State lawmakers may have $70 million less to spend in the upcoming fiscal year after they learned today that sales and income tax collections are not meeting previous estimates.

Fiscal experts for the legislature and the governor's office had estimated that they would have $151 million in sales and tax collections from the current year that could be made available for next year's budget.

But since then revenues have slowed, causing them to lower the estimate to roughly $80 million, reports Dan Kane.

It's not a lot in a budget expected to exceed $21 billion, but House and Senate budget writers were already struggling to reach an agreement on a spending plan, and the possible loss of $70 million doesn't make the negotiations easier.

House and Senate budget negotiators heard the report on the projected revenue decline in a closed door meeting this morning. Senate leaders did not allow a News & Observer reporter to attend, and afterward, Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand said the meeting wasn't open because it did not involve budget negotiations.

N.C. House and Senate budget negotiators have repeatedly said that joint meetings are public.

They had such a joint meeting this morning. But when a News & Observer reporter tried to enter, they kicked him out.

Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand, a Fayetteville Democrat, could not cite a reason under the public meetings law as to why a reporter would be excluded. But he said the meeting had nothing to do with the budget, reports Dan Kane.

"Because we were just hearing a report from staff," Rand said. "It had nothing to do with negotiations."

He said the report was an "economic briefing."

What did it say?

"We're not sure."

Why can't a reporter listen to that?

"Because we're trying to determine if there's something we want to do," Rand said. "I mean, that was just a staff thing."

Related to the budget?

"Related to anything."

Budget negotiators were the only ones attending. A brief glimpse into the meeting showed Dan Gerlach, senior budget adviser to Gov. Mike Easley, and legislative fiscal staff addressing the lawmakers.

Gerlach left several minutes later.

What were they meeting about?

"Talking about the budget," Gerlach said as he walked away.

After the meeting broke up, Rep. Mickey Michaux, a Durham Democrat and the House's chief budget writer, said his team had nothing to do with the decision to close the meeting.

"They ran you out of there," he said of the Senate budget negotiators. "That was their meeting. It wasn't mine."

Bob Orr sounded briefly like the attorney for the N.C. Press Association.

At a debate at UNC-Charlotte Saturday, the Republican gubernatorial candidate argued that Gov. Mike Easley and his successors should follow the state's public records laws.

Orr, a former Supreme Court justice, noted recent news reports that the governor's staff may have ordered public affairs directors to delete their e-mails, a violation of the records law.

He also attacked a recent meeting of the 21st Century Transportation Committee which was held on Figure Eight Island without press access.

"If we're truly going to have openness, it has to begin at the top," he said. "It has to begin with the governor. The governor has to be committed to obeying the open meeting laws, the public records law, of being able to fight for openness."

Orr said that public agencies should pay attorney's fees when they have been found by a judge to have improperly withheld public records.

A high-profile panel on transportation was scheduled to meet last night at the home of a member.

The dinner, featuring a catered buffet and a flamenco band, was to be held on private Figure Eight Island near Wilmington. 

It was not open to the public because of an exception in the Open Meetings Law that allows government bodies to have a "social meeting" where no business is discussed.

"We're not having a meeting. We're having dinner," said Brad Wilson, chair of the 21st Century Transportation Committee. "It's a social event."

But First Amendment lawyer Hugh Stevens said the loophole means the public has only the word of the officials to rely on.

"It invites people to skirt the law, even though they'll be well-meaning and well-intentioned," he said. (Char-O)

Dome came close to ferreting out secret information this morning.

Okay, it wasn't any super-sleuthing on Dome's part. A member of the state Ethics Commission almost spilled the beans about an ethics case involving a senator.

By law, the commission has to consider ethics matters in closed session and even the names of people involved are secret.

But early in Friday's meeting, when commissioners received their standard reminder about conflicts of interest, member Jerry Blackmon raised his hand. He said he may have a potential conflict of interest when it comes to the matter of "Senator..."

That's when Commission chairman Robert Farmer and Executive Director Perry Newson stopped him. They would discuss the potential conflict in closed session, Newson said.

Trying to divine who Blackmon was talking about could be tough. Blackmon was a Mecklenburg County Commissioner in the 1980s and was a state senator through much of the 1990s. He was appointed upon the recommendation of senate leader Marc Basnight and has served on various boards.

After the ethics commission concluded and before the closed session began, Farmer suggested to reporters that they lobby the legislature to open up ethics proceedings.

Not too many Tar Heels of the Week end up in jail.

But North Carolina newspaper publisher Tom Boney Jr. was arrested Tuesday for refusing to leave a government meeting he said was being closed improperly.

Boney, 52, is editor and publisher of The Alamance News, a weekly paper in Graham.

He asked commissioners of the Burlington-Alamance Airport Authority to assure him they would not talk or vote about a proposed financing package for an unidentified manufacturer during a closed session.

The state's Open Meetings Laws allows public officials to close meetings to discuss economic development, but Boney argued that it does not cover spending government money.

When he refused to leave the meeting, he was taken to jail by the county sheriff.

Boney was the N&O's Tar Heel of the Week on March 19, 2006.

Hat Tip: Matthew Eisley