Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand was in no mood to argue the merits of a budget "technical corrections" bill that raced through the legislature today as the session comes to a close.

State Sen. Richard Stevens, a Cary Republican, raised questions about a provision that hands another $1 million to Gov. Mike Easley's Learn and Earn initiative. It provides a means for high school students to obtain a four-year college degree tuition free, Dan Kane reports.

Easley had sought the money as part of negotiations that eventually persuaded him to sign the $21.4 billion state budget on Thursday.

The legislation allows the Office of State Budget and Management to take the money from any agency. Stevens said the money should come from the Department of Public Instruction, which oversees Learn and Earn.

"This could come out of prisons; it could come out of universities," Stevens said. "Why don't we take it out of DPI?"

"Because we're going to adjourn in a few minutes, and that's what it says," Rand responded.

A campaign finance reform group has praised 21 legislators for their openness.

Democracy North Carolina identified a group of state lawmakers who are doing "a superior job" identifying occupations and employers of their donors on campaign finance forms.

Though candidates are required to make their best effort to identify all donors, many fall short, listing only names, dates and amounts.

The group singled out legislators who raised more than $15,000 and provided full information on 98 percent or more of donors, including Senate President Marc Basnight and House Speaker Joe Hackney, both Democrats.

From the House: Democrats Tricia Cotham, Jim Crawford, Margaret Dickson, Rick Glazier, Bruce Goforth, Deborah Ross, Russell Tucker, Jennifer Weiss and Verla Insko, and Republican David Lewis.

From the Senate: Democrats Charlie Albertson, Doug Berger, Linda Garrou, Clark Jenkins, A.B. Swindell and Republicans Pete Brunstetter, Neal Hunt, Richard Stevens and Jerry Tillman.

"It's crucial for the public to have the full picture about the candidates before they vote — and the pattern of where a campaign’s money comes from is an important part of that picture," said Kaitlin Stollbrink, an intern at Democracy North Carolina.

How bipartisan has Sen. Kay Hagan been?

From 1999 to 2008, the Greensboro Democrat was the primary sponsor of 143 bills. Of them, 63 had no cosponsors, 36 had only Democratic cosponsors and 44 had Republican cosponsors.

Overall, her 366 cosponsors included 286 Democrats and 80 Republicans, for about a four-to-one ratio. She became more bipartisan during her time in the legislature, however, going from about a nine-to-one ratio of D-to-R cosponsors in the 1999-2000 session to about two-to-one in the current session.

The most frequent GOP cosponsors were Sen. Fletcher Hartsell of Cabarrus County, who signed on to 14 bills; Sen. Stan Bingham of neighboring Davidson County, who signed on to 13; and Sen. Robert Shaw of Greensboro, who signed on to 10.

Sens. Hamilton Horton of Forsyth County and Richard Stevens of Wake County each cosponsored five bills; Sens. Virginia Foxx of Watauga County and John Garwood of Wilkes County, four; and Peter Brunstetter of Forsyth County and Senate Minority Leader Phil Berger of Rockingham County, three.

Sens. James Forrester, Jim Jacumin, Jerry Tillman, Austin Allran and Harry Brown cosponsored two apiece, while Sens. Don East, Andrew Brock, Eddie Goodall, Harris Blake, Kenneth Moore, Fred Smith and Tom Apodaca each cosponsored one.

Previously: Hagan's Republican cosponsors in 1999-2000, 2001-02, 2003-04, 2005-06 and 2007-08 sessions.

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.

State Sen. Richard Stevens of Cary was one of three Republicans to support the Senate's $21.4 billion state budget proposal.

He said he disliked the way Democrats shut off debate on the legislation, but he voted for it because it contains no tax increases and the growth in spending over the current year — 3.4 percent — is less than that of inflation and population growth combined, Dan Kane reports.

"It's a conservative budget in terms of spending and it does a lot for education," Stevens said.

He also cited $50 million in tax relief, though the budget bill does not specify where that will happen. The Senate decided to pass several tax breaks in individual bills that may end up being incorporated into the final budget.

He said he was also pleased with the number of construction projects that the budget bill provides for the UNC system and for Wake County. They include $109 million for a new library at N.C. State University's Centennial Campus and another $5 million toward the N.C. Museum of Art's $72 million expansion.

Stevens is a former Wake County manager and a former chairman of the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees. The other Republican senators supporting the budget proposal are Stan Bingham of Davidson County and Fletcher Hartsell of Concord.

How effective were Triangle legislators in 2007?

Rep. Joe Hackney of Orange County was the most effective state representative in his first term as Speaker of the House, according to rankings released Wednesday by the N.C. Center for Public Policy Research. Hackney improved from his No. 3 rank in 2005.

Reps. Mickey Michaux of Durham and Reps. Deborah Ross, Dan Blue and Paul Stam, all of Wake County, rose in the ranks and made the top 10.

Blue, a former Speaker who came out of retirement to rejoin the House in 2006, and Michaux both have been ranked in the top 10 in previous years.

Stam, who serves as House Minority Leader, was the only Republican to make the top 10. He jumped to that spot from his 2005 rank of 42.

Sen. Richard Stevens, a Wake Republican, was the highest ranked state senator from the Triangle at No. 17.

Fred Smith has received $14,500 from other politician's campaign funds since 2007.

According to his mid-year and year-end campaign finance reports, the Republican gubernatorial candidate received donations from 13 campaigns.

The top contributors were state Rep. Mitch Gillespie, who gave $4,000; Rep. Leo Daughtry, who gave $3,000; and former Senate candidate Todd Siebels, who gave $2,000.

He also received $1,000 each from Alamance County Sheriff Terry Johnson and Sen. Jim Forrester, $750 each from Sens. Richard Stevens of Cary and Jerry Tillman of Randolph County, and $500 each from Reps. James H. Langdon, Carolyn Justus of Henderson County and Mark Hilton of Catawba County.

He also received donations from Rep. Phillip Frye of Mitchell County, former Rep. Russell Capps of Wake County and Catawba County Sheriff David Huffman.

State employees' pensions are no longer public record?

Whoa, there.

That’s not what the authors of the law say they intended. Just the opposite, in fact.

Sen. Richard Stevens, a Wake County Republican, said today that he and other senators were trying to open public records regarding all forms of compensation for state employees when they passed a bill last summer clarifying state personnel records.

The impetus was opening the hidden records of officials at Carolinas Healthcare System in Charlotte. But Stevens said the bill was even broader.

"We all agreed that any state money given to an employee should be fully disclosed," he said.

Stevens did offer an amendment on the floor, supported by the committee, which made it clear some records are not public, including whom one chooses as a beneficiary or which funds one chooses for 401K investments.

He was surprised to learn that the Attorney General's office had interpreted the bill for the State Treasurer's office as making state pension records secret.

"It is either being interpreted incorrectly or we'll have to go back and fix it," Stevens said. "That clearly wasn't the intent."

Four lawmakers are drafting a bill to provide full scholarships to the children of police and firefighters who are killed in the line of duty.

The lawmakers, all Republicans, are Sen. Richard Stevens of Cary, Sen. Fletcher Hartsell of Concord, Rep. Charles Thomas of Asheville and Rep. Thom Tillis of Huntersville plan to introduce bills in the house and senate in when the General Assembly reconvenes in May.

The scholarships would apply to state public universities or community colleges.