Gov. Beverly Perdue has given a preview of her budget.

Speaking at an economic roundtable at UNC-Asheville this morning, Perdue promised new tax breaks for businesses and more spending for worker training, the Asheville Citizen-Times reports.

Among the tax breaks:

* Expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit from 5 to 6.5 percent. 

* Allowing small businesses to exempt some profits from taxes.

* Excluding initial stock investments in some startups from capital gains.

She also pledged to spend $50 million on sewer and water projects, $17 million on workforce preparedness, $7 million on "Main Street" projects in small towns, $5 million on green businesses and $2 million to a small business grant program. 

Perdue will formally present her budget Tuesday. 

Asheville reporter Jordan Schrader writes on his Capital Letters blog that Perdue did not say anything about "how she'll pay for it."

Gov. Beverly Perdue is in Asheville today and tomorrow.

Perdue is holding an economic roundtable at UNC-Asheville this morning and speaking to the Council of Independent Business Owners and touring a General Electric plant this afternoon.

On Friday, she'll tour the Bent Creek Institute biotechnology facility on the campus of the North Carolina Arboretum.

The trip is part of Perdue's ongoing efforts to be more visible throughout the state.

Professors at N.C. Central get paid well, but those at UNC-Asheville might want to ask for a raise.

That's according to a study of higher education salaries released today by the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy*.

The study found that salaries for all faculty at four state colleges — N.C. Central, UNC-Charlotte, UNC-Pembroke and Winston-Salem State — are at least 80 percent of those at similar colleges.

But some professors at Elizabeth City State and N.C. State and all UNC-Asheville and N.C. A&T faculty were below the mean and median levels of their colleagues at other schools.

Foundation analyst Jon Sanders said he looked at the pay scale in part to see if there is a "brain drain" at state colleges. He said the study alone would not answer the question.

"If there is a brain drain, it's not owing to salaries," he said.

The House budget proposal calls for a 2.5 percent salary increase and a one-time $400 bonus for state college professors.

* Correction: An earlier version of the post misstated the group which funded the survey. Jon Sanders works for the John Locke Foundation, but the study was done for the Pope Center.