The House voted 108-5 this morning to send Gov. Mike Easley a bill he has threatened to veto because it would allow wider boats and trailers to travel on narrow state roads at night. (The Senate voted likewise Wednesday by 43-0).

The legislation would relax state limits on the width of boats that fishermen and other recreational boaters can haul on state roads. It would allow boats up to 9.5 feet wide, day or night — and up to 10 feet wide during daylight hours only, Bruce Siceloff reports.

Current law OKs boats up to 8.5 feet wide, day or night, without  permits. Motorists now can get permits to haul boats up to 10 feet wide — but not on holidays or Sundays or at night.

The Highway Patrol warned that wider boats would cause more crashes and injuries at night because oncoming drivers would not see the danger of boats that might hang over the center line. A legislative aide and other boater backers disputed the warnings and countered that nighttime boat-towing would be safer.

An Easley aide said earlier this week that the governor would consider vetoing the measure if it allowed boats wider than 8.5 feet at night. There was no immediate comment from the governor’s office after the House gave final legislative approval to the bill this morning.

Crossposted from Crosstown Traffic blog. 

Six inches is a start, but Gov. Mike Easley wants another foot.

A veto threat prompted the Senate Tuesday to change a House bill that would let fishermen and other recreational boaters haul 10-foot-wide boats and trailers down narrow state roads at night, Bruce Siceloff reports.

The amended version, scheduled for a final Senate vote today, would trim the maximum width to 9 1/2 feet at night and 10 feet during the day.

Franklin Freeman, a top Easley adviser, warned last week that allowing wider boats at night would cause more crashes and deaths. He said Tuesday that the governor still wants legislators to keep the nighttime limit at its current mark, 8 1/2 feet.

"I think the governor hoped he could get out of this session without having to veto anything," Freeman said. "It would be a shame to put him in that position ... We've gone from 18 inches to 12 inches, but there’s still a foot missing."

Gov. Mike Easley probably will veto legislation that would let fishermen and other recreational boaters haul wider boats on state roads — unless the bill is changed to ban towing at night, an aide told legislators today.

“The governor believes strongly that these wide boats at night are a safety hazard, that there would be additional deaths on the highway,” Franklin Freeman, a top advisor to Easley, told members of the House Finance Committee, reports Bruce Siceloff.

The legislature is considering several bills to relax limits on hauling wide boat trailers. The proposals would allow boaters to pull trailers up to 10 feet wide, day or night, without a permit.

Current law requires permits for boat trailers more than 8.5 feet wide and outlaws towing on Sundays, nights and holidays.

“Should it pass and get to the governor, the likelihood of his signing it is not good, given what he has indicated to me,” Freeman said.

More after the jump.

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House and Senate leaders reached agreement on a $21.3 billion budget proposal by postponing two tax breaks and greatly increasing borrowing for construction projects at UNC campuses, state prisons and other state facilities.

"We think this is a very good budget, a budget that in tough times still keeps us moving in North Carolina in a number of ways," said House Speaker Joe Hackney, an Orange County Democrat, Dan Kane reports.

The agreement calls for no tax increases and includes modest pay raises for teachers and state employees. Teachers, UNC professors and community college instructors would receive an average increase of three percent, though beginning teachers would fare better, in deference to a request from Gov. Mike Easley.

All other state employees would receive the greater of a 2.75 percent or $1,100 increase. Retirees would receive a 2.2 percent cost of living adjustment.

They dropped a Senate provision that would have given Easley the opportunity to further boost teacher pay in the fall if revenues improved beyond expectations. Hackney said there was little chance that would happen, given the sinking economy.

More after the jump.

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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.

U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge will tour food banks this week to promote part of the new farm bill, which he helped write in Congress.

Among the Lillington Democrat's stops will be the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle in Raleigh on Thursday, Barb Barrett reports.

The five-year bill includes billions of dollars for nutrition and food assistance programs, including $50 million this year alone to deal with emergency needs by food banks wrestling with increased food and gas prices.

President Bush vetoed the farm bill May 21, saying it did not do enough to reform subsidies to wealthy farmers. Congress now is working to override the veto.

Other stops on Etheridge’s tour include food banks and pantries in Clayton, Sanford and Olivia.

As expected, President Bush vetoed the 2008 Farm Bill this afternoon, immediately unleashing criticism from some Capitol Hill Democrats.

“The president seems to be all hat and no cattle,” said Rep. Bob Etheridge, a Lillington Democrat who helped craft the bill’s final version, reports Barb Barrett. “By vetoing the farm bill the president is standing against rural America and families in need.”

The veto came as no surprise, with Bush saying all along that the five-year bill was too hefty and didn’t go far enough to reform subsidy payments to farmers.

Etheridge defended the bill, saying the “safety net” helps keep farmers afloat in uncertain times.

The House plans a veto override vote this afternoon. Both the House and the Senate passed the bill earlier this month with plenty of votes to override a presidential veto.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Pat McCrory is airing an ad touting his record on taxes, David Ingram reports. Click here to watch the ad.

What the ad says: McCrory: "Why am I running for governor? We take too much money from the pockets of men and women working in North Carolina. Our state income tax is too high. North Carolinians are being punished for working. That's wrong. The problem is our state government is wasting too much of what we send them. I've used the veto pen to stop tax increases in the past, and I won't hesitate to do the same thing as your governor. The difference is leadership." Announcer: "Pat McCrory for governor."

The background: Whether taxes are "too high" is subjective. Personal income-tax rates are higher than in many states, though some states rely on higher property or sales taxes. McCrory has not said how much he wants to lower income taxes, but he says cutting them would be a priority.

Government waste is a trickier topic. Examples abound: $152 million in construction over three years that State Auditor Les Merritt says was unnecessary and $400 million for mental health over two years that The News & Observer of Raleigh says was waste.

As big as those numbers are, they are fractions of a budget that, including all sources, totals $43 billion. McCrory has not specified where he would cut state spending.

Research by the Charlotte Observer turned up only one instance in which McCrory successfully stopped a tax increase with his veto — in 2005. He did veto a proposed tax hike in 2006, but Democrats overrode that. Also in 2005, the council overrode his veto of a proposed car-rental tax. Overall, McCrory has vetoed City Council ideas 21 times.

Who's weaker? The Charlotte mayor or the North Carolina governor?

At the WRAL debate tonight, former Supreme Court Justice Bob Orr argued that the chief executive of Charlotte government is a so-called "weak mayor."

In government parlance, that means that a city manager runs the daily operations, while the mayor has a more nebulous role.

Orr said that Pat McCrory has accomplished "a lot of good things," but does not have strong executive experience.

McCrory shot back that he has the veto power, which he's used 20 times in office. He argued that Gov. Mike Easley should use his own veto more frequently.

Then he took an interesting tack, arguing that the governor of North Carolina is a weak position compared to other states.

But like the Charlotte mayoralty, he said it has a "bully pulpit."

Beverly Perdue supports a line-item veto, but she's not optimistic.

The Democratic gubernatorial candidate's staff said that she thinks it would be good for the governor to have the authority to strike specific items from the budget. But given its history in North Carolina, she does not think it would pass.

She thinks that "newer ideas" with a "record of success," such as her proposal for an outside commission propose cuts, hold more promise for budget reform, show more promise, said campaign spokesman David Kochman.

Perdue was in the state Senate in 1995 when the legislature approved putting the general veto on a statewide referendum.

A line-item veto was discussed as part of that package, but dropped as part of a compromise.

Earlier: Richard Moore calls for line-item veto.