THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, April 26, 1996 TAG: 9604260519
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: AHOSKIE LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
State Rep. Howard Jacque Hunter Jr. knows how to gracefully convey bad news.
The 49-year-old Hertford County Democrat is an undertaker in Murfreesboro.
So when the Northeast North Carolina Economic Development Commission met in Ahoskie this week, Hunter's unpleasant words were relayed so nicely that many may have missed his message.
``Don't expect too much from the General Assembly this year,'' Hunter told commission members.
The state legislature convenes next month for a traditional ``short session.'' Then, budget adjustments will be made and the books will be balanced if the state's operating costs have changed since the regular revenue bill was passed two years ago.
Many commission members seem to expect another automatic delivery of spending money from the General Assembly - like the $2.4 million legislators gave the commission for openers a couple of years ago.
``You probably don't have to worry about the state Senate as long as Marc Basnight is over there,'' said Hunter. ``But there's a real economy mood over in the House.''
For the first time since early this century, the House has a Republican majority and a Republican Speaker: Randolph County's Harold James Brubaker.
In private talks with some economic commission members, Hunter warned that the GOP plans a major assault on Basnight's slim Democratic majority in the Senate. Two Democratic majority seats in the 50-seat Senate are the shaky props that now hold up Basnight's power.
Basnight has spent much of the past year campaigning not for himself - he is unopposed - but for Democratic senators who are threatened by Republican opponents determined to take at least three new Senate seats for the GOP.
Hunter suggested that the Assembly this year will be much less conciliatory than it was with Basnight's Democratic Senate after the stunning Republican legislative sweep two years ago.
Beginning with the coming ``short session,'' Republicans in the Assembly are likely to flex their muscles in anticipation of grand slam wins in both state houses in November.
The economic commission has spent - or earmarked - most of its allocated money through the fiscal year. Only Chairman Jimmy Dixon, a hard-nosed Elizabeth City business executive, has started beating the bushes for new sources of operating revenue.
Although funding for the commission is in the so-called General Assembly Base-Budget that was passed two years ago to carry the commission through 1997, the allocation may be changed during this legislative session.
``We don't expect it. But, in theory, the money for the commission could be reduced or increased in the short session,'' said Bret Kinsella, a budget-watcher in Basnight's office.
Most economic commissioners, however, are confidently expecting another $1.2 million from the General Assembly.
Hunter's message to them this week was clear: Don't spend it until you get it. by CNB