Congress' private reports are now public.

For decades, the Congressional Research Service has provided its advice and cost estimates to federal politicians on current issues and pending legislation.

But those reports were not available to the public unless a representative or senator released them, usually because they were politically beneficial. 

Over the weekend, the Web site Wikileaks published 6,780 CRS reports online. A few contain some interesting facts related to North Carolina:

* A recent hike in cigarette taxes will lead to an estimated loss of about $1.5 billion in revenue to the states through the tobacco settlement.

* Under state law, emergency management workers in North Carolina cannot advocate the violent overthrow of government.

* Only about 30 percent of the money from the tobacco settlement has actually been spent on health care, while 23 percent filled budget gaps.

A full list of reports is available here. See something related to North Carolina? Post the name of the report or a link in the comments thread and we'll add it to the post. 

Royalty relief is not a tax break.

A recent TV ad attacking U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole argues that she has voted to give oil companies "billions ... in tax breaks."

But experts say that one of the measures cited in the ad is not exactly a "tax break."

The ad refers to the 2005 energy bill, which included extensions of a measure to allow oil companies to avoid paying the standard 12 percent royalty when drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

Erich Pica, a researcher on oil issues for the Friends of the Earth, is not a fan of royalty relief, but he says he would not classify it as a "tax break" either.

"I tend to be very specific when I'm talking about tax breaks versus general subsidies," he said. "I consider (royalty relief) more of a subsidy," he said.

Taxes are levied on all corporations or individuals based on their activities, while a royalty is a specific charge for the use of a government resource.

Mark Holt, author of a Congressional Research Service report on the energy bill, said he did not consider royalty relief to be a tax break in his analysis.

Has Beverly Perdue picked up a bad meme?

In a statement yesterday opposing offshore oil drilling in North Carolina, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee borrowed a line of attack from her party's presidential candidates:

President Bush has cozied up to the oil companies with tax breaks and all they have given us is $4 dollar a gallon gas, while our focus should be on developing green energy alternatives to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

The tax-breaks-for-big-oil line was frequently used in the presidential primary, but FactCheck.org says it's not correct.

The Web site reports that a vast majority of the subsidies in the 2005 energy bill were for "nuclear power, energy-efficient cars and buildings, and renewable fuels research" — some of the very things that Perdue says the government should focus on.

In addition, it notes that the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service found that while the bill had $2.6 billion in tax cuts for oil and gas companies, it also had $2.9 billion in tax hikes — a net increase of $300 million over 11 years in taxes for oil and gas companies.

Hat Tip: Doug Clark