RALEIGH – With House leaders approving its version of the $17 billion state budget early Thursday morning, members will now work towards ironing out the several differences that exist between the two documents.
Those differences also include funding for programs with the University of North Carolina system. House leaders approved a budget that cuts several proposed spending initiatives approved in the Senate budget, while also including new appropriations as well.
House members voted mainly along party lines early Thursday morning to approve the budget by a vote of 62-58. Democrat Bill Faison, who represents Caswell and Orange counties, went against the Democrat Party leadership and voted against the budget. All Republicans voted against the budget plan.
Senate and House members have just two weeks before the end of the 2004-05 fiscal year to approve a final budget.
Of the differences in the budget plans is the North Carolina School of Science and Math’s tuition waiver. Senate leaders, in May, approved the continuation of the tuition waiver while making only changes to the bill’s wording. House leaders, instead, opted to eliminate the waiver, which gives allows a NCSSM graduate to attend a UNC system school of their choice.
House leaders also eliminated two controversial aspects to the Senate budget that would allow UNC-Chapel Hill and North Carolina State to set its own tuition rate without approval from the Board of Governors and a provision that would allow schools to apply in-state tuition rates to anyone that receives a scholarship to attend the school. UNC system officials had been upset about the tuition waiver saying it would be the equivalent of the schools leaving the system. The scholarship program, however, was seen as an effort to aid athletic fundraising organizations such as UNC-Chapel Hill’s Ram’s Club and the Wolfpack Club at N.C. State.
Though the House budget does eliminate aspects of the Senate budget, House members included several new initiatives in the budget. Among those is a scholarship fund for perspective teachers who also want to become a coach. The House’s budget proposes a Coaching and Assistant Coaching Scholarship Fund that would award up to $4,000 a year. It would allow coaches who work in rural or need-based areas to have their loan cancelled, while coaches who work in non-need areas would be required to pay the entire amount of the loan back plus 10 percent interest annually.
The budget also attempts to legislate the number of out-of-state students that can attend the North Carolina of the Arts. Beginning with the fall 2007 semester, out-of-state freshmen enrollment would be capped temporarily at 40 percent. However, starting with the fall semester in 2008, the cap is lowered to a permanent 35 percent.
House leaders also approved an appropriation that would give $200,000 in recurring funds to UNC-Asheville for the Center for Craft, Creativity and Design. The center opened in 2001 as a regional heritage craft center for campuses in Western North Carolina.
Shannon Blosser (sblosser@popecenter.org) is a staff writer for the John W. Pope Center for Higher Education Policy in Chapel Hill.