More later.

House and Senate leaders agreed weeks ago to allocate $50 million for the tax changes and that’s where the agreement on taxes ended. The House budget includes an increase in the State Earned Income Tax Credit to help the working poor, a property tax break for military veterans, and the renewal of several other tax credits, most notably the break for small businesses that provide health care coverage for their employees.

The Senate did not include any tax changes in its budget, preferring instead to pass tax cuts and credits in separate legislation. The Senate first voted to repeal the state’s gift tax, a move that will benefit the wealthiest taxpayers and reduce state revenues by almost $20 million.

DeMint, Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., and five other Republican senators blocked Senate consideration of a bill that would more than triple U.S. aid to nations most stricken by AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, and to international relief groups helping them.

“I came down here to help out my neighbors,” he said. “And I aim to stay here until the river pushes me out of this damn chair.”

Statement from Bob Hall, Executive Director of Democracy North Carolina,
regarding Barack Obama’s decision to forego participation in presidential public financing program.

Senator Obama’s decision is predictable, given the shortcomings of the presidential public financing program and his capacity to raise money from private sources. The current program lacks the carrots and sticks – the incentives and penalties – to attract and sustain participation by major party candidates. For example, the program does not provide sufficient funds for a candidate to mount a truly competitive campaign across the nation, without relying on unregulated spending by outside groups. Nor does it compensate for the candidate who opts out of the program by providing additional, matching money to the opponent who stays in the program. Barack Obama’s decision may have been different if the program provided twice the money it now does (that would still be less than $1 per voting-age citizen) and/or awarded matching money to John McCain for every dollar Obama raised above a fixed limit.

North Carolina has two public financing programs now underway that aim to provide qualified candidates with the minimum needed to campaign, plus a matching fund provision. Qualifying is not easy, and the programs need constant attention to keep up with new challenges – something that has not happened with the presidential program. In North Carolina, 92% of the candidates covered by the judicial program and 67% of the candidates in the executive branch program are participating – Republicans and Democrats, men and women, blacks and whites, challengers and incumbents.

One important effort to reform the presidential public financing program is being led by North Carolina’s own Rep. David Price. Please note the release about that effort and the organizations involved in it: http://price.house.gov/issues/uploadedfiles/campaign3.pdf

We don’t expect politicians to heavily handicap themselves by ignoring the realities of the current arms race in fundraising. What we most want to see is aggressive leadership to provide effective alternatives to a worsening money chase that corrupts government and shuts out ordinary people. We need leaders who champion concrete reforms that, step by step, move us closer to “voter-owned elections.”

Bob Hall
Democracy North Carolina

Wow.

Update via the N&O: Serious cuts at the Char-O including 22 newsroom positions.

It was not immediately clear how the N&O will be affected by today’s announcement. More details are expected after affected employees are notified.

At The Charlotte Observer, which McClatchy also owns, publisher Ann Caulkins told staff this morning that newspaper will trim its work force by 123 positions, or 11.1 percent. The cuts will include 22 jobs in the newsroom.

Original post:
McClatchy cutting workforce 10 percent citing slow ad sales.
Then, there’s the matter of all that debt.
Bloomberg says the tally will reach 1400 jobs.

At one point in 1992, it looked like Clinton could win the state. He came close.