THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 1, 1996 TAG: 9608010425
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RALEIGH LENGTH: 34 lines
After weeks of spluttering, House and Senate budget negotiators struck some crucial deals Wednesday, setting up adjournment of the special session by as early as this weekend.
Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight, D-Dare, told senators that he and House Speaker Harold Brubaker, R-Randolph, had struck some bargains early Wednesday.
Those deals, combined with negotiations going on Wednesday night, ``could get us out of here by Friday,'' Basnight said.
Although the details will not be released until a final agreement is reached, House and Senate sources said Basnight and Brubaker had agreed on the amount of money that will be spent in the revised budget.
They also agreed on a 4.5 percent pay raise for teachers and state employees, effective Sept. 1, the sources said.
There are still a number of agreements left to reach, however, including a tax refund plan for federal retirees and how much money to spend on Smart Start, Gov. James B. Hunt Jr.'s early childhood initiative.
An agreement on a package of tax cuts and incentives for economic development was reached by separate negotiations Wednesday.
The special budget session began July 8 when Hunt called legislators back to town after they adjourned June 21 without reaching an agreement on how to spend $700 million in surplus tax collections from last year. ILLUSTRATION: Marc Basnight by CNB