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See these financial charts providing more detail:
State starts the year
with empty bank accounts
How the state divides $8.3
billion in education funds
A closer look at the
higher tax rate on the rich and not-so-rich
Detailing the salaries of
top government officials, who get no raise this year
Highlights
of the state’s new $14.5 billion budget
and charts examining revenue and expenditures
General
Assembly limits lobbying by government agencies
Some
legislators charged this summer that state agencies were
wasting taxpayer money by hiring contract lobbyists and using
staffers to monitor legislative activities. That criticism is
forcefully expressed in a special budget provision limiting
the resources that agencies can devote to lobbying. The
provision reads: “No principal state department may use
state funds to contract with persons who are not employed by
the state to lobby the General Assembly. No more than two
persons in each principal state department and constituent
institution of the University of North Carolina may be
registered to lobby the General Assembly or designated as
legislative liaisons pursuant to this Article."
New
limits placed on using state-owned airplanes
Another
flap developed recently when a Commerce Department official
drew attention for making repeated flights around the state to
help disperse hurricane relief assistance. In some instances,
driving would have been as quick. That apparently lead to a
special budget provision spelling out who can use state
aircraft and for what purposes. The provision reads: “No
airplane or helicopter operated or maintained with state funds
may be used to transport any member of a board or commission
to or from a meeting of the board or commission to which that
member is appointed unless: (1) The member is an elected
official or head of a principal state department who serves on
the board or commission by virtue of his or her office; (2)
The member is traveling with another member who is an elected
official who serves on the board or commission by virtue of
his or her office; (3) The member is traveling on an airplane
or helicopter that is flying to a particular destination for
official state business other than a meeting of a board or
commission; or (4) The director of the Office of State Budget
and Management has approved the use of the state airplane or
helicopter as an exceptional circumstance. The director of the
Office of State Budget and Management shall report to the
chairs of the Appropriations committees of the Senate and
House of Representatives by Dec. 31 each year on the use of
state aircraft in the prior year pursuant to subdivision (4)
of this section.”
More
detail on the fall “sales tax holiday”
To
ease the strain on the family budget at back-to-school time,
the budget includes a provision exempting from sales taxes
many items bought for school use. The “sales tax holiday,”
an idea copied from several other states, will begin at
12:01A.M. on the first Friday of August and continue through
11:59 P.M. the following Sunday.
Here are the items that will be exempt from sales tax during
that period:
 Clothing with a
sales price of $100 or less per item.
Clothing
accessories (hats, scarves, hosiery, handbags) worth $100 or
less per item.
Footwear with a
sales price of one $100 or less per item.
School supplies,
such as pens, pencils, paper, binders, notebooks, textbooks,
reference books, book bags, lunchboxes, and calculators, with
a sales price of one hundred $100 or less per item.
Computers,
printers and printer supplies, and educational computer
software, with a sales price of three thousand five hundred
dollars $3,500 or less per item.
The exemption allowed by this section does not apply to the
following:
Sales of
jewelry, cosmetics, eyewear, wallets, or watches.
Sales of
furniture.
Sales involving
a layaway contract or a similar deferred payment and delivery
plan.
Sales of an item
for use in a trade or business, or rentals.
How
the House voted on the budget
Democrats for (61): Adams, Alexander, Allen, Baddour,
Barefoot, Bell, Blue, Bonner, Boyd-McIntyre, Church, Coates,
Cole, Cox, Jim Crawford, Culpepper, Cunningham, Dedmon, Earle,
Easterling, Edwards, Fitch, Fox, Gibson, Goodwin, Hackney,
Haire, Hall, Hensley, Hill, Holliman, Hurley, Insko, Jarrell,
Jeffus, Lucas, Luebke, McAllister, McLawhorn, Michaux, Miller,
Nesbitt, Nye, Oldham, Owens, Redwine, Rogers, Saunders, Smith,
Sutton, Tolson, Tucker, Underhill, Wainwright, Warner, Warren,
Warwick, Weiss, Womble, Wright, Yongue
Republicans for (1): Buchanan
Republicans against (55): Allred, Arnold, Baker,
Barbee, Barnhart, Blust, Bowie, Brubaker, Capps, Carpenter,
Clary, Creech, Culp, Daughtry, Davis, Decker, Dockham, Eddins,
Ellis, Esposito, Gillespie, Grady, Gray, Jim Gulley,
Harrington, Hiatt, Hilton, Holmes, Howard, Johnson, Justus,
Kiser, McComas, McCombs, McMahan, Miner, Mitchell, Morgan,
Morris, Pope, Preston, Rayfield, Russell, Setzer, Sexton,
Shubert, Starnes, Teague, Thompson, Walend, Walker, Weatherly,
West, Connie Wilson, Gene Wilson
Democrats not voting (1): Hunter
Republicans not voting (2): Excused absences -- Mark
Crawford, Sherrill
How the
Senate voted on the budget
Democrats for (31): Albertson, Ballance, Basnight,
Clodfelter, Cunningham, Dalton, Dannelly, Garrou, Gulley,
Hagan, Harris, Jordan, Kerr, Kinnaird, Lee, Lucas, Bill
Martin, Metcalf, Miller, Odom, Plyler, Purcell, Rand, Reeves,
Robinson, Larry Shaw, Soles, Swindell, Thomas, Warren, Wellons
Republicans against (14): Allran, Ballantine, Berger,
Bingham, Carpenter, Carrington, Forrester, Foxx, Garwood,
Hartsell, Horton, Moore, Rucho, Bob Shaw
Democrats not voting (4): Excused absence -- Carter,
Hoyle, Bob Martin. Paired in favor: Weinstein
Republicans not voting (1): Excused absence -- Webster
(paired against)
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