Gov. Mike Easley has vetoed nine bills.

As the first governor to use the veto in North Carolina history, he's taken on a hodgepodge of legislation in his two terms in office.

The vetoed bills would have:  

* Approved certain legislative appointments. 

* Changed mortgage lending laws.

* Changed teacher certification.

* Compensated billboard owners.

* Changed teacher certifications.

* Sold an airport site to Currituck County for a dollar.

* Granted access to state buildings to employees associations.

* Given incentives to Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.

* Allowed wider boats and trailers on state roads. 

Vetoes of the first eight bills were all sustained. The boats bill was vetoed Sunday, so the legislature has not yet acted on it. 

Teacher pay increased between 1.8 and 8.2 percent in each of Kay Hagan's budgets.

The Democratic Senate nominee, who served as the Senate Appropriations co-chairwoman from 2003 to 2007, has cited her teacher pay raises in a recent TV ad.

Here are the average pay raises effective on July 1 of each year, according to the N.C. Department of Public Instruction:

2003: 1.81 percent

2004: 2.5 percent

2005: 2.24 percent

2006: 8.23 percent

2007: 5.0 percent

The actual raises could vary according to individual employees and other factors, as the calculations are rather complicated. The figures cited are for average across the board increases. 

Gov. Mike Easley says the legislature "cannot ignore reality."

In a statement issued Sunday, Easley said that he is concerned that House and Senate budget writers are not reacting to the reduction in expected state revenues.

"The State Constitution requires that a budget be balanced before I sign it," he said in a statement. "The General Assembly cannot ignore reality. The very latest numbers verify that we remain short of the estimates that legislative budget writers are currently using."

Easley proposes getting rid of $20 million in proposed tax cuts, but keeping pre-kindergarten spending and pay raises for teachers, essentially threatening a veto.

"I want to be clear — the budget must be balanced and have the right priorities for me to sign it. I hope we can build a budget we can all be proud of," he said.

The UNC system is working on a new database through which officials hope to get a better grasp on the state's teaching shortage.

The data is culled from Department of Public Instruction files and uses characteristics such as race, gender, salary, SAT scores and other factors to determine whether a public school teacher is more or less likely to leave the profession, Eric Ferreri reports.

There are 15 teaching education programs across the state university system, and officials say this data model program, once complete, may be a valuable tool for both the university and K-12 system as it looks for ways to train and retain teachers, particularly in rural and urban school districts.

"This is going to be great for the state," said Erskine Bowles, the UNC system president, during a Thursday meeting of the UNC system's governing board. "I can't wait to show it to the legislature."

The database is not yet complete.

Sen. Eddie Goodall is fighting an uphill battle to get lawmakers to give away $50 million in revenue.

Goodall, a Weddington Republican, has again filed a bill that would divert all tax money collected by the state on lottery winnings to a fund to pay for classroom supplies.

"It was logical to me. It's supposed to be an education lottery, correct?"

Money raised by ticket sales pays for four specific education priorities. But taxes collected on prize money goes to the general fund. Goodall's proposal has failed at least once before.

Goodall says the state collects as much as $50 million a year from the winnings of lottery players. That's enough, he said to give every teacher in the state (100,000) a $500 stipend to cover the cost of classroom supplies. But that would mean the state would have $50 million less to pay for other things.

Goodall said his bill hasn't gotten much attention from the education lobby. "I assume that if they're not interested in taking the money, that if they're not interested in that bill, we might have some problems," he said.

Gov. Mike Easley said this morning that he was puzzled by the decisions of state House members to cut his proposed teacher raises and other educational expense increases.

"It's very puzzling to me how a House who was so progressive on education last year can retrench so rapidly this year, failing to fund More at Four for our predominately minority students, really stiffing the teachers and not providing enrollment increases for college," Easley said.

Easley made his comments to reporters this morning after a meeting of state elected officials.

"It's not only unacceptable, but it's just puzzling to me how they can be that far off the mark," Easley said.

The House's proposed budget did away with Easley's proposed sin taxes increases on cigarettes and alcohol which would have paid for teacher raises and other items. Instead the House's first draft raises certain fees.

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Major pieces of the N.C. House's proposed state budget were released this morning, and they show more money for drop out prevention, a big cut for mental health community support services and a potential stumbling block for Gov. Mike Easley's More at Four pre-kindergarten education program.

The House would devote $15 million for drop out prevention grants to communities, more than double what is in the current state budget, Dan Kane reports. Nearly one out of every three students in North Carolina fail to graduate from high school, and state leaders are looking for ways to keep more students in school.

House budget writers also cut more than $86 million from the mental health community support program.

A recent News & Observer series on the state's mental health services reported roughly $400 million in waste in that program. The cut is $65 million more than Easley had sought in his $21.5 billion state budget proposal.

Easley's senior budget adviser, Dan Gerlach, said the governor will not sit for the way House members funded More at Four.

Correction: An earlier version of this post misstated the cuts.

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State Rep. Deborah Ross has her eye on education.

The Raleigh Democrat says her biggest goal for the budget is a raise for teachers and state employees, though she did not have a specific amount in mind.

"I don't want to give a number because then they'll be mad at me because I didn't say a high enough number," she said. "I'm hoping that we can do as well as we did last year."

In the 2007-08 budget,  teachers, UNC faculty and community college instructors received a 5 percent increase, while most state employees got a 4 percent raise.

Ross said she also hopes to land the rest of the funding for the Green Square project in downtown Raleigh, increase the contribution to the Housing Trust Fund to $50 million a year, add consumer protection measures on foreclosures and put a transportation bond before voters.

She also wants more funding for domestic violence shelters and other changes. 

"We want to reduce the number of violations of domestic violence protective orders you need before it's considered a felony," she said. 

Gov. Mike Easley proposed a $21.5 billion budget Monday that would raise taxes on cigarettes and alcohol to help pay for teacher raises and mental health reform.

Easley's budget, a 4.2 percent increase from the previous year, would add a 4 percent tax to beer and wine and a 4 percent tax to liquor to pay for a $68 million fix to the state's failing mental health system.

Easley would raise the tax on cigarettes from 35 cents to 55 cents per pack to pay for public school teacher raises that would average 7 percent. Administrators would receive a 6 percent raise.

This is Easley's last budget proposal. He is prohibited by law from seeking a third term. He has said a major goal of his last year is to get teacher pay up to the national average.

Pay increases would be given at a higher rate for newer teachers, said Dan Gerlach, a senior budget advisor to Easley.

"We all have to keep in mind this is a salary that is going to have to continue to grow if we want a quality education across the nation," Easley told reporters Monday morning.

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What the ad says: AUDIO: "People across North Carolina agree: Only one candidate has the experience to be lieutenant governor. Walter Dalton. Walter Dalton. Walter Dalton. Walter Dalton created thousands of new jobs. Walter Dalton helped establish the North Carolina cancer hospital. Walter Dalton capped the gas tax. Walter Dalton raised teacher pay. Walter Dalton made prescription drugs more affordable. He protected homes from foreclosure. Walter Dalton raised the minimum wage. Walter Dalton strengthened community colleges. Walter Dalton -- ready to be lieutenant governor."

What the ad looks like: Dalton's name on the screen with footage of North Carolinians from a variety of careers talking about Dalton or talking with him. Scenes show Dalton meeting with doctors, talking with seniors about prescription drugs, reading to a classroom of young children, chatting with a family in front of a house with a "for sale" sign. The commercial also shows generic scenes of a gas pump and community college.

What the record shows: The ad gives Dalton full credit for major legislative or policy changes that were the work of a multitude of leaders, often in two branches of government. Dalton undoubtedly played some role, if only in voting for many of these initiatives, but so did scores of other lawmakers. The commercial, with one exception, doesn't take the easiest step toward being more accurate -- adding a qualifier such as "helped" or "supported." Dalton, for example, did not single-handedly cap the gas tax. In fact, it was a Republican, Bill Graham, who led a grass-roots campaign to pressure the legislature to cap the tax. Graham is now running for governor.

The ad says Dalton made prescription drugs more affordable, but the money for prescription drug assistance in the Health & Wellness Trust Fund came from the national tobacco settlement that Gov. Mike Easley helped negotiate as attorney general. Easley then pushed prescription drug assistance as a priority in his 2000 campaign. Dalton supported additional funding, but so did dozens of other legislators in the Senate and House.

Dalton voted for the minimum wage increase, but he did not co-sponsor the legislation. Several other lawmakers have been leading the effort for that change for years.

Is the ad accurate? The ad is a 30-second exaggeration.