For years, the state Senate promoted and protected the free UNC tuition taxpayers grant graduates of the N.C. School of Science and Mathematics.

Kay Hagan, a former state senator from Greensboro who is now in the U.S. Senate, was the free tuition creator and champion, Lynn Bonner reports.

But it looks like the Science and Math grads' free ride may not survive Hagan's move to Washington, Lynn Bonner reports.

The tuition offer is on the chopping block.

The Senate's proposed budget calls for phasing out the tuition offer, making this year's graduates the last to benefit. Science and Math is a state-run boarding school based in Durham for students from around the state.

More after the jump.

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A campaign finance watchdog says university boosters are big givers.

Bob Hall, president of Democracy North Carolina, announced today that two political action committees tied to trustees and boosters of UNC-Chapel Hill and N.C. State have given heavily to state legislators.

Citizens for Higher Education, which is tied to Tar Heel boosters, gave $485,000 in the 2007-08 election cycle and $425,000 in 2005-06. It was one of the five largest PAC contributors in the last election.

The University Development Coalition, which supports the Wolfpack, gave $100,500 in the last election.

According to Hall's research, 76 percent of the 170 legislators in office today have received contributions from one or both PAC, including Senate leader Marc Basnight and House Speaker Joe Hackney, who each received $24,000.

Hall said the donations are of interest as the legislature considers whether to end a program that allows out-of-state athletes to pay in-state tuition rates at state colleges.

The program is estimated to cost about $10 million a year.

Rep. Pricey Harrison wants to end a tuition break for out-of-state athletes.

The Greensboro Democrat plans to file a bill that would end a special scholarship program at state universities that allows out-of-state athletes to pay in-state tuition rates.

The program began as a provision in the state Senate's budget. Harrison has gotten notice from good government groups for her unsuccessful attempts to end it.

She said she feels better about eliminating the estimated $10 million cost this year.

"At a time when we've got a $2 billion budget gap it just doesn't make sense that we're subsidizing out-of-state athletes," she said.

She also argued that the program subsidizies the Wolfpack Club, the Rams Club and the Pirate Club, the booster groups for state universities, which otherwise would have to give donations to support the athletes.

What taxes were in the 2003 budget?

The first budget partially negotiated by state Sen. Kay Hagan included $14.8 billion in spending, a $400 million increase from the previous year.

The budget will likely come up again in the U.S. Senate race, with Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole signaling that she will attack Hagan's record.

Here's a few details from the budget that she may focus on:

Temporarily Continued: The budget continued the "temporary taxes" on sales and the wealthy first instituted during a 2001 shortfall and set to expire in 2003. The two taxes were expected to generate about $384 million.

Sin No More: Senate leaders proposed adding 25 cents in tax to a pack of cigarettes and 5 cents to a can of beer, but House leaders shot the idea down. The taxes would have raised $326 million to offset proposed education cuts.

Higher (Cost) Education: Tuition at state universities went up 5 percent, though the budget added $5.1 million in need-based financial aid. In-state community college tuition rose 3.2 percent. For out-of-state students, it was 8.2 percent.

Obviously, there's a lot more to the budget than these three items, but they're the ones easiest to explain to voters in a short attack ad.

Voters have the most questions about Beverly Perdue.

According to Google Suggest, the Democratic candidate for governor turns up the most patterns of searches of the gubernatorial candidates.

Type in "Bev Perdue" here and you get "bev perdue for governor," "bev perdue campaign," "bev perdue north carolina" — similar to the results for her Democratic and Republican rivals.

But you also get "bev perdue chicken" and "bev perdue beer money."

The first search may have to do with her 2004 ads featuring people doing a chicken dance, but the second is clearly related to Richard Moore's ad on an old quote of hers about college tuition. 

Whatever else you think about Moore's attacks, the "beer and party money" quote was clearly the most successful.

Chelsea Clinton dived into specific programs her mother has proposed.

After a brief introduction at the Young Democrats convention today, the former first daughter began answering audience questions on a variety of topics.

She earned loud applause from the audience when she said that Hillary Clinton has proposed eliminating the Free Application for Federal Student Aid form, which college applicants must fill out in order to receive college aid, in favor of a checkbox on your tax form.

Among other things, she said that Clinton would forgive student loans for people who work in public service jobs, create universal health insurance, end the war in Iraq, expand the AmeriCorps program, reinstate the estate tax for people with assets of more than $7 million, make school lunch programs available year-round, reform food stamps and tie the Earned Income Tax Credit to inflation.

In response to a question about seating the Florida and Michigan delegates, Clinton said that the former has an "unfortunate" history of not counting votes.

"I wish that I were standing here after seven years of President Gore," she said.

Beverly Perdue struck back at Richard Moore's recent ad at the Young Democrats convention.

Speaking before a lunchtime audience at the convention in Research Triangle Park, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate said she first heard her rival's ad attacking her for voting for tuition increases while preparing a ham at her home in New Bern the Thursday before Easter.

"There I was putting the ham in the oven about 11:15 at night, and I realized somebody on television was talking real trash about somebody else," she said. "I thought I wonder who it is they're talking about, and I turned up the sound and lo ad behold it was me."

Perdue called the ad the "first negative campaign" of the governor's race, saying it was not the full story. She also said that Moore, who was at the convention earlier in the morning, had repeated his claims about her voting record.

"I will tell you straight up," she told the crowd of several hundred college students and twentysomethings. "I was in the General Assembly for 14 years, and sure there were times when I voted for tuition hikes. But there were also hikes that (were) accompanied with financial assistance for kids across the state."

She also said that Moore voted for the same tuition hikes when he was in the General Assembly. 

Earlier: Fact-check of Perdue's response to Moore's ad. 

Beverly Perdue regrets making a joke about "beer and party money."

The candidate for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination told reporters at a water forum that she did not intend to downplay a proposed $200 tuition increase 15 years ago.

Laura Leslie has the scoop on her Hunter's Tavern blog:

Perdue also said she "deeply regrets" her 1993 quip equating a $200 tuition increase to "beer and party money" for college students. "I may have been thinking of my own son. He was at Carolina at the time... But it was unfair."

The quote has recently shown up in an attack ad from Perdue rival Richard Moore.

Perdue added that she didn't know the joke would be "thrown back" at her years later.

Update: According to the birthdates listed on this biography, Perdue's sons, Garrett and Emmett, would have been 16 and 13 in 1993.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Richard Moore is airing an ad attacking rival Beverly Perdue's votes on college tuition, Ben Niolet reports. Click here to watch the ad.

What the ad says: "On college tuition, Bev Perdue's been flat-out wrong. She voted to raise tuition seven times. Perdue even sponsored a 24 percent tuition increase and said it was just 'beer and party money.' But Richard Moore doesn't think the rising cost of college is a joke. Moore's plan allows high school graduates to attend community college tuition free. It's time for a leader who will do right by families like yours. I'm Richard Moore, candidate for governor, and I sponsored this ad."

The background: As a candidate for governor, Perdue has touted her plans to make college affordable. As a legislator, she voted seven times to raise tuition. Her votes were for larger budget bills that spent billions and made policy decisions on many items, including college tuition.

Some of those budgets also allocated money to help poor students get financial aid for college.

The 24 percent increase refers to a seperate proposal in 1993 in which Perdue spoke in favor of a $200 surcharge at UNC-Chapel Hill and N.C. State University. The surcharge was designed to improve libraries, increase student aid and increase salaries for faculty who were being lured out of state by higher pay.

Perdue, then a senator, told the Associated Press that only a few people had contacted her to complain about the $200 hike. "The students have openly admitted that it's beer and party money," Perdue said, according to the AP report.

The $200 surcharge was not adopted.

Moore has proposed using funds from the Golden LEAF Foundation, a nonprofit set up to allocate tobacco settlement funds, and state money to offer free community college tuition for two years to all students who graduate high school and immediately enroll in a community college degree program.

Is the ad accurate? Yes. Whether Perdue is "flat-out wrong" is a subjective judgement. But she did vote to increase tuition, although all but one of the votes were for broad budget bills and not just college tuition.

Previously: Moore attacks Perdue on tuition increase at debate.

A recent ad by Democratic gubernatorial candidate Richard Moore attacks rival Beverly Perdue's votes on college tuition.