Today @NCCapitol (March 30): House, Senate due to debate gas tax deal

RALEIGH, N.C. — Good morning and welcome to Today @NCCapitol for Monday, March 30. Here's what's going on around the General Assembly and elsewhere in state government.

THE SENATE: The state Senate is schedule to convene at 2 p.m. but not get to work until 7 p.m. Monday. The early start time will allow the Senate clerk to officially move bills from committee to committee. Dozens of measures are stored in the Rules Committee already, and 195 bills were filed in the Senate last Thursday as the chamber's bill filing deadline hit.

GAS TAX: Both the House and the Senate are expected to take up the compromise gas tax bill when they meet at 7 p.m. That measure would cut the gas tax to 36 cents per gallon on April 1 and make other changes. However, critics will most likely be disappointed it does not extend a tax break to those who had mortgage debt forgiven in 2014.

ALSO MONDAY: The Senate could give final approval to a deal that will fix some funding snafus for the newly created commissions overseeing coal ash cleanup and revising the Common Core academic standards. The House has already approved the cleanup budget measure.

NOTED: Among the 195 bills filed in the Senate on Thursday, Senate Bill 705 would scuttle the deal forged by Gov. Pat McCrory to sell the state's former central mental hospital and surrounding property to Raleigh. Instead, the state would be required to offer the property on the open market and take no less than $52 million, the price agreed to by McCrory and Raleigh Mayor Nancy McFarlane.