visits western North Carolina on Friday. He will read "Oh, The Places You'll Go," as part of Dr. Seuss day. (Gov. Bev Perdue read "Cat in the Hat" last year.) And later McCrory will visit Black Mountain's Main Street.

***Good morning. Thanks for reading the Dome Morning Memo -- more North Carolina politics and analysis below.***

Nearly half of the people asked in a recent survey weren’t sure what to make of new Gov. Pat McCrory yet. The Civitas Poll found 48 percent were either undecided or didn’t know.

But almost as many – 41 percent – approved of the job he is doing, according to the poll of voters taken Jan. 14 and 15. Eleven percent disapproved of the Republican governor, according to the poll by the conservative group.

Economist Art Laffer told state lawmakers that the movement to overhaul the tax code in North Carolina is crucial to the national "fight for a different sort of economics."

"You are wearing the white hat," he said. "Don't let them take the white hate off you. Go to the goal line."

Laffer, the conservative economist and trickle-down believer, gave the keynote address at a "training" for state lawmakers hosted by the Civitas Institute, a conservative political organization.

The event featured presentations from a number of state lawmakers from outside North Carolina who are members of the American Legislative Exchange Council, known as a ALEC, a controversial group that pushes "model legislation" based on conservative ideology.

The tax plan being considered by Republican lawmakers in the General Assembly is the most generous to the wealthiest North Carolinians while raising taxes on middle-income households, according to a new report from the N.C. Budget & Tax Center, an arm of the liberal N.C. Justice Center.

The center's report is designed to counter a study by Arthur Laffer and the conservative Civitas Institute that the GOP lawmakers are using as a blueprint for an overhaul of the state's tax code that includes a proposal to eliminate the personal and corporate income taxes.

"Carolinians while raising taxes on middle-income households," according to a summary of the center's report. "If implemented, a family earning $24,000 a year would see its taxes rise by $500 under the new tax plan, while one earning $1 million would get a $41,000 break. The wealthiest 20 percent of taxpayers will receive a significant tax cut – a cut paid for by shifting the tax load to 60 percent of the state’s taxpayers, primarily middle class and low-income households."

Titled "A 'Laffable' Plan for Tax Reform," find it here.