Tuesday Wrap: Keep your friends close

Reps. Dean Arp, R-Union, and Jason Saine, R-Lincoln, insist they aren't trying to undercut Moore, R-Cleveland, only offering another alternative to consider. The Senate has already considered and approved the pay-as-you-go alternative.

Meanwhile, other people with friends in high places are closing in on positions on the UNC Board of Governors. Of the six nominees who face only an up-or-down vote in the House, one is a developer with ties to Moore, a second is a lobbyist and a third heads a company that employs House Majority Leader John Bell, R-Wayne, and used to employ House Rules Chairman David Lewis, R-Harnett.

Democrats are furious with the nomination process, noting that a black Democrat who wanted another term on the Board of Governors has been squeezed out.

Elsewhere, GOP leadership set the top-line numbers for the 2019-20 state budget at about $24 billion, a 3.5 percent increase over the current year. But it's about $1.2 billion less than Gov. Roy Cooper has proposed spending.

One House committee approved banning corporal punishment in public schools and charter schools statewide, while a second House committee approved a measure that would create a duty for North Carolina doctors to report suspected sex assaults or drug abuse by other doctors. The latter proposal grew out of the case of Dr. Larry Nassar, the former Michigan State University doctor who molested more than 200 girls and young women, many while he was a doctor for the U.S. national gymnastics team.

Finally, Democrats and worker advocates introduced the latest effort to boost the state minimum wage to $15 an hour. Under the proposal, the increases would be phased in over five years and then pegged to the cost-of-living index.