EDITORIAL: Landfill halt unfair
Friday, June 30th, 2006
By Chris Fitzsimon
Staff editorial
As you read this, state lawmakers are busy pounding out several compromises that will allow them to approve next year’s revised state budget.
Among the sticking points late Wednesday were over how much money should be spent on university capital projects, how much of a raise state employees should receive and how much of a "temporary" tax on top income-earners should be repealed.
Members of the state House and Senate no doubt will come to some agreement on these issues either today or Saturday, the first day of what’s supposed to be a new budget year.
One issue of local interest that the two chambers hadn’t agreed on Thursday was whether next year’s budget should include a moratorium on new landfills in the state. The Senate, at state Sen. Marc Basnight’s insistence, wants the 1½-year moratorium inserted in next year’s $18.9 billion budget plan. The House, however, has balked at the move; House Speaker Jim Black says the budget is not the place for changes in state policy.
We agree with Black.
Basnight, who represents our area, is pushing for the moratorium because he believes the state needs a "cooling off" period to study the impact large landfills, five of which are currently planned for the state, may have on North Carolina. One of the landfills of particular concern to Basnight is the mammoth waste facility Black Bear Disposal wants to build in Camden County. (more…)
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