Three spending bills are among the most popular in the House.

Proposed appropriations bills to teach children about the state's sterilization program, compensate its victims and run a Kids Voting program have more than 30 cosponsors.

That means they have the support of more than a fourth of the 120 members of the House, a good indicator that they'll be seriously considered. 

Whether they will be added to the budget or pass the Senate is another matter. So far, only the Kids Voting bill has a companion in the other chamber, although a separate compensation bill has been filed with a much higher price tag.

The House compensation bill with 31 cosponsors would set aside $18.6 million for victims, while a Senate bill with only one sponsor would set aside $173 million. Of the other popular House bills, Kids Voting would get $300,000, and sterilization education programs would get $36,648.

Another 10 spending bills have more than 20 cosponsors, or more than one-sixth of the House. The median House spending bill has 14 cosponsors, or about one-ninth.

In all, state representatives have filed 42 spending bills so far worth a total of $248.3 million.

State legislators have now asked for $417.3 million.

Sixteen more bills filed since Dome last checked have added another $72.7 million in requested spending, even as the state faces a $2 billion shortfall.

The largest request of the most recent batch is $29.8 million for pay raises for community college faculty and staff. The smallest is $200,000 for research on what is believed to be the sunken remains of Queen Anne's Revenge, the flagship of the pirate Blackbeard.

Other spending bills would fund more Learn and Earn high schools, hire 100 graduation coaches in middle and high schools, buy software to flag improper Medicaid payments, design a new life science and biotechnology building for East Carolina University, expand medical education and research at ECU and UNC-Chapel Hill, provide differentiated funding for community college Allied Health Programs, run spay and neuter programs and hire eight new computer forensic agents to prosecute sexual predators.

Six other bills are companions to spending requests already filed.

In all the requests amount to 21 percent of the estimated shortfall.

The requests also added another $105.7 million in spending next year, for a total of $138.5 million in 2010-11.

Ongoing coverage of spending bills is available here.