Legislators Need Additional Time To Craft Budget

Senators approved a resolution continuing the state's operation under the funding levels prescribed in the 2001-02 budget until Sept. 30 or until a budget for the 2002-03 fiscal year is produced, whichever comes first. The resolution could go before the House today.

"We know that we won't have a budget done by the end of August," said Senate Appropriations Committee Co-chairman Howard Lee, D-Orange.

The Senate approved its version of the budget June 19, while the House approved a different version Aug. 13. The two chambers must reach a consensus before the budget can be finalized.

Because the House and Senate budgets agree on tuition rates and enrollment growth funding, UNC-system officials had hoped the continuation resolution would include a provision allowing them to go ahead and dole out those appropriated funds. But the resolution approved by the Senate did not include such a provision.

"We had been hopeful that the General Assembly would have included it," said Jeff Davies, UNC-system vice president for finance. "It would have been preferable to have been able to have moved ahead."

Lee said senators understand the system's bind but that they cannot allow administrators to allocate funds until the budget is finalized.

"The reasons are very valid," he said. "They are really operating at a disadvantage, but we didn't think we could make that exception for one institution. ... Before you know it, you'd have a budget on the floor in the form of a continuing resolution."

Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand, D-Cumberland, said the reconciliation process has ground to a halt because the two chambers' budgets have fundamental differences. "It's going quite slowly," he said. "But there are significant differences in the philosophies of the two."

Despite the differences in the House and Senate budget proposals, Rand said the conferring process remains cordial. "I have seen neither a gun nor a knife."

But high tensions or not, Lee said he expects debate will drag on well into September because neither side will alter its proposal with ease.

He said the Senate took a step forward Tuesday, however, by proposing changes aimed at resolving one primary disparity -- the difference in the revenue calculations. "We gave the House Appropriations Committee a revised proposal," Lee said. "I don't think they'll like it though."

Rep. Joe Hackney, D-Orange, said he reviewed the Senate's revised proposal and that many of its provisions are still opposed by representatives. "There are still some things in there that we cannot possibly get in the House," he said. "We don't have the votes, and there is no reasonable way of getting them."

The State & National Editor can be reached at stntdesk@unc.edu.