Legislators have asked for $417m so far

Submitted by ryanteaguebeckwith on February 17, 2009 - 5:58pm.
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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

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Re: Legislators have asked for $417m so far

Submitted by tangoz on February 18, 2009 - 4:28pm.

I think RTB is pointing out the stupidity of our legislatures in the majority.

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Re: Legislators have asked for $417m so far

Submitted by GrayJ on February 17, 2009 - 10:25pm.

RTB I loved the houses posts, I think it even inspired Walter Dalton's ad about Pittenger's house.

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Re: Legislators have asked for $417m so far

Submitted by ryanteaguebeckwith on February 17, 2009 - 9:29pm.

I think it's interesting. They're trying to figure out how to cut $2 billion from the budget. I'm going to scrutinize everything I can find about it. So far, this is what I have.

We'll be giving the same scrutiny to the governor's proposed budget, etc., when they come out.

And I don't know what your knock is on the houses posts, which were written by our dearly departed interns. I thought they were fascinating, especially Bill Graham's.

— RTB

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Re: Legislators have asked for $417m so far

Submitted by dahedgehog on February 17, 2009 - 9:05pm.

Why are you counting at all? Most of these bills are filed simply to satisfy a particular set of constituents, lobbyists, or other interest groups.

It's not like members are so deluded that they really want to spend hundreds of millions on new or expanded programs at a time when there's a multi-billion dollar hole in the budget.

This is about as silly as the series that provided voters pointless details about candidates' houses.

Are you really that bored?

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Re: Legislators have asked for $417m so far

Submitted by ryanteaguebeckwith on February 17, 2009 - 6:03pm.

Of note to wonkish types playing at home: I'm not counting the smaller of the two eugenics compensation bills.

— RTB 

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