State legislators have now asked for $87.9 million.

Seven more bills filed since Dome last checked have added another $14 million in spending requests for specific programs, even as the state faces a $2 billion shortfall.

The largest request of the most recent batch is $11.8 million for the N.C. Center for Automotive Research for a driving course and other facilities. That bill also asks for $6.4 million in next year's budget. The smallest request is for $129,000 in upgrades at the Ingram Planetarium.

Other spending bills filed so far this week would replace the roof at Gates County High School, repair the historic Newbold-White House, provide support to people with dementia and their caregivers and expand social work programs at state colleges.

In addition, a bill was filed in the House that is identical to a Senate bill that would provide $44 million in bonuses to teachers that were not given out in 2007.

Those two bills remain the single largest requests for spending so far.

In addition to the spending this year, the special appropriations bills also call for an additional $7.9 million in next year's budget.

Kay Hagan wants to increase federal spending on education.

The Democratic candidate for Senate unveiled her education plan Wednesday, calling for more money for No Child Left Behind, increasing spending on early childhood education and boosting tax credits for college.

She said she would pay for her education proposals by freezing the estate tax at its 2009 level, saying that will provide $175 billion over 10 years.

The tax is on a schedule to be repealed in 2010, though it could return the following year if Congress doesn't make the repeal permanent.

Hagan held a roundtable talk in Charlotte Wednesday with members of the historically black college community. (AP) 

Chelsea Clinton dived into specific programs her mother has proposed.

After a brief introduction at the Young Democrats convention today, the former first daughter began answering audience questions on a variety of topics.

She earned loud applause from the audience when she said that Hillary Clinton has proposed eliminating the Free Application for Federal Student Aid form, which college applicants must fill out in order to receive college aid, in favor of a checkbox on your tax form.

Among other things, she said that Clinton would forgive student loans for people who work in public service jobs, create universal health insurance, end the war in Iraq, expand the AmeriCorps program, reinstate the estate tax for people with assets of more than $7 million, make school lunch programs available year-round, reform food stamps and tie the Earned Income Tax Credit to inflation.

In response to a question about seating the Florida and Michigan delegates, Clinton said that the former has an "unfortunate" history of not counting votes.

"I wish that I were standing here after seven years of President Gore," she said.

Hillary Clinton hasn't started speaking yet, but we know what she'll say.

The Clinton campaign just sent out a press release announcing her six-day tour on "Solutions for the American Economy."

According to the release, Clinton will propose investing $2.5 billion per year, or $12.5 billion over five years, to strengthen the nation's workforce development efforts.

The plan would make job retraining universally available to dislocated workers, provide new Pell Grants to attend college and support on-the-job training.

“We are competing in a new global economy, but our policies to equip American worker for the twenty-first century are stuck back in the twentieth," she will say.

One odd note: The press release is written in the past tense, although the event hasn't happened yet. 

Beverly Perdue regrets making a joke about "beer and party money."

The candidate for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination told reporters at a water forum that she did not intend to downplay a proposed $200 tuition increase 15 years ago.

Laura Leslie has the scoop on her Hunter's Tavern blog:

Perdue also said she "deeply regrets" her 1993 quip equating a $200 tuition increase to "beer and party money" for college students. "I may have been thinking of my own son. He was at Carolina at the time... But it was unfair."

The quote has recently shown up in an attack ad from Perdue rival Richard Moore.

Perdue added that she didn't know the joke would be "thrown back" at her years later.

Update: According to the birthdates listed on this biography, Perdue's sons, Garrett and Emmett, would have been 16 and 13 in 1993.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Richard Moore is airing an ad attacking rival Beverly Perdue's votes on college tuition, Ben Niolet reports. Click here to watch the ad.

What the ad says: "On college tuition, Bev Perdue's been flat-out wrong. She voted to raise tuition seven times. Perdue even sponsored a 24 percent tuition increase and said it was just 'beer and party money.' But Richard Moore doesn't think the rising cost of college is a joke. Moore's plan allows high school graduates to attend community college tuition free. It's time for a leader who will do right by families like yours. I'm Richard Moore, candidate for governor, and I sponsored this ad."

The background: As a candidate for governor, Perdue has touted her plans to make college affordable. As a legislator, she voted seven times to raise tuition. Her votes were for larger budget bills that spent billions and made policy decisions on many items, including college tuition.

Some of those budgets also allocated money to help poor students get financial aid for college.

The 24 percent increase refers to a seperate proposal in 1993 in which Perdue spoke in favor of a $200 surcharge at UNC-Chapel Hill and N.C. State University. The surcharge was designed to improve libraries, increase student aid and increase salaries for faculty who were being lured out of state by higher pay.

Perdue, then a senator, told the Associated Press that only a few people had contacted her to complain about the $200 hike. "The students have openly admitted that it's beer and party money," Perdue said, according to the AP report.

The $200 surcharge was not adopted.

Moore has proposed using funds from the Golden LEAF Foundation, a nonprofit set up to allocate tobacco settlement funds, and state money to offer free community college tuition for two years to all students who graduate high school and immediately enroll in a community college degree program.

Is the ad accurate? Yes. Whether Perdue is "flat-out wrong" is a subjective judgement. But she did vote to increase tuition, although all but one of the votes were for broad budget bills and not just college tuition.

Previously: Moore attacks Perdue on tuition increase at debate.

A recent ad by Democratic gubernatorial candidate Richard Moore attacks rival Beverly Perdue's votes on college tuition.

John Edwards will take any question.

After speaking for about 20 minutes on campaign finance at a rally in Keene, N.H., today, Edwards took eight questions from the audience.

"If you have a question on any subject, you are welcome to ask it," he told the crowd of about 350 people who had gathered at the outdoor square.

In baseball terms, he was thrown five four-seams, two softballs and a wild pitch on subjects as varied as Iraq and health care and the assassination of President Kennedy.

Afterward, he told the audience that his staff would respond to any questions if they e-mailed and he asked them to note that they were at the Keene event.

After the jump, what the audience asked.

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The Senate budget cuts $72 million of projects to be paid for in cash.

The House had set aside $126.9 million in the general fund for renovations at the Charlotte Hawkins Brown Museum, a new barn at the N.C. Zoo, courthouse improvements and new buildings at state universities.

The Senate budget cuts that list to just $54.8 million for renovations at the Deerfield Cottage, an emergency responders' phone system, some water resources development projects and fire sprinklers in college dorms.

That's not to say the projects won't be funded. Several of the college improvements are included under state bonds, but not the zoo or the museum projects, for example.

See section 29.2 of the House budget and sections 29.2 and 29.13 of the Senate budget.