Cowell: Not all bills will be funded

Sen. Janet Cowell says she does not expect every one of her spending bills to be approved.

The Raleigh Democrat, who is running for state treasurer, is sponsoring and cosponsoring bills totaling $76 million for the current budget. 

She said that signing onto an appropriations bill is a way for a legislator to signal that she thinks it is an important issue, but in tight fiscal years such as this one she expects only a few will make it into the final budget.

"When I sign onto a bill, I'm supporting the concept and saying that under ideal circumstances this would be a good idea," she said. "The debate will happen on all of these, but at least you've got some different approaches and ideas out there." 

Cowell does not have high hopes for the one bill she is sponsoring, which would provide $2.1 million for the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences to expand an outdoor educational facility near the RBC Center in Raleigh. A similar bill did not make it into the 2006 budget either.

She said that Senate leader Marc Basnight is "intrigued" by the project because of the state's current focus on science education, but Gov. Mike Easley did not include it in his proposed budget.

"It's obviously a harder fight if the governor doesn't put it in there," she said.