Eight members of the House voted against overriding Gov. Mike Easley's veto of a wide boats bill.

Those members are:

Alice Bordsen, D-Alamance

Susan Fisher, D-Buncombe

Sandra Spaulding Hughes, D-Wilmington

Verla Insko, D-Orange

Maggie Jeffus, D-Guilford

Paul Luebke, D-Durham

Mickey Michaux, D-Durham

Jennifer Weiss, D-Wake

In the Senate, Ed Jones, D-Halifax, voted against override, but Jones' vote was not recorded because he paired his vote with the absent Doug Berger, D-Franklin. Under the Senate's rules, Jones can cast Berger's vote for him, but it means neither vote is recorded.

The House and Senate roll call votes are below.

House budget writers saved a tax break in the proposed $21.4 billion state budget for fully disabled military veterans, but it will cost the counties.

The property tax homestead exemption for the veterans has an $8.6 million price tag. House leaders wanted to pay for it in the state budget, but Rep. Paul Luebke, a Durham Democrat, said Senate leaders did not go along, reports Dan Kane.

"The only way we could get that program is if we spread it around to the various counties," Luebke said.

House Minority Whip Bill McGee, a Forsyth County Republican, noticed the cost shift in the budget proposal. He pointed it out on the House floor during Monday's budget debate, but he did not criticize the move.

House officials say that they have reached agreement with Senate leaders on a $21 billion state budget proposal.

It's possible the spending plan could be available later tonight, though votes won't take place until Monday at the earliest. The House and Senate have both adjourned for the day, Dan Kane reports.

One key agreement that helped settle the negotiations came on tax breaks.

A House finance committee co-chairman said budget negotiators have agreed to postpone two tax breaks to free up $30 million in revenues for the state budget. Gov. Mike Easley has called for holding off on the tax breaks after new revenue projections showed a possible $70 million budget hole.

Rep. Paul Luebke, a Durham Democrat, said House leaders have agreed to hold off on increasing the Earned Income Tax Credit for lower income working families, saving $14 million, and Senate leaders have agreed to push back a repeal of the state gift tax, saving $16 million. Both items would take effect a year later.

House Speaker Joe Hackney and Senate leader Marc Basnight have announced a joint news conference at 4:15 p.m. today.

Rep. Paul Luebke says he'll press for instant runoffs in 2009.

The Durham Democrat, who sponsored a pilot project for municipal elections in 2005, says that the concept was "scary" to a lot of legislators, but after elections in Cary and Hendersonville he thinks they may be more open to it.

"In 2009, if I'm back I expect to participate in a discussion about how we could use instant-runoff voting as a statewide policy," he said.

The city of Wilmington has asked for a local bill seeking authority to do instant runoffs this session, though it is currently stuck in a committee, he noted.  

Citing today's labor commissioner runoff, Luebke said that the traditional primary runoff method has its own risks, including extremely low turnout.

"It's really not a good idea to have so few people deciding these runoff races," he said. 

Illegal immigrants would continue to have access to state universities and community colleges under legislation filed Tuesday by Reps. Pricey Harrison, Paul Luebke and Rick Glazier.

Their bill would prevent the UNC Board of Governors and the State Board of Community Colleges from requiring prospective students to disclose their immigration status, Dan Kane reports.

The bill does not prevent the universities and community colleges from charging much higher out-of-state rates for students who are not U.S. citizens. That is current practice.

The legislation counters two other bills filed this session by Republican lawmakers that would prevent illegal immigrants from attending the state's universities and community colleges. The issue of those students' admission first surfaced late last year when the community college system announced a new policy telling all 58 campuses that they should admit students regardless of their immigration status.

The national furor over that announcement led the system to get an opinion from state Attorney General Roy Cooper's office. That subsequent opinion found that the system could not admit illegal immigrants. The system has now announced it would no longer admit them. UNC officials say the issue still isn't settled and therefore have not changed their policy to admit illegal immigrants.

Both the community colleges and the UNC system say a tiny percentage of their students are illegal immigrants.

Gov. Mike Easley has come out against barring these students from attending community colleges and UNC schools.

Harrison of Greensboro, Luebke of Durham and Glazier of Fayetteville are all Democrats.

Rep. Paul Luebke says he would have voted to expel Thomas Wright.

The Durham Democrat was one of five state representatives who had an excused absence from today's special session on Wright.

A professor at UNC-Greensboro, Luebke had an Introduction to Sociology course today. Under a signed agreement with the UNC Board of Governors, he cannot miss class to attend a special session or study commission meeting.

(During the regular session, Luebke takes an unpaid leave of absence.)

He said he would have voted to expel Wright based on what he's read in the Select Committee etc. etc. report on Wright. He would not have voted for censure.

"Of course, I don't know how the debate went, but I have the book," he told Dome. "The report makes a compelling case of flagrant violations of campaign finance law."

Twenty-four legislators did not get paid for every day.

According to state records, 17 representatives and seven senators asked not to receive their $104 per diems for at least one day during the 2007 session.

Reps. Angela Bryant, William Current, Annie Mobley, Deborah Ross, John Blust, Bill Daughtridge, Laura Wiley, Ruth Samuelson, Pryor Gibson, David Lewis, Mitchell Setzer, Paul Stam, Jennifer Weiss, Martha Alexander, Pricey Harrison, Alice Bordsen and Paul Luebke did not receive pay for every day.

Luebke was the lowest, receiving pay for just 178 days.

Sens. William Purcell, Fred Smith, Clark Jenkins, Harris Blake, Tom Apodaca, Janet Cowell and Marc Basnight did not receive pay for all 191 days of session.

Basnight was the lowest, receiving pay for just 176 days.

Under state policy, legislators automatically receive pay for every day of session, regardless of whether they attend, unless they specifically ask not to be paid for that day. 

Rep. Paul Luebke said companies should return grants if they lay off.

In an amendment to the compromise incentives bill, the Durham Democrat proposed that companies give back all of their grants if they go below 80 percent of their original employment during any of the 10 years covered by them.

Under the current bill, the company would not be eligible for a grant during the year its workforce fell below that threshold, but it would keep money from prior years and would be eligible once it rehired.

"If you go down below 80 percent, you need to give all the money back," he said.

Rep. Rick Glazier, a Fayetteville Democrat who sponsored the incentives bill, said it already has enough requirements for recipients to keep its workforce employed, well-paid and with health insurance. He said it could hurt a company during a recession.

"(The amendment) fails to understand the economic realities of what can happen in the vagaries of the national and international economy to a business," he said.

The amendment failed 63-41.

The deal offering free state university tuition to graduates of the N.C. School of Science and Mathematics took a blow Thursday, with the state House voting to cancel it.

The bill is expected to win final House approval Monday, Jane Stancill reports.

Critics say it's not right to offer tuition grants to one high school's graduates.

Rep. Paul Luebke, a Durham Democrat and tuition grant critic, said $25,000 included in the bill to study an alternative grant for students who agree to teach science or math after college is a compromise.

The proposal is not likely to pass the Senate, where budget writer Sen. Kay Hagan, a Greensboro Democrat, is its champion. She says the grants help keep the state's best and brightest at home.

But the House debate gave Rep. Cary Allred, an Alamance County Repubilcan, a chance to rail against elitism.

Rep. Paul Luebke works alone in a quiet House chamber Thursday, July 5, 2007.

"It is an extremely  public place, yet it has been my hideway," said a Durham Democrat who often stays in his seat at the chamber after the session. "My office can get crowded with people waiting to see me."

He said his legislative assistant knows where he is and she can find him in 30 seconds when his office receives an important call or visitor. But why 30 seconds?

"I don't have a cell phone — it's too distracting to my life." (Takaaki Iwabu)