Who will write the Senate budget?
In recent years, the Senate Appropriations Committee has been something of a finishing school for ambitious state senators, including Gov. Beverly Perdue, Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton and U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan.
Last session, Senate leader Marc Basnight kept Dalton and Hagan as sort of budget writers emeriti, while longtime Sen. Linda Garrou of Winston-Salem got help from Sens. Charles Albertson of Duplin County and Charlie Dannelly of Charlotte.
Like all committee assignments, Basnight names the budget chairs anew each year, but he's tended to keep the same senators in charge until they either graduated or dropped out of finishing school, as it were. It's not clear if he'll continue that tradition.
For now, Basnight's office is not saying whether Albertson and Dannelly will stay on, and other senators are known to be fishing for the jobs. Garrou will almost certainly continue in the job, especially if two new budget chairs are named.
"I can't say exactly what (Basnight will) do this year because it's not yet happened," said Basnight spokesman Schorr Johnson. "I don't know. That is my honest answer."
He said the budget chairs will be announced with other appointments after senators are sworn in on Jan. 28.
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