Group: House Budget Document Heavy on Pork
House leaders said they hope to unveil their proposed budget sometime this week, but bits of information keep trickling out about their plans.
Posted — UpdatedThe House Leadership Priority Appropriation Requests contains millions of dollars in proposals and amounts to a legislative wish list still in progress. The document doesn't include revenue figures or tax ideas.
The proposed numbers shows fairly common legislative funding requests, including $8.2 million to add a step raise in teacher pay, $4 million for a drug treatment court plan and $750,000 for a new truck for the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.
But the list also includes items that might draw more scrutiny, such as $3 million for a Drag Racing Hall of Fame in Henderson, $100,000 for the United Arts Council of Greensboro, $3 million for Johnson and Wales University in Charlotte and $3.5 million for advanced vehicle research.
"There's a bunch of pork barrel in here," said Francis DeLuca of the conservative non-profit watchdog group Americans For Prosperity, which obtained and released what is labeled as a confidential budget document.
"There's no openness," DeLuca said. "Who knows why people are getting the money that's included in this list of budget items?"
• Credits
Copyright 2024 by Capitol Broadcasting Company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
