• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

EDITORIAL: A Clean Bill: N.C. House Budget Plan Boosts Education, Helps Counties

Posted on: Tuesday, 20 June 2006, 06:00 CDT

By The Charlotte Observer, N.C.

Jun. 20--A remarkable thing is happening in Raleigh these days. Both the Senate and House have passed supplemental appropriations bills relatively free of pork barrel and inappropriate special provisions. What's more, they've done it quickly, putting the legislature in a good position to finish by mid-July and adjourn for the year.

No one argues the proposed bills are perfect; budgets never are. But the bill the House approved last week gets at the essential things. It boosts education spending, gives teachers a raise, cuts some of those odious "temporary" tax hikes enacted five years ago and helps counties deal with out-of-control Medicaid budgets.

Those are among the reasons the bills enjoy bipartisan support. More than half the House's Republicans voted for the bill, as did all Democrats. Compared to some legislative sessions where lawmakers split sharply along party lines, the GOP support for the House budget should be gratifying to House leaders. Speaker Jim Black vowed the bill would not be weighted down by special provisions changing substantive law without debate.

The House bill provides $42 million more for the state's low-wealth schools fund -- fully funding it for the first time. The Senate bill did not, though it did provide a similar sum to restore school cuts in a previous budget.

The House plan to help counties cap Medicaid costs is especially timely. The program's costs have risen a whopping 93 percent since 2000. The bill provides $53 million to keep counties' share of Medicaid from growing. The state's counties have lobbied in recent years to shift the full cost of Medicaid to the state.

The House bill, like the Senate's, also beefs up funding for the courts system, paying for 90 new prosecutors, including 13 more for Mecklenburg. It provides more judges and court clerks.

Now the House and Senate will work out differences between the two bills. Doing so may not be as hard as in the past. This year the state has more revenue than it forecast, and with the House and Senate determined to reduce the kind of pork barrel spending that tainted other budgets, members are focusing on essentials. That's long overdue, but gratifying.

Some still worry about the size of the state budget -- growing about 10 percent and soon to hit $19 billion. But North Carolina is growing. The public demands better services from schools, courts and mental health programs, and the House budget bill would provide them.

-----

Copyright (c) 2006, The Charlotte Observer, N.C.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

Source: The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.)

More News in this Category