They have a deal

House and Senate budget negotiators reached a final, no more changes, budget deal just before 6 p.m. Monday.

The budget has not been put into a bill form yet, but the plan is to have the document done before midnight so it can be read into the record, a necessary step before any votes could be taken.

The education budget would keep K-3 class size intact. For grades 4 through 12, local school boards would have to cut spending. The order from the state budget would be for officials to try to preserve the classroom as much as possible.

The budget would spend approximately $18.7 billion including about $990 million in new taxes.

Rep. Mickey Michaux, a Durham Democrat and senior budget writer said that state residents will see budget cuts across all categories of state spending. Public education would be cut 4.8 percent or $1.8 billion from last year and higher education would see a 6.2 percent cut or $1.9 billion.

More after the jump.

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"I think you're going to see lots of cuts in this budget," said Sen. Linda Garrou, a Winston-Salem Democrat and budget negotiator.

State Rep. Nelson Dollar, a Cary Republican, said he had a problem with passing the duty of making deep cuts on down to local school boards.

"The state can't sit there and say we haven't cut 'x' number of positions when you've reduced funding such that positions will be cut," Dollar said.

Republicans, who have not participated in budget negotiations have said that Democrats should have found deeper cuts to lower priority projects rather than raise taxes. The bulk of the tax increase will come from a 1-cent sales tax hike that all North Carolinians will pay.

"The principle of raising over $2 billion in taxes over the next two years at a time when our economy is in the worst shape it's been in in 30 years is a burden working families in oru state shouldn't have to bear," Dollar said.

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Re: They have a deal

Submitted by BitterEXdemocrat on August 4, 2009 - 7:40am.

"Democrackkks have a deal"

Spelled with 3 Ks to characterize and honor the ORIGINAL 'party' of SLAVERY, as they continue to ENSLAVE us daily, especially in the once great state of NC...

HOW can ANY NC citizen with an oz. of sense EVER VOTE for another vile democrackkk in this state?

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Bring Um Home

Submitted by AquaMan on August 4, 2009 - 5:28am.

Time to liquidate the US 'Empire of Bases' and adequately fund this countries school systems and hospitals.

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Re: They have a deal

Submitted by kevin_smith5 on August 3, 2009 - 11:08pm.

Wow RaT, that was incredible partisan drivel. Come up with all those insults and non-sequitours on your own? Here's a thought....why don't you try soundng like someone who actually cares about fixing things instead of blamign things on your enemies and acting like "it's all _____ fault" somehow means anything you do is OK? PArtisan political hacks (on both sides) make me sick....

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Repugs Ruined the Global Economy - they need to shut up.

Submitted by Real_Americans_Think on August 3, 2009 - 10:16pm.

The whiny rightwingers need to shut their pie holes. Thanks to the repugs, we had 8 years of Bush/Cheney and their cabal of incompetent loyalist cronies. As a result, they broke the world economy. Every penny in tax increase is to try to fix what the Repugs broke. Every job lost is because of the Repugs. So, if you are unhappy about the economy, blame the Repugs. And keep the fiscally iressponsible Repugs out of office. Thank God McCrory lost - if he was in office, he'd make massive cuts to spending while awarding tax breaks to corporations and the rich, just like every other incompetent selfish me-first Repug.

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Re: They have a deal

Submitted by PercyKution on August 3, 2009 - 9:11pm.

If you voted, you can't complain. That means YOU were stupid enough to be fooled by at least one of the PoliPigs. It would be hilarious if they had an election and nobody showed up. Except the PoliPigs to vote for themselves of course.

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Re: They have a deal

Submitted by redneckpirate on August 3, 2009 - 8:54pm.

I have an idea, what if our state government and Gov."Forest Gump " decided to save money and stop giving it away. What was this about giving a load of cash to the city of Dublin in Bladen County to have a peanut fest. after cutting state employees salaries. That is just one way our tax money is being wasted, money earned by the sweat of state employees.

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Re: They have a deal

Submitted by robdarich on August 3, 2009 - 7:47pm.

Wiki'd: "A principle is a comprehensive and fundamental law..."
Dollar: "The principle of raising over $2 billion in taxes..."

He must've meant "Prospect", but it sounds funnier the way he says it (funny queer, not funny "ha ha".)

Not a word about corruption, fishing piers, economic development hose jobs? hmmmm, principle indeed.

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Re: They have a deal

Submitted by jesmyopinion on August 3, 2009 - 7:39pm.

The liberal Democrats pay for all of their pet projects first, then they say they need to raise taxes in order to pay for priorities (such as education for our children), which is just a political stunt. Why don't they pay for education first if it truly is a priority, and then put the pet projects on the chopping block? And the $990 billion tax hike sound like when companies try to keep something below a certain amount, like $499 rather than just rounding off to $500 as it sounds better - I guess now they are going to brag they kept taxes to less than a billion dollars...

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