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Democratic Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton offered a strong defense Tuesday of North Carolina’s business incentives and community colleges, which he described as a sharp contrast with Republican gubernatorial rival Pat McCrory.

Describing himself as “business-friendly,” Dalton made the comments during a speech to about 40 people at the Charlotte Chamber.

“I don’t know anybody who likes them,” Dalton said of incentives. “But the courts have said they’re legal. If you don’t have those incentives as a tool, you’re not going to be able to recruit businesses.”

He said incentives have a “reverberating” effect that benefits other businesses. He later told reporters McCrory has a “mixed message” on incentives.

With Senate Democrats silent, Republican lawmakers voided a veto from Gov. Bev Perdue for the eighth time.

The legislation -- House Bill 7 -- is a low-profile measure that lets community college opt out of a federal loan program. A number of individual community colleges have requested the move. The Senate voted 31-16 on Monday to make it law, despite the governor's objections. The override needed 30 votes to meet the three-fifths threshold.

Perdue, a Democrat, vetoed the bill more than a year ago and rebuked the House when  they overrode her veto last week. (More here.) Unlike the House, the GOP didn't need Democrats to defect from Perdue. The override vote effectively mirrored the (31-18) vote to approve the bill in April 2011 because Republicans have a veto-proof majority.

UPDATED: Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton is calling for eight town hall debates with Republican rival Pat McCrory across the state before the November election.

In a Monday press conference in Charlotte, Dalton proposed two debates a month at community colleges across North Carolina. The town hall forums come on top of the traditional debates held in October, he suggests.

McCrory's campaign issued a statement later Monday but it didn't directly address Dalton's challenge. "Of course, there will be debates in the race for governor, and the McCrory campaign has already been discussing multiple requests from sponsors throughout North Carolina. The campaign will announce each debate upon accepting the invitations," the statement read.

UPDATED: In the State of the Union, President Barack Obama highlighted the achievements of Jackie Bray of Charlotte. The text is below:

"Jackie Bray is a single mom from North Carolina who was laid off from her job as a mechanic.  Then Siemens opened a gas turbine factory in Charlotte, and formed a partnership with Central Piedmont Community College.  The company helped the college design courses in laser and robotics training.  It paid Jackie’s tuition, then hired her to help operate their plant. I want every American looking for work to have the same opportunity as Jackie did.  Join me in a national commitment to train two million Americans with skills that will lead directly to a job. ...Model partnerships between businesses like Siemens and community colleges in places like Charlotte, Orlando, and Louisville are up and running. Now you need to give more community colleges the resources they need to become community career centers – places that teach people skills that local businesses are looking for right now, from data management to high-tech manufacturing."

Students in North Carolina can get a jump on their future by enrolling in free community college courses while in high school, under a plan to be announced today by Gov. Bev Perdue.

The initiative, called Career & College Promise, consolidates some older programs and gives eligible students focused options for earning credits toward a college degree or a certificate for a technical job.

Perdue will travel across the state today to highlight the program, starting at Hillside High School in Durham then stopping at schools in Greensboro and Charlotte.

In an interview Wednesday, Perdue said the goal is to keep students on track with a plan for future success.

"As they graduate high school, they'll be more prepared for life after high school, whether it means college credit for some and job training for others," she said. "And for some, it would be actual certification so they can leave high school with a certificate or licensure that allows them to go immediately into the workforce."

Read the full story here.

Gov. Bev Perdue wants the legislature to reject the proposed merger of community colleges they are studying.

Legislative committees are looking at merging community colleges with fewer than 3,000 full-time students with larger neighbors, a move that would effect 26 schools and save $5.1 million a year.

The community college board last week adopted a motion in opposition.

Community colleges are important economic drivers for their individual communities,” Perdue said in a statement.  “They are crucial partners in growing jobs, especially in rural areas. Local control is essential for addressing local needs, particularly in the areas of job creation, training and economic development. To merge rural community colleges is to move our education system backwards. The General Assembly should reject that proposal.”

A legislative committee on program evaluation said the mergers are worth considering and passed the report on to an education oversight committee.

Senate leader Phil Berger said he is opposed to the idea.

The N.C. Center for Public Policy Research is crying foul on lawmakers for their last-minute local bills that would allow 25 community colleges to opt out of offering federal loans.

The local bills get around a veto by Gov. Bev Perdue of similar legislation this year. The move would shut off access to low-interest loans for 111,000 college students in North Carolina, the research center estimated.

The local bill process has not been transparent, the nonpartisan center argues.

"The public has a right to know the content of all bills when they are first introduced in the legislature," said a news release from the center. "These bills do not give adequate notice to the public of what is being proposed, they’re not transparent in their content and purpose, and they are being used to rush consideration of significant legislation."

The center has done three years of research on financial aid policy in North Carolina, and has advocated for all of the state's 58 community colleges to offer the federal loans. The loans are considered to be the cheapest and safest way for students to borrow money for college. Some local college presidents have argued that they don't want to participate in the loan programs because high default rates could conceivably lead to a loss of other federal dollars.

The issue has a back-and-forth history. In 2010, the Democratic-controlled legislature required all community colleges to offer the loans. This year, the Republican-led legislature passed a bill that would have repealed the requirement, but it was vetoed by Perdue.

The local bills that emerged this week employed an old legislative trick. The bills' original language -- on topics such as parking meters, occupancy taxes and mental health waivers -- was stripped and the substitute language on the loan issue was inserted.

Here's why writing North Carolina's budget is a little bit like that carnival game, Whack a Mole: just when you think you've solved one crisis, another pops up.

Last week, a last minute floor amendment to the House budget changed how the lottery funding would be divvied up. The amendment would eliminate the category called "Scholarships for Needy Students," worth $34.6 million, and move that money to public school construction.

But that scholarship category includes half of all state financial aid for community college students, said Scott Ralls, president of the community college system. "It creates a huge challenge for us because so much of our need-based financial aid has come through this source," he said.

And, Ralls said, if the amendment moves forward, "then community college students specifically would have zero access to the scholarships that come through the lottery program."

Another lottery scholarship category specifically for UNC system students would remain, but would be reduced.

The amendment, introduced by Rep. Tim Moore, a Kings Mountain Republican, passed by a large margin.

Community college tuition is considered a bargain in this state, Moore pointed out, and students can find other sources of financial aid.  But counties face a dire situation, he said; some won't be able to make debt payments on school buildings because of budget cuts.

"The impact would be more severe on the counties, frankly, in terms of their debt service obligations and ultimately in terms of school construction, if we don't protect that," Moore said.

So, in the ongoing Whack a Mole game, Moore said he hopes lawmakers can restore some of the scholarship money for college students while helping counties.

"I tell you," he said, "it's just a matter of just bad choices this year all the way around."

A new report says North Carolina's community college students are the nation's least likely to have access to federal loan programs.

A report out today from the Washington-based Project on Student Debt says North Carolina ranks last in the percentage of community college students with access to federal loans. Such loans are widely considered to be the safest and most affordable, because they have fixed interest rates, flexible repayment plans and consumer protections.

In North Carolina, 57 percent of students do not have access to loans because their colleges do not offer them. Some college leaders have argued that they fear students will default on the loans, jeopardizing colleges' other federal funds.

The issue has been back and forth in the General Assembly.

Last year, the legislature required all 58 community colleges to participate in the federal loan program starting in July.

But earlier this year, another bill would have undone that requirement, allowing colleges to continue to opt out of the loan program.

In mid-April, Gov. Bev Perdue vetoed the opt-out bill. So, as it stands now, the colleges will have to offer the loan programs as last year's legislation required.

The N.C. Center for Public Policy Research praised Gov. Bev Perdue's veto of the bill that would have allowed community colleges to opt out of federal student loan programs.

Ran Coble, the center's executive director, said the veto would help more than 177,000 students who "will have access to the safest and most affordable means to borrow money to pay for college so they can get the education they need to get a job."

Only 20 of North Carolina’s 58 community colleges currently make federal loan programs available, which means a majority of community college students can't get the lower-interest loans. Coble said students with federal loans pay 4.5 percent to 6.8 percent interest, compared to those who resort to credit cards and end up paying 16-18 percent.

Some college leaders had said they don't offer the loans because they fear that they could lose access to the federal Pell Grant program if too many students default on loans.

But the nonpartisan policy research center said those fears were overblown. A study of five-years of default rates at the state's community colleges found that most were below 10 percent. In the most recent data from the U.S. government, only three N.C. colleges had seen their default rate climb above 20 percent. A college would have to exceed 25 percent three years in a row to be sanctioned.

No educational institution in the country that offers federal loans has actually been sanctioned in the past seven years, the center said. Only five schools nationwide are on the danger list for sanctions this year.