Posts Tagged ‘north carolina’
Tuesday, April 5th, 2011
Subcommittees were still scheduled to meet when the top Republican budget chairs in the N.C. House and Senate filed bills Tuesday that was loaded with surprises and also expectations. House Bill 584 and Senate Bill 500 has the short title “The Governor’s Budget.” The longer titles says the bill is a base budget for state operations “and other purposes.” (more…)
Tags: accountability, adjourn, Amendments, approprations, Beverly Perdue, budget, buses, Chambers, children, class size, committees, compensation, conservatives, costs, cuts, deadline, demands, Democrat, Department of Commerce, education, expectations, fiscal, government, gubernatorial, House Bill 584, income, insurance, June 1, LEA, leadership, legislators, liberals, lower taxes, majority, N.C. House, NC, needy, north carolina, pre-K, public schools, redistricting, reduced, reduced spending, Republican, revenue, sales, sales tax, scholarships, school, Senate Bill 500, smaller government, State Board of Education, teachers, The Governor's Budget, veto
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Thursday, March 24th, 2011
Brent Lane, director of the UNC Center for Competitive Economies, is a straight-talking, no-nonsense personality and this week he minced no words with Legislators in an appropriations meeting for Natural and Economic Resources. North Carolina, he said, is in the doldrums and dropping further down each day. His statistics were disconcerting.
Wages are down in all areas except arts and entertainment and agriculture when compared to U.S. averages. Financial sector salaries are down by 23 percent and even healthcare personnel in N.C. are earning less. In only three counties in the state are workers earnings matching the U.S. average. Since 2008, our wages have fallen from 92.8 percent of U.S. per capita income to 87 percent. If our trend continues, we will be earning 79 percent of national income average in 2014 which is where we were in 1969.
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Tags: agenda, Asheville, Brent Lane, Burke County, Clampetts, coal, Competitive Economies, debate, Democrat, DNER, Goldstone, healthcare, house, jobs, Joe Hackney, Lee, legislative, Liberal, Marion, Martin Nesbitt, Mitchell Gillespie, Moore, natural gas, north carolina, North Carolina One Fund, opposition, progressive, regulations, Repulican, Sandhills, Speaker, tax, UNC, unemployment, wages
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Friday, March 11th, 2011
The Appropriations Committee working on the state education budget now is looking at options to trim $1.4 billion from operations of public schools, community colleges and the university system. These cuts would offset the loss of revenue from the one-cent sales tax that expires June 30. Some of the public school options:
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Tags: appropriations committee, Attorney General, Charter Schools, community college, county, democrats, drop out, gop, gun control, healthcare, Joe Hackney, medical liability reform, NC, north carolina, public shcool, Republican, revenue, Richard Stevens, sales tax, seashore groins, state education budget, teacher, teacher assistants, thom tillis, university, veto, Wake
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Monday, February 28th, 2011
The line in the sand has been drawn between Gov. Beverly Perdue and the Republican majority legislators and the battle to develop the 2011 – 2012 budget has begun. The governor wants to use a three-quarters percent sales tax to preserve public education, with some cuts to the university system. A new priority for community colleges would be the “Career High Schools” which would mainline performing students into a two-year community colleges degree program—at no cost to the student. As far as the GOP leadership is concerned, the governor’s budget was dead on arrival. They are working on a spending plan that eliminates the tax and cuts education spending by $700 million. (more…)
Tags: Asheville, battle, Beverly Perdue, Brad Miller, budget, career high schools, Catawba, community college, congressional districts, cuts, David Lewis, degree, Dr. Tom Ross, earnings, education, enrollment, financial aid, Gaston, gop, Governor, graduates, Guilford, hickory, house, I-85, Jim Forrester, job, leadership, legislators, Lenoir-Rhyne University, lincolnton, McDowell, mecklenburg, Mel Watts, million, Mitchell Gillespie, north carolina, Northwest, oath of ofice, override, Pell grant, population, redistricting, Republican, Robert Rucho, rural, sales tax, Senate, spending, Triad, UNC, unemployment, unifour, university, Wake, workers
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Monday, February 7th, 2011
Republican leaders in the General Assembly are setting a fast-paced agenda. This week the majority released a calendar that has the state budget being adopted by June 1. Subcommittees of the Appropriations Committee were given rules and deadlines this week. The House is to approved the 2011-12 spending plan by April 22; the Senate on May 13, and final approval June 1. This would be the earliest the state budget has been approved in recent memory.
Committees have been told that no expansion items (new programs) are permitted. There is to be no “management flexibility” allowed. And there will be no special provisions that involve spending or policy changes. (more…)
Tags: agenda, ann goodman, appropriations committee, approved, austin allran, banking, bill owens, billion, bob williams, budget, capital broadcasting, carlton huffman, ceo, clerical, conover, deadlines, democrats, edgar starnes, education, elizabeth city, finance, funds, furniture, general assembly, governer, government, granite falls, health, hickory, house, huffman hosiery, huffman knitting, hugh blackwell, jim goodman, jim goodnight, job, jonathan jordan, jonathan rhyne, judiciary, legislative, lincolnton, management flexibility, mark hilton, mark hollo, mecklenburg, mitchell gold, mitchell setzer, north carolina, optimisitic, part time, parttime, pat buchanan, perdue, plan, policy, politics, republicans, revenue, sas institute, senator, speech, spending, taxes, taylorsville, thom tillis, unifour, valdese, veto, washington, watauga
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Thursday, October 14th, 2010
The news and trends have not been good for Democrats. Polls show that nationally likely voters prefer Republicans over Democrats to solve the nation’s economic morass by 10 percentage points or more. Shrill right-wing bloggers type hate messages in response to newspaper stories. In Nevada, Sharon Angle has raised $14 million in the last quarter to unseat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Even some high-profile Republican leaders earlier this year described Angle as a nut case.
And yet. (more…)
Tags: bingham, bloggers, bob williams, candidates, charlotte, data kimbrall, david munday, democrats, elaine marshall, election, gary lafone, gop, harry reid, hate, hickory, jobs, leadersip, legislator, lyndon helton, nevada, north carolina, pledge with america, rends, republicans, richard burr, right wing, senae, sharon angle
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Thursday, September 23rd, 2010
Marshall Cohen, a nationally-recognized forecaster of trends, was speaking at a gathering of hosiery manufacturers and suppliers this week and made a startling observation: Americans had better get used to it: our economic climate represents the new norm for the United States. Expect permanent unemployment rates of 10 per cent and if you are in the Hickory Metro area, it will be greater. There will be less money and fewer banks.
Jobs will continue to disappear. ATM machines mean banks need fewer tellers. Self-checkout stations in big box stores translate to fewer cashiers. In manufacturing, technology will assure that most jobs lost in the past decade are gone forever. President Obama and Democrats can’t change the course and neither can Republicans despite their “pledge with America.” (more…)
Tags: cabaret, candidates, charlotte, coffee club, democrats, firemen, furniture, hickory, hickory community theater, hosiery, independent, jobs, leadersip, legislator, manufacturers, marshall cohen, mayor, metro, money, north carolina, obama, pledge with america, policemen, politic, president, raleigh, ray warren, republicans, rudy wright, suppliers, tea party, technology, textiles, unemployment, union, workforce
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