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It will cost more to file a lawsuit, file civil suit motions, and to have a case decided by a magistrate under the proposed House budget.

This morning,  House Finance Committee approved a slew of new and increased fees totaling about $100 million. The vote was along party lines, with Democrats opposed.

The fee package, which will be rolled into the budget the House Appropriations Committee will begin debating tomorrow, includes contingency fees in case the legislature approves a plan that would have people convicted of misdeamenors locked up county jails rather than state prisons.

Drivers who are convicted of "improper equipment" violations would pay $50 fees that would stay with the counties. Drivers caught speeding often plead to a lesser charge of having a broken speedometer. The new $50 fee they'd pay is expected to raise $12.4 million.

* Greensboro News-Record columnist Doug Clark says that despite cuts this year, Gov. Beverly Perdue's 2010-11 budget would be the biggest ever.

* Jordan Schrader lists the professions whose licensing fees would go from $50 to $200. It includes massage therapists, CPAs, embalmers and "the art of healing."

* Asheville blogger Ashvegas gives Perdue a shoutout for posting the entire line-item budget online. "I love this kind of detail." 

* Conservative advocate Francis De Luca argues that Perdue's plan "proposes no long term fixes for the problem of chronic overspending." 

How did Kay Hagan feel about the 2003 budget?

As a first-time cochairwoman of the Senate Appropriations committee, the Greensboro Democrat was quoted about two dozen times on the budget that year.

With Hagan running for U.S. Senate, the budget will come up again.

In the beginning, Hagan told reporters that she wanted to see more cuts related to government efficiency and higher raises for state workers (Greensboro News & Record, March 6). After the Senate put forth its plan, she called it "a good budget" that allocates money "in a wise and careful manner" (Charlotte Observer, April 29) and she worried that revenue would be down (N&R, May 5).

She also staunchly defended two proposed hikes in sin taxes on cigarettes and alcohol saying they are "a lifestyle choice" (N&R, June 12) and that the alternative, a lottery, wouldn't pass (N&O, June 12).

She added that the alternatives were worse: "I'm looking at not going to a four-day school week. I'm looking at not firing teachers. I'm looking at the basic infrastructure of the state, which is education and economic development." (Char-O, June 12)

She also stressed that the budget should be on time (N&R, June 16).

And she defended an additional $10.2 million in fee increases on things such as visiting a state park, operating a nursing home and getting a driver's license included in the budget.

"Those fee increases are very, very small," she said. "Some haven't been changed for years and years." (N&R, July 13)

Marriage will stay at its current state of bliss, while divorce would become a bit more arduous, House Finance Committee members decided today.

As they took up the House's proposed $21.3 billion budget bill, they removed a $10 increase in the marriage license fee, and doubled the proposed $10 increase to divorce filings, Dan Kane reports.

House Minority Leader Paul Stam, an Apex Republican, offered the amendment to shift the burden away from marriages and add it to divorces. Marriage licenses cost $50, while a divorce filing would jump from $55 to $75.

It's not an even swap. Fiscal staff said there are 20,000 more marriages than divorces each year, so budget writers will now have to find a way to plug what appears to be a $200,000 hole.
In other fee changes, the committee dropped a proposed increase in the forest products fee, and reduced a proposed increase in the cap on asbestos removal fees from $5,000 to $1,500.

The House Appropriations Committee is expected to take up the bill later today, and the full House is expected to vote on the budget tomorrow.

You'd pay more to get married and divorced under the House budget.

Budget writers in the House avoided raising taxes, instead adding several free increases, including a $10 hike in the cost of a marriage license and a divorce filing.

Democrats noted that the additional money will go for related services. For example, an increase in the newborn screening fee will help check for additional diseases. 

Republican legislators said after three years of raising taxes in a row, this budget is more likable.

"The last three budgets have been big tax increases with super spending sprees," said House Republican Leader Paul Stam. "This one's on a diet. It's more tempting [to vote for]." 

Other fee increases: Selling stock, building hospitals, removing asbestos and logging. (Char-O)