THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 4, 1995 TAG: 9508040482
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RALEIGH LENGTH: Short : 36 lines
A month ago, state lawmakers were ready to give $200,000 and a time extension to a panel studying ways to improve North Carolina's oyster harvest. But at the end of the General Assembly session, they decided to take back most of the money.
In its expansion and capital budgets, the General Assembly eliminated $160,000 of the new funds it had appropriated to the Blue Ribbon Advisory Council on Oysters in its continuation budget for existing programs.
State lawmakers made the change after members of the advisory council, including Chairman Dirk Frankenberg, said they were ready to report their findings under budget and on time.
The oyster advisory council, which received a $100,000 appropriation from the General Assembly last year, has spent $23,025 to date, according to the Division of Marine Fisheries.
``It didn't seem prudent to appropriate the funds since the council said they were ready to report,'' said Bret Kinsella, a spokesman for Senate leader Marc Basnight.
In the state's continuation budget approved about a month ago, state lawmakers gave the council the extra money and two more years to report its findings on how to improve the state's oyster stock.
But the lawmakers reversed their decision about the capital and expansion budget approved last week in the closing days of the session.
The council is now scheduled to make its final report to the legislature in October 1995 as originally planned. by CNB