Failure of talks delays budget
Friday, June 30th, 2006
By Chris Fitzsimon
Vote on compromise to wait for holiday
By David Ingram JOURNAL RALEIGH BUREAU
RALEIGH
State legislators failed to reach an agreement last night on an $18.9 billion budget for the state’s next fiscal year. They put off a final vote on the plan for at least another week because of the holiday weekend, even though the current fiscal year ends tonight.
Negotiators from the House and Senate have been exchanging proposals for two weeks, mostly behind closed doors.
They continued all day yesterday until about 10 p.m., when senators left the office suite where negotiators had been meeting.
They would have had to reach an agreement last night to have any hope of approving a budget near the start of the fiscal year.
"There are those of us who’ve been here night after night who’d like to get this done," said Sen. Linda Garrou, D-Forsyth, one of the Senate’s chief budget writers.
"We’d like to birth this baby, but we’ll just have to see."
The major obstacle to an agreement, negotiators said, was a disagree-ment about how much to spend onvarious building projects around the state.
Proposals for a capital budget have ranged from about $150 million to $250 million, including money for state universities, hospitals, museums and office buildings.
Even more money would go toward a renovations fund and a "rainy day" fund. Legislators are also considering issuing bonds for other projects. (more…)
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