College instructors, mental health workers and speech therapists were among those asking legislators Monday evening to raise taxes rather than cut education and health programs. 

Several hundred people rallied across the street from the Legislative Building where babies' onesies were strung over their heads bearing messages like: "Don't balance the budget on my little back." 

The Together NC Coalition, a collection of nonprofits and service organizations, and a group called the Historic Thousands on Jones Street organized the rally, Lynn Bonner reports. The state House on Saturday passed an $18.6 billion budget that includes $780 million in new taxes, but the demonstrators said the state's future is still on the line. The budget includes some $3 billion in cuts to programs from the current year's budget, but those are offset by $1.3 billion in federal stimulus money that disappears in succeeding years.

 Two English instructors from N.C. State University said the cuts would freeze thousands of students out of the required first year writing program. The Rev. William Barber, president of the state's NAACP chapter cautioned: "Taxes are not dirty words when they're used to build communities."

Two years ago, State Highway Patrol Capt. Marc Nichols was on leave for nearly three months to deal with an extended illness that required two surgeries. The entire leave was covered by comp time he had built up.

North Carolina offers its workers and educators compensation and retirement benefits that are often much better than the private sector's and, in at least one case, unusual even among public-sector employees, according to an N&O analysis.

Each additional benefit tends to amplify the existing ones; the state is now obligated to pay $714 million in accrued vacation and bonus time, more than double what was on the books six years ago. And that number is just for employees of state agencies and the UNC System. It doesn't include public school or community college workers.

That extra cost is important now because of the state's budget crisis. Legislators are struggling to close a $4.5 billion budget shortfall for the fiscal year that starts July 1, but they have been reluctant to take on key constituencies or powerful special interests, such as state workers. Here's the full story.