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North Carolina lawmakers are already a month late passing an $18.9 billion budget and could get even more tardy, thanks to a group of lawmakers headlined by some Triad legislators.

At issue are $1 billion in new taxes, some of which would come from beer, wine and cigarettes.

“I think there’s a consensus among the group that unless something is done to get some relief from those taxes, we will not support it,” said Rep. Nelson Cole, a Reidsville Democrat who organized an “informal gathering” of sin-tax opponents Thursday.

That group includes about 15 lawmakers, including Greensboro’s Earl Jones, also a Democrat.

Democrats have a 68-52 majority in the House and have not won over much by way of Republican support for their budget. That means Democratic leaders can’t afford too much of an uprising in the ranks and both Cole and Jones say they’re ready to man the barricades over the sin taxes.

“It’s still an ongoing process,” Jones said. “Until we vote on the budget, there’s always the possibility we can make changes.”

Both Jones and Cole say they would like to legalize, regulate and tax video poker as a way to raise revenue.

Greensboro is home to the cigarette maker Lorillard and Cole’s district is home to a Miller brewery and a cigarette plant. Lumping more excise taxes on those products could hurt those industries, Cole said, or at the least prompt them to move their operations elsewhere. He points to the case of Phillip Morris, which just closed its cigarette plant in Concord last week.

“They left North Carolina to go back to their home base (in Richmond) because of some of the attitudes we’ve had towards tobacco,” Cole said. “To me, these taxes are saying, 'We don’t like you that well, so you can go ahead and pack your tent and go elsewhere.”

While the original House version of the budget did not include cigarette, wine or beer taxes, Senate negotiators have insisted on some increase on the sin taxes, something that Gov. Bev Perdue also favors.

Lawmakers anticipate they could vote on the budget and close their session for the year this week — if the sin-tax revolution doesn’t derail the process.

’Cause I’m the tax man

This time last week, Scoop reported that five City Council candidates owed money to the Guilford County tax department.

As of early afternoon Friday, two candidates had paid the outstanding balance — sitting Councilwoman T. Dianne Bellamy-Small and Luther Falls Jr.

The other candidates — Jorge Cornell, Daron Sellars and Danny Thompson — had not yet paid their outstanding bills as of mid-day Friday, according to tax records.

Thompson's payment posted Friday evening, according to a tax department record search conducted Monday.

As recently as last week, Bellamy-Small said had been told she was up-to-date on her taxes.

Her bill — $2.14 — was originally overlooked in a search of the tax system because her hyphenated last name was entered into the record system two different ways for different vehicles.

When asked about it by Scoop, all the candidates said they were unaware they owed any money for outstanding motor vehicle taxes or interest. In some cases, the bills are as much as eight years old.

Discontent with council

Speaking of candidates for City Council, there sure are a lot of them this year: 11 for the three at large seats, six for the District 1 race, four in District 2 and four in District 4.

Jones — yes, the Greensboro lawmaker, sin-tax hater and video-poker proponent — says that’s a sign of dissatisfaction with the council. Jones served on the council for 18 years before voters dumped him for the Rev. Belvin Jessup, who was displaced two years later by Bellamy-Small. Jones won election to the House roughly a year after losing his council seat.

“When the city and everything is clicking well, you get very few candidates,” Jones said. “When you get over 30, there’s a problem ... Whenever you have a proliferation of candidates, that’s a signal that there’s something wrong.”

So what’s the problem?

“I can’t say right now,” Jones said. “All of that will come out closer to the election.”

Council meets a day early

Reminder to folks with City Council business this week: It meets today.

Its regular, first Tuesday of the month meeting was rescheduled to tonight to allow council members to attend National Night Out events in the city.

Staff writers Mark Binker and Amanda Lehmert contributed.