Activity at the North Carolina General Assembly was limited this week, as committees and lawmakers rested from the labor of meeting last week's crossover deadline.  Leaders of the House and Senate worked to refer the over 300 bills passed last week to the committees that will shape legislation as it nears final passage.  Work on the State Budget began in earnest this week with House Appropriations subcommittees pouring over a list of recommended cuts that approach draconian levels.  In the Senate, few pieces of legislation were on the move, committee meetings were infrequent and a new Senator with a familiar face was sworn into office. 

What could be characterized as a "crossover hangover," the after effects of last week's grueling week of lawmaking, was clearly the prevailing mood at the General Assembly this week.  The House and Senate leaders worked to sort out the product of last week's work by referring bills to committees that will consider the legislation prior to consideration by the full chamber.  To accommodate that work and to allow rank and file lawmakers time to appraise their progress, both the House and Senate held more than one floor session this week where no recorded votes were taken.  At the other sessions this week, honorary resolutions, local bills and non-controversial measures were the focus of the chambers' work. 

In the Senate, a bill (Senate Bill 80) to authorize an occupancy tax in Jacksonville, NC to fund tourism promotion projects was approved.  Other legislation (House Bill 52) would allow Haywood County to change the date for filing a candidacy for the School Board.  The perennial legislation (Senate Bill 786) authorizing the UNC system to spend money collected through fees on various projects was approved.  Other bills approved by the Senate this week would allow for public financing of municipal political campaigns (House Bill 120) and make changes to the oversight of various licensing boards (House Bill 221).  In the House, a collection of local bills was approved in addition to legislation to allow counties to rescind advanced property tax appraisals (House Bill 1350). 

The real action in the House this week was the work of the Appropriations subcommittees who are pouring over a long list of potential reductions to the State Budget.  The spending targets issued by the chief budget writers would have the House pass a budget plan that totals $17.6 billion, nearly $3 billion less than the budget passed by the General Assembly last year.  A proportional share of those cuts would be passed along to each of the subcommittee areas of the budget with Health and Human Services and Education, the two largest sections of the budget, slated to take to biggest cuts.  The most publicized of the potential cuts is the elimination of a full week of school that would save the State $100 million on teacher salaries. 

House budget writers and House Speaker Joe Hackney (D-Chatham) have maintained that the budget should include no tax increases.  However, political handicappers are shopping around a theory that the deep cuts are intended to evoke a hue and cry from the masses who will rise up and demand a tax increase as a better option to the elimination of funding for certain programs.  Even if no such ploy is afoot, the potential $2 billion difference between the plan being drafted in the House and that passed by the Senate sets up a very difficult conference committee process.  The conference committee would likely be formed by the House and Senate after House passage of the budget legislation.  House leaders have set a mid June target for passage of their bill, leaving the conference committee about ten days to resolve differences in the two budget plans prior to the end of the State fiscal year on June 30, 2009. 

The Senate received its newest member this week, when Chief Justice Sarah Parker administered the oath of office to former House Speaker Dan Blue (D-Wake).  Now-Senator Blue was nominated by a local Democratic Party Committee and appointed to the Senate by Governor Perdue to fill the vacancy created by the death of Senator Vernon Malone (D-Wake).  The mid session change creates an intriguing story line for many of the bills introduced by Blue when he was a House member this session.  Blue will have the opportunity to champion the bills and vote on the legislation as it moves through the Senate just as he did in the House.  Wake County Democratic Party officials residing in Blue's House District will now have to nominate a new member to the House.  Blue was appointed to that seat only a few years ago when State Representative Bernard Allen (D-Wake) passed away.  Previously, Blue was a member of the House of Representative for over two decades, served two terms as Speaker of the House, and ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination to the US Senate in 2002.