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RALEIGH — Three high-profile Triad projects landed funding in the House budget despite being left out of the original draft.

Local members finessed funding for a horse complex in Rockingham County, the High Point Market and the civil rights museum in Greensboro.

House members voted 102-12 to give the $21 billion budget approval.

They will vote again today and then send the bill to the Senate, which will redraft the bill. A final compromise between the House, Senate and governor is due before July 1.

Inclusion in the House budget does not guarantee a project will make the final draft, but it gives it a chance.

The budget contains broad state policy strokes, as well as small bits of funding for individual projects. For example, it gives an average of 3 percent raises to teachers and includes many provisions aimed at steadying the state's mental health system. Agreement on those broad ideas came early, so legislators have spent most of this week shifting smaller pots of money from program to program.

A horse complex slated for Rockingham County was the most complicated and intriguing of the local funding Triad legislators landed.

On Tuesday, Democratic Rep. Nelson Cole got the House Appropriations Committee to move $3.34 million from a horse complex at the state fairgrounds in Raleigh to N.C. A&T.

The money would be used by the school's agriculture program to build a horse barn and related facilities in Rockingham County. The site for the project would be a state-owned agricultural research station that had been targeted for closure.

The facility also would jump-start a horse show facility that Rockingham County officials have sought as an economic development boon.

"Our objective is to raise the money so the facility will be debt-free," said Rockingham County Manager Thomas Robinson.

The county needs between $10 million and $14 million for construction and already has $3.5 million on hand.

The additional money from the state would put the county closer to the goal and allow A&T to expand its equine training program.

Resistance to the move came from Wake County Rep. Grier Martin , a Democrat who said the money belonged in Wake County.

During Wednesday's floor debate, the two men did some horse trading, giving $900,000 back to the Wake County project and keeping the rest of the money in Rockingham.

"That's called eliminating the controversy," Cole quipped after the vote Wednesday.

Greensboro's civil rights museum was also not included in the budget. On Tuesday, Rep. Alma Adams, a Greensboro Democrat, won $245,000 for the project.

It came from money the General Assembly would use to fund its operations if the current session lasts until August. Adjournment is expected in July.

"I'm just trying to keep it alive so it will go to conference," Adams said, adding that she hoped to land as much as $1 million by the time a final budget is drafted later this month.

Funding for the High Point Market's efforts to promote itself as a destination for buyers and exhibitors were trimmed slightly in the original draft of the budget.

But Rep. Hugh Holliman suggested the House use unspent money from the One North Carolina fund to boost spending to a total of
$1.47 million next year.

Rep. Laura Wiley, a High Point Republican, said she was not satisfied with the bill's support the market, which is fending off a rival in Las Vegas. But she voted in favor.

"We did get a substantial chunk of money, and I am still hopeful we will increase the amount when it goes the Senate," Wiley said.

The only member from Guilford County to vote against the budget was Rep. John Blust, a Greensboro Republican. But even he credited budget writers with limiting spending and not asking for a tax increase.

What swayed him to vote against, he said, was a raft of borrowing that would not be put on the ballot.

"We should be putting that kind of debt up for a vote of the people," he said.

One last-minute amendment would restrict the raises given to lottery commission employees.

Recent news stories that said the lottery planned to give raises of up to 5 percent to workers — while most state workers would only get a
1.5 percent raise — sparked outcry on editorial pages across the state.

Rep. Ty Harrell of Raleigh offered an amendment to change state law to limit lottery employee raises to the same percentage given rank-and-file state employees.

It passed unanimously.

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