THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 7, 1994 TAG: 9407070513
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 101 lines
Senate budget negotiators Wednesday hoped to gain concessions from their counterparts in the House to give the go-ahead to a group of construction projects that have received matching money from private sources or from other governments.
They hoped to receive House approval for such projects as an estuarine education center in Washington, which has received about $1 million in private donations and local government support, and the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum on Hatteras Island, which has received a pledge of $800,000 in federal government appropriations.
Under this latest proposal Senate and House negotiators would agree to fund those projects that have matching money and leave unresolved construction projects for future budgets, according to Senate leader Marc Basnight.
``There's nothing out there that can't be discussed,'' Basnight, D-Dare, said in an interview Wednesday from Raleigh as House and Senate budget negotiators were set to return to the table for another round of budget debates.
Besides a group of local construction projects, the House and Senate are still at odds over salary increases for the state's teachers, funding of the Basic Education Plan and spending for the state's small and poorer schools, Basnight said.
The Senate budget contains no money for the BEP, created in 1985 to improve schools, and instead spends $7 million in supplemental money for the state's poor school systems and $3 million for small school systems.
The House plan spends over $55 million for the BEP to reduce class size for kindergarten and the 10th grade and devotes $10 million to hire support personnel for kindergarten through eighth grades. But its budget includes no supplemental funding for small and poor schools.
Basnight said the Senate rejected the latest House proposal to budget $7 million for poor school systems and $1.5 million for small school systems.
``That's unacceptable,'' he said. ``I feel strongly about the Senate's position.''
The House plan spends about $200 million more than the Senate proposal. Part of that extra money came from shifting funds within the existing two-year budget. The Senate budget includes smaller pay raises for state employees than the House budget and also includes $152 million for construction projects, renovations and equipment purchases that were generally stripped from the House budget.
Meanwhile, House budget negotiators offered to put extra money in savings and set aside funds for possible tax reductions next year in a proposal made Wednesday night to the Senate.
``This heads at what we think they want,'' Rep. Martin Nesbitt Jr., D-Buncombe, the co-chairman of the House negotiators, said as his panel approved the offer.
The Senate negotiators had already left for the evening, but Sen. George Daniel, the co-chairman of the Senate group, left an envelope taped to his office door. Typed on it was ``Place House Offers Here.''
The House proposal keeps virtually all of the House budget plan in place, but shifts some money inside the budget to cover the proposed $28 million in extra savings this year. The Senate budget included $34 million in extra savings.
The House proposal would earmark the $28 million in recurring revenues - tax money that is expected to be collected year after year.
Those collections, which equal the amount the Senate set aside in its budget to repeal the intangibles tax, could then be used for tax reductions, Nesbitt said.
Among the projects caught up in the squabble between the House and Senate is a proposal to build an eight-mile, $48.4 million toll bridge across Currituck Sound.
The House on Wednesday took the bill off of its calendar for debate, where the bill had remained for about a week, and referred the proposal to its appropriations committee.
Some legislative observers had speculated that the bill would become a bargaining tool for the House as House and Senate leaders debate differences in the two chambers' budget bills. The toll-bridge bill is a high priority for Basnight.
Wednesday's action putting the fate of the toll bridge directly in the hands of Nesbitt and Rep. David Diamont, D-Surry - the House's chief budget negotiators - appears to reinforce that speculation.
Late last week, the House Finance Committee approved its version of the bill and the proposal moved to the House floor, where it stayed during House and Senate budget negotiations.
The House version gives the transportation department the authority to levy a toll of up to $10 for a round-trip over the bridge or $500 for an annual pass for a vehicle. It also requires the department to report annually to the Joint Legislative Transportation Oversight Committee for that panel to review any tolls approved for the bridge.
The Senate version, approved last year, establishes a North Carolina Bridge Authority, which would be charged with studying ways to speed up construction of the bridge - including levying tolls. The authority would be charged with establishing fees for travel across the bridge.
If the House approves its version of the bill, differences in the two proposals would have to be resolved before the bill could become law. MEMO: The Associated Press contributed to this report.
KEYWORDS: NORTH CAROLINA SENATE NORTH CAROLINA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
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