Fitzsimon File

House budget writers were revealed to be magicians Thursday, as several of the House budget subcommittees met to release their spending proposals.

Last week, the subcommittees met and discussed reports that the subcommittee leaders took to the "big budget chairs," the legislators who meet in a corner room on the 6^th floor of the Legislative Office Building.

After a weeks worth of machinations, the reports reappeared Thursday morning and voila, many of the numbers had changed, apparently sprinkled by Big Chair sparkle dust.

The education budget released last Tuesday included no new funding for More at Four, Governor Mike Easley's program for at-risk kids. Easley proposed $46 million in new funding for program. Thursday's House education budget spends $23 million on it, but pays for it with one-time money, meaning the funding would end if lawmakers didn't renew it every year.

That didn't sit well with Easley's staff, who know that funding for the program will be much harder to get next year, when Easley is back home in Brunswick County and a new governor lives in the mansion on Blount Street.

Of course, there's always the chance that Governor McCrory or Governor Perdue will support More at Four, but if history is any indicator, the next governor will want a signature early childhood program of his or her own, probably one that rhymes, maybe gee at three.

The new health and human services budget had changed too, allocating $3 million more for foster care and adoption assistance payments than last week's plan. Thursday's budget also projects saving $65 million from tightening restrictions for the much-maligned community support program in the Division of Mental Health, twice as much as last week's proposal.  

Overall, the latest health and human services budget spends $51 million less than the one last week, though there is an increase of $3 million for the Housing Trust Fund, better, but woefully short of what the Fund needs to address the affordable housing crisis in the state.

The money saved appears to have been redirected to the latest version of the budget for public schools, which is $46 million more than last week's plan and now almost exactly the same amount that Easley proposed. (An earlier Fitzsimon File incorrectly reported that Easley's budget included less for public schools than the first House plan).

There's $5 million more for dropout prevention, bringing the total to $15 million, $4 million for child nutrition, and another $1 million for the Disadvantaged School Supplemental Fund, bringing the total of new money for the fund to $6 million. Some of the sparkle dust helped.

That's not the case in the transportation budget where House leaders want to reduce the transfer from the Highway Trust Fund to the General Fund by $25 million next year and $49 million the year after that. The Trust Fund transfers $172 million to the General Fund every year as part of the 1989 legislation that created the Trust Fund.

Next year's $25 million will go to build a toll road in Wake County. It means that money that could fund child care subsidies or affordable housing or services for the developmentally disabled will instead pay for the construction of a road that drivers will have to pay extra to use.

Most of the wise investments in last week's budgets remain largely intact and the pay raises remain the same too, three percent for teachers and faculty members at community colleges and universities, with most other state employees getting an increase of 2.75 percent or $1,100, whichever is greater.

Big questions about the budget remain, including what capital projects are funded and how the House leaders balance it all. All the answers will come early next week when the entire budget proposal is unveiled. And there could be more changes. There's always more sparkle dust left in the corner room.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, May 29th, 2008 at 3:07 pm and is filed under Fitzsimon File. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.