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Mike Easley's having a rough year.

In his last year in office, he seems to be spending as much time trying to defend himself from public controversy as keeping the state out of a budget shortfall.

"I've referred to it as the quack of the lame duck," joked Senate Minority Leader Phil Berger.

Easley has been blamed for problems with the state's mental health reform, destroying public e-mails and taking expensive trips overseas. He's also had to defend his wife's $80,000 pay raise. 

His achievements, including the state lottery, More at Four and alternative highs chools, may be overshadowed when he leaves office, and controversy gives the state Republican Party ammunition in its bid for the Executive Mansion.

"They say first impressions count, but when you're going out of office, last impressions can last a long time," notes Democratic consultant Gary Pearce. (AP)

Pat McCrory has called for Dorothea Dix to remain open for another year.

In a letter sent Monday to Gov. Mike Easley, Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue and other top Democratic leaders, the Republican gubernatorial nominee urged them to keep the Raleigh mental hospital staffed until the next governor could implement mental health reforms.

"I believe that the present problems are not a result of the legislatively passed reforms to provide local care for mental health patients," he wrote. "The scandal is a result of poor planning and implementation of the reforms. The next governor should be given the opportunity to bring new leadership to this area."

In the letter, McCrory says that the recent beating of a nurse at Dix shows there are continuing problems with the state's mental health care system.

During a June 2 news conference, McCrory called on the legislature to keep Dix open. He wrote that he was now asking top state leaders to intervene. 

The House tentatively passed its budget. 

Representatives tentatively passed a $21.3 billion state budget proposal that provides modest pay raises for teachers and most state employees, borrows roughly $550 million for construction projects and cuts more than $85 million from a controversial community support program for the mentally ill, Dan Kane reports.

There are no tax increases and roughly $50 million in tax relief for lower income working families, fully-disabled military veterans injured in duty and small businesses that provide health care insurance for their employees.

The vote after nearly six hours of debate was 102 to 12. The House will cast a second and final vote Thursday, and then the Senate will consider the proposal.

Republican candidate for governor Pat McCrory wants Dorothea Dix and John Umstead mental hospitals to stay open until mid-2009.

McCrory will call for the extended operation of those two state mental hospitals at a news conference this afternoon, according to his spokesman, V. Tom Gardner. Most patients are set to move out of the two hospitals this month and into the new Central Regional Hospital in Butner, Lynn Bonner reports.

But questions about the new hospital's safety, staffing shortages and lack of staff preparation have some Dix workers and legislators calling for a delay.

Gardner said McCrory thinks the next governor should have a chance to examine the situation before patients and staff move.

Major pieces of the N.C. House's proposed state budget were released this morning, and they show more money for drop out prevention, a big cut for mental health community support services and a potential stumbling block for Gov. Mike Easley's More at Four pre-kindergarten education program.

The House would devote $15 million for drop out prevention grants to communities, more than double what is in the current state budget, Dan Kane reports. Nearly one out of every three students in North Carolina fail to graduate from high school, and state leaders are looking for ways to keep more students in school.

House budget writers also cut more than $86 million from the mental health community support program.

A recent News & Observer series on the state's mental health services reported roughly $400 million in waste in that program. The cut is $65 million more than Easley had sought in his $21.5 billion state budget proposal.

Easley's senior budget adviser, Dan Gerlach, said the governor will not sit for the way House members funded More at Four.

Correction: An earlier version of this post misstated the cuts.

More after the jump.

Dan Gerlach, Gov. Mike Easley's senior policy adviser, called it a "a cash-flow issue" after The News & Observer found out about the deferral last month and began asking questions, Pat Stith reports.

"They're not saying, 'We're not going to pay,'" Gerlach said. "They're just saying, 'We need some questions answered about this.'"

But eight days later, Dempsey Benton, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, was singing a different song. In a letter to the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Benton said "a deferral of this magnitude is financially disastrous to the citizens of NC and any additional deferment threatens the sustainability of the entire N.C. Medicaid program."

Benton said his letter was "our first step in offering clarification" leading to release of the money.

"We are confident that we have effectively managed this program such that there is no unusual risk for abuse present today as mentioned in the deferral letter," Benton wrote.

More after the jump.

State Rep. Jennifer Weiss has her eye on mental health.

The Cary Democrat said that her biggest priority in the short session is increasing funding for the state's mental health system, particularly in light of problems with recent reform efforts.

"We've really got to make sure that we have adequate beds at state hospitals for people in crisis," she said. 

On other issues, she said that she will focus on helping people dealing with home foreclosures, increasing the state's annual spending on the Housing Trust Fund and expanding health care access.

She'll also be looking at recommendations from task forces on heart disease and stroke prevention and reducing child fatalities. 

Think a proposed hike in the beer tax is too steep?

Gov. Mike Easley says you may have a drinking problem.

At a press conference this morning, Easley proposed increasing the tax on beer and wine 4 percent and a separate tax on liquor by 4 percent, Ben Niolet reports.

The money raised would be used to spend $68 million to enhance mental health services by expanding local crisis services and increasing staffing in state hospitals.

Easley noted that would be about 4 cents on a can of beer.

"My thought is, if four cents a can, if that causes somebody economic hardship, then they're probably drinking too much and going to be customers of mental health, substance abuse sooner or later anyway," he said.

State Rep. Marilyn Avila is ready to learn.

The Raleigh Republican said her biggest goal in the upcoming short session is to learn more about how the legislature works.

"Pretty much for me, it's going to be about getting my fundamentals and my basics in place," she told Dome. "I'm not taking any huge leaps on particular issues until I feel like I've got my feet solid underneath me." 

Avila said that she is concerned that requests for the budget are spread too thin, arguing that the state won't be able to fix the mental health system, rebuild state roads and solve a host of other problems at the same time.

"In my personal life, when I try to solve problems I focus on my biggest ones first," she said. "But when we're pulling ourselves in five or six different directions, we're not really making any significant strides."

She said the budget "might put a Band-Aid here and there," but not make any significant difference.