Legislators have asked for $417m so far

ryanteaguebeckwith — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 17:58:59 -0500

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.

Document(s):
special-approps-02.18.2009.xls

Claims Dept: Pittenger tackles pork

bkrueger — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:21:06 -0400

Robert Pittenger, a Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, has a new TV ad about pork projects in North Carolina, reports David Ingram.

What the ad says: Announcer: ‘The politicians in Raleigh are pigging out, and we’re paying for it. They spent over $200,000 to dig up an old pirate ship. $400,000 on a teapot museum. Half a million on the Randy Parton theater. But one conservative leader said no: Robert Pittenger.’

Pittenger: ‘I’m Robert Pittenger. I opposed wasteful spending in Raleigh, even when it wasn’t popular. That’s exactly what I’ll do as your lieutenant governor.’

Announcer: ‘For lieutenant governor, the conservative is Robert Pittenger.’

The background: The pirate ship was the Queen Anne’s Revenge, once belonging to Blackbeard and now on the National Register of Historic Places. The proposed Sparta teapot museum was to hold the collection of a wealthy Los Angeles lawyer but has since been scaled back. And the theater in Roanoke Rapids has been a money-losing attempt to draw tourism.

Pittenger opposed the projects, along with at least 14 other senators, out of 50 total.

Pittenger, first elected to the state Senate in 2002, has been an outspoken opponent of ‘pork projects,’ and his opposition was not always popular. Many of the projects moved forward despite his opposition.

It should be noted that the office of lieutenant governor has few powers beyond presiding over daily sessions of the state Senate. The lieutenant governor does not vote on legislation, except in cases of a tie vote, and would have limited powers to change how state money is spent.

Is the ad accurate? The ad’s account of the projects and the amounts the state contributed are all accurate. Whether they are worthy of public money is up to the viewer.