news-record.com

RALEIGH — Two House lawmakers from Greensboro provided some of the most vociferous objections to the $19 billion budget the House and Senate tentatively approved Tuesday.

In the end, neither Rep. John Blust, a Republican, nor Rep. Earl Jones, a Democrat, could hold back passage. The House voted 66-49 in favor; the Senate, 31-16. Both chambers must, and almost certainly will, vote a second time today to make the budget deal official.

Gov. Bev Perdue, a Democrat, said in a statement she would sign the budget once it is passed, calling it “a clear win for the people of North Carolina.”

Among the budget’s highlights, it:

* Gives businesses that make less than $1 million a year a credit to offset the annual unemployment taxes they pay.

* Avoids cutting teaching positions, in part by shifting around proceeds from the state lottery.

* Saves $50.7 million by remaking a program that provides in-home services to disabled adults and rewriting the rules to allow fewer people in the program.

The budget spends about $500,000 less than Democratic budget writers anticipated last year, although it still drew ire from Republicans for being both spendthrift and not properly accounting for federal stimulus funds. Lawmakers in both parties acknowledge that next year the state could face a $3 billion shortfall.

Democrats control both the House and Senate, and the budget passed both chambers along mainly partisan lines. In the Senate, Sen. Stan Bingham, a Denton Republican who represents parts of Guilford County, was one of two Republicans to cross party lines and back the budget.

In the House, one Republican, Roger West of Marble, voted for the budget and two Democrats, including Jones, voted against.

“This budget is not good enough. We can do better,” Jones said, winding up the first of three pitches he made to reject the budget and insert language legalizing and taxing video poker into the bill. The games, he said, could produce $50 million a month in revenue for the state and offset cuts made to human services such as in-home personal care services.

“There really is ... really no appetite to have us move in the direction you would have us go,” Rep. Paul Luebke, a Durham Democrat, told Jones.

Jones, who lost his primary this spring after campaigning heavily on the video poker issue, pushed back, calling the budget “unacceptable” and urging colleagues to vote against the measure.

While Jones blasted colleagues for not raising enough revenue, Blust argued that the budget spent too much and reflected few Republican ideas.

“You just don’t want to hear some of our proposals,” Blust said, directing his frustration at Democratic leaders and calling the budget “rigged.”

Democrats shot back that Republicans had not fully participated in the budget process and were imposing unrealistic expectations on the state.

“Saying that we should both cut taxes and find a couple billion dollars in cuts is like telling us that you can drink chocolate milk every day and you might lose weight — it ain’t going to happen,” Raleigh Democrat Rep. Deborah Ross said in response to Blust’s comments.

Most of the debate on the House floor was focused on how the state had accounted for $518 million in supplemental Medicaid money that Congress has vacillated on providing. The budget lays out eight specific cuts to make if only part or none of the additional federal funding materializes.

“You can’t spend wishes and you can’t appropriate hope. We don’t have the money,” Lincolnton Republican Rep. Johnathan Rhyne Jr. said.

Democrats said it only made sense to give the governor flexibility in dealing with money that may or may not come from Congress.

“The budget does the best that it can do to address the multiplicity of needs we have in our state,” said Rep. Alma Adams, a Greensboro Democrat and one of the lead budget writers in the House.

Contact Mark Binker at (919) 832-5549 or mark.binker@news-record.com