#ncga: Showdown at the Jones Street corral
According to Miss Mollie, speaker Moore’s easy-on-the-eyes spokesmodel, the rubber just might meet the road today:
From: Mollie Young (Dir. of Communications, Speaker Moore’s Office)
Sent: Sunday, September 13, 2015 4:38 PM
To: @House/Republican/Members; @House/Republican/LAs
Cc: @Speaker Tim Moore’s Staff; Tim Moore
Subject: Monday ScheduleDear Caucus Members –Please see the schedule for tomorrow below, and let me know if you have any questions:9am–12:30pm: Republican Caucus on Budget in Room 643, lunch provided.10am: No vote session1pm-2:30pm: House Conferee Meeting on Budget. Location TBA.
Afternoon: if additional time is needed for caucus or conferees, we will schedule to resume during this time.7pm: Voting SessionEvening: Budget Conference Report posted online.Thank you,Mollie YoungDirector of CommunicationsNC Speaker Tim Moore
Translation: We’re going to be nice and do the transparency thing from 9 am to 1230. Heck, we’re even providing lunch. At 1PM, we’re going to get back together and figure out what to do with those of you who have not caved in to our arm-twisting. And trust us, you really really really don’t want to see what’s in store, during that 2300 to 659 time slot, for those of you who didn’t see the light by 1230.
I get the impression that those roughly three dozen unhappy souls in the House GOP caucus are still unhappy. That letter outlining the dozen or so items that are unsupportable is still out there. Solar and movie subsidies are also — from what I understand — a hell of a dealbreaker.
I understand the dislike of the solar subsidies but I really wish someone would post the real cost of the movie subsidies. I understand people do not like subsidies and I would normally agree but I think the movie subsidies are more of a state tourism expense… someone feel free to prove me wrong
Patrick – your comment sounds as if you’re defending film subsidies while understanding why people dislike subsidies for solar. Why place the burden on others to prove why film subsidies are a net loss for taxpayers? If you “think” the movie subsidies are a tourism expense (?), why don’t you explain to the rest of us why film subsidies are worth preserving in the state budget.
I’d refer you to anything Jon Sanders has written on the topic at Carolina Journal for a few reasons why the film subsidies are not worth preserving.
Any idea when the actual budget will be posted?
Some of the senators twitted saying they were told by 8am tomorrow morning.
Well, color me un-surprised. Just like the past two years, an unmanned easter egg got slipped into the budget. On page 365, there’s $2.5 million appropriated for undescribed “unmanned aircraft system programs”.
If asked, Rep. John Torbett, (who was almost certainly the one who inserted this at the last minute – the most recent version of the budget didn’t have this appropriation), he’ll say it’s for the permitting and testing program for commercial and law enforcement drones etc.
But two years ago, the State Chief Information Officer (former Booz Allen Hamilton executive Chris Estes) proposed that his office should get funding to purchase and operate surveillance drones of their own. The money got yanked out of the 2013 budget, and we’ve been wondering where it will re-appear. And now here’s a sizable appropriation in the NCDOT section of the budget, without any specifics on what it will be spent on.
Hmm……