Kay Hagan got a few pet projects in the 2004 budget.

As a Senate Appropriations co-chair for the second year in 2004, the Greensboro Democrat got a few more provisions than in her first go-round to help our her home district.

Here's a quick look:

Millennium Campus: Hagan secured $4 million to convert buildings at a former school for deaf children for a research campus run by N.C. A&T and UNC-Greensboro. (Section 32.1)

Design Center: The N.C. School of the Arts got $2 million to start the Center for Design Innovation in a Greensboro research park. (Section 32.1)

Tuition Promise: Hagan's provision to give free tuition at state universities to graduates of the N.C. School of Science and Mathematics added $780,000 to the budget.

Rape Kits: After getting the reduction of a backlog of untested rape kits labeled a "priority" in 2003, Hagan got $250,000 set aside to test them. (Section 15.2)

Previously: Hagan's pet projects from 2003. 

Being a budget writer has its perks.

As a first-time Senate Appropriations co-chair, Sen. Kay Hagan got a few provisions in the 2003 budget to help out her home district and other pet projects.

Here's a quick look:

Millennium Campus: Hagan canceled the proposed sale of a former school for deaf children, then gave the land to N.C. A&T and UNC-Greensboro for a research campus (Section 6.20).

Tuition Promise: Hagan promoted a provision that gave free tuition to state universities to all graduates of the N.C. School of Science and Mathematics (Section 9.4).

Furniture Market: At Hagan's request, the budget included $900,000 for a free shuttle service for the twice-yearly High Point Furniture Market (Section 29.17).

Civil Rights Museum: Hagan sought $1 million for a long-planned International Civil Rights Museum in Greensboro, but it was cut by the House.

Hagan also added a provision calling testing the backlog of rape kits a "priority" for the N.C. Department of Justice (Section 14.7) and funding five pilot programs to teach financial literacy to high school students (Section 7.35).

She also limited a Republican proposal to require reports on spending by nonprofits that receive state money to those with grants of more than $300,000 (Section 6.21).

State Sen. Kay Hagan was even less bipartisan in the session before last.

With the Democratic Senate nominee touting her bipartisanship in the legislature, Dome has been taking a closer look at the number of Republicans who signed on to her bills.

In the 2003-04 session, the Greensboro Democrat was the primary sponsor of 31 bills. Of them, 22 had no cosponsors, six had only Democratic cosponsors and three had Republican cosponsors.

Again, the bills with Republican cosponsors tended to have more than one. Overall, her 43 cosponsors included 35 Democrats and eight Republicans, or about a four-to-one ratio.

The three bills were for funding for DNA analysis in rape kits, funding for a Civil Rights Museum in Greensboro and providing school information on meningitis and the flu. The meningitis bill was the most bipartisan, with 11 Democratic cosponsors and five Republicans.

None of the Republicans sponsored more than one bill. They were: Senate Minority Leader Phil Berger, one-time gubernatorial candidate Fern Shubert, Tony P. Moore, Stan Bingham, Tom Apodaca, Robert C. Carpenter, R.B. Sloan Jr. and Richard Stevens.

Previously: Hagan's GOP cosponsors in 2005-06; in 2007-08.

Gov. Mike Easley gave a preview of his 2009 budget.

In a meeting with reporters, his staff introduced proposals for $31 million for programs to benefit uninsured children, farm and poultry plant workers and sexual assault victims.

"One of the most important roles of government is to look after and protect the basic human rights of those who cannot stand up for themselves," he said in a statement.

Easley will make his full budget public  next week when the legislature returns to Raleigh. The proposals released so far are less than 1 percent of state spending from last year.

They include $10.4 million for child health insurance coverage and $600,000 for uninsured women to receive rape kit examinations. (N&O)

A volunteer group pushing for stiffer sentences for sex crimes against children held its first rally Saturday.

Organizers of the Coalition for Jessica's Law plan to hold gatherings throughout the state to promote passage of a law similar to one passed in Florida in 2005. That law was named for nine-year-old Jessica Lunsford, who was raped and killed by a convicted sex offender.

The North Carolina measure would levy a sentence of 25 years to life in prison against criminals convicted of rape or a sex offense against a child under 13.

Co-chairman Jeff Gerber said he started the gropu when he learned the North Carolina legislature had not passed the bill.

"We are furious about this," he said. (Char-O)