Legislation to bail out the State Health Plan is expected to be back before House members Thursday, and several proposed amendments will be taken up that could further delay its passage.

House Majority Leader Hugh Holliman said one amendment would switch the plan from a fiscal year — July 1 to June 30 — to a calendar year so that members can better take advantage of health savings accounts and other cost-saving initiatives, Dan Kane reports.

Another would allow drugs that help the mentally ill to be treated the same as most drugs, instead of being labeled specialty drugs that would cost members more.

A third amendment would restore a benefit that allows members to pay the same co-payment to see a chiropractor as the family doctor. This is the same benefit that former House Speaker Jim Black inserted into the state budget four years ago and helped land him in prison when three chiropractors admitted to giving him cash payments while pushing their legislative agenda. It was later rescinded.

Holliman didn't criticize the proposals, but he said they all come with a cost.

"We're asking the sponsors where the money will come from," Holliman said.

More after the jump.

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The SEIU PAC spent $410,569 on North Carolina races in 2008.

The political action committee of the Service Employees International Union, which is affiliated with the State Employees Association of North Carolina, spent $323,069 on independent expenditures, including mailers and phone banks, and gave $83,500 to candidates, according to campaign finance reports.

The biggest expense was $147,279 spent on mailers opposing Republican gubernatorial candidate Pat McCrory. The union did not spend on any other statewide races.

The group also spent $100,568 on unsuccessful candidate Chuck Stone, who came in fourth out of five Democratic primary candidates for Democratic Sen. John Kerr's seat in May.

And it spent $40,510 opposing Republican Rep. Curtis Blackwood and supporting a primary challenger and $34,711 on opposing incumbent Republican Rep. Leo Daughtry and supporting a Democratic challenger.

Among direct contributions, the union gave to 33 Democratic candidates and three Republicans and donated another $4,000 to the N.C. Democratic Party.

SEIU donated to a dozen Democratic incumbents who were unopposed in either the primary or general elections, including $4,000 apiece to Senate president Marc Basnight and House Speaker Joe Hackney.

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Mike Easley knows his beer ads.

The governor introduced pioneering civil rights journalist Chuck Stone at today’s 27th annual State Employees' Martin Luther King Jr. Day Observance, Keung Hui reports. He couldn't resist mentioning that Stone's son, Charles III, is one of the creators of the Budweiser "Wassup" commercials.

"Wassup man," Easley said in a very credible imitation of the commerical that drew laughter from the 400 people at the event. "You've got to say it like on TV."

A bill to allow collective bargaining for public employees did not pass before yesterday's crossover deadline.

North Carolina has barred state workers from negotiating contracts through their unions for nearly 50 years. Most states allow it.

Labor unions and public employees associations worked hard to promote the bill, giving hundreds of thousands of dollars to the N.C. Democratic Party.

Rep. Dan Blue, a Raleigh Democrat, said he thinks he could still bring the bill up before the session ends. But labor leaders like Chuck Stone, director of North Carolinians for Affordable Health Care, were disheartened.

"The Iraqi peoples' constitution guarantees the right to collective bargaining, and we can't even get a legislative committee to vote to guarantee that right for the people of North Carolina," Stone said. (N&O)