Fitzsimon File

Closer to a deal

House and Senate budget writers worked until almost dawn Friday morning in their rush to reach a final budget agreement and will resume talks Sunday afternoon. It still seems highly unlikely that lawmakers will approve a final agreement before the state's fiscal year ends at midnight Monday.

Reportedly, the two sides have reached an agreement on many issues, including a package of tax credits and tax cuts that reduce state revenue by roughly $50 million a year. The agreement increases the State Earned Income Tax credit from 3.5 percent of the federal EITC to 4.5 percent next year and to 5 percent the following year.

The package also includes the repeal of the state gift tax that the Senate has already passed, tax breaks for disabled veterans and small business that provide health coverage for their employees, and changes to the sales tax law for some small companies.

The two centerpieces of the tax plan are the increase in the State EITC which helps the working poor, and the repeal of the gift tax, a break for the state's richest families. Lawmakers will say that means the plan is balanced, but why do wealthy families need a tax cut in a year when people are losing their homes to foreclosure and 30,000 children remain on the waiting list for a child care subsidy?

House and Senate leaders still must resolve differences in the education budget and decide which construction projects to fund. The impasse in education is down to a battle between additional funding for the UNC system that the Senate budget includes and more money for public schools for increased fuel costs and other expenses that the House supports.

No word from the negotiations about the Senate push to repeal the local option real estate transfer tax. It may not even be part of the budget talks, but it's hard to believe it won't come again before the session adjourns.

The closed door budget

The media is now appropriately questioning the lack of openness of the budget process after a reporter from the News & Observer was asked to leave a meeting of the House and Senate leaders working on the budget Thursday morning.

The Senate put its budget together almost entirely behind closed doors and Senate leaders continue to offer a variety of excuses for the practice. Senate Majority Tony Rand said the N &O reporter was kicked out of Thursday's meeting because it was an economic briefing. Seems like something the public should hear.

Senator Kay Hagan was asked about the closed process and the Senate Democrats decision to cut off debate about the budget on the Senate floor before most Republicans could speak, much less offer any amendments.

Hagan said that Republicans had an opportunity to make recommendations in budget subcommittee meetings, which seems like a rewrite of recent legislative history and doesn't address why floor debate was not allowed.

The Right is wrong on global warming

The Pope Civitas Institute usually issues press releases in advance of making it monthly poll results public. The releases usually include the numbers from the races for president, governor, and U.S. Senator and on a pet issue of the Right, like school vouchers or gay marriage.

But even with the skewed wording of many of the questions, almost every month there are surprises in the Civitas Poll that must drive the folks crazy on right wing avenue.

This month, it is global warming, a favorite target for the pseudo-scientists on the Right when they take a break from disputing evolution. They are doing their best to tell us that global warming is a scheme cooked up by Al Gore to raise our taxes, but the public doesn't buy it.

The June Civitas Poll asks if people believe that global warming is a real issue for North Carolina and 65 percent of voters think it is while only 30 percent don't seem to be concerned about it.  

The global warming deniers better get back to work before that 30 percent finally figures out the truth.

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This entry was posted on Friday, June 27th, 2008 at 3:48 pm and is filed under Fitzsimon File. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.