Lots of letters today about House Speaker Thom Tillis' decision to use taxpayer money to pay two former staffers an extra month of salary after they resigned over improper intimate relationships with lobbyists. You'll see most of these in the paper, too.

Saying "enough is enough," Gov. Bev Perdue today issued an executive order extending benefits for 47,000 unemployed North Carolinians, Charlotte Observer staff writer Jim Morrill reports.

Perdue and Republican legislative leaders have been at odds for weeks over the extension, which expired in April.

An extension is included in a $19.7 billion GOP-backed state budget passed this week by the Senate and expected to be approved tomorrow by the House.

"Republicans in the legislature stubbornly cling to their political games," Perdue said in a statement.

GOP legislative leaders plan a 1:30 p.m. news conference to answer Perdue.

Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata reiterated his tough talk today about the need to avoid making deep state K-12 education funding cuts.

During today's press conference, Tata said he has spoken with a number of state legislators including state House Speaker Thom Tillis. He said he warned against making the "draconian cuts" that would come from the state House's proposed 8.8 percent cut and the state Senate's possible 10 percent cut.

"I am delivering the message that 8.8 percent is too much," Tata said. "It’s my desire that they listen to me as leader of the state’s largest school district.”

As we've noted over the past week, the politics of the UNC system's Board of Governors is changing.

A Republican majority is now running things in Raleigh, and has put its imprint on the UNC system by thoroughly re-making its governing board.

After a slew of new appointments over the last two weeks, Republicans now out-number Democrats 18-13 on the board.

Does it matter?

Well, maybe. We'll see how ideological the board becomes when its new members are seated in July. It hasn't been too political in recent history.

Though the board itself is rarely openly partisan in its decision-making, the process to get there sure is.

Take, for example, the case of Clarice Cato Goodyear.

Goodyear, of Charlotte, is a current board member, named to the board in 2007 on the nomination of a Democratic State Sen. Daniel Clodfelter.

She has been active on board committees and has represented the board in an official capacity at commencement ceremonies for 16 of 17 campuses in the system.

 She concludes her first four-year term later this year, and in recent months has clearly fought hard for reappointment.

The nomination packet she submitted to legislators was far more robust than many; it extols her accomplishments at length and makes the point several times, often in bold print,  that while she used to be a registered Democrat, she's now registered as an unaffiliated, and brings the backing of many influential Republicans.

She notes that she's a fiscal conservative who has spent more than 30 years as an executive with the Cato Corporation, a women's fashion retailer.

She enlists 23 influential movers and shakers to offer endorsements. Several happily point out that she's seen the light by abandoning the Democratic party.

Her four pages of endorsements include these snippets:

The legislature's new Republican majority has made its first move to put an imprint on the UNC system. On Thursday, the Senate appointed eight new members to the UNC system's Board of Governors.

The eight new appointees don't signal a dramatic shift, in that four are either re-appointed current or former board members. But taken collectively, they are seven white men and one white woman; meanwhile, the board stands to lose four African-Americans and at least five women once all appointments are made.

The House appoints eight additional new members next week.

Here's today's story.

Reappointed to the UNC Board of Governors were long-time education advocate Ann Goodnight, wife of SAS Institute CEO Jim Goodnight, and Peter Hans, a senior policy adviser with the Nelson Mullins law firm in Raleigh.

Former board members H. Frank Grainger of Cary and John Fennebresque of Charlotte also were appointed. Grainger is part-owner of Fair Products Inc. and Tritest Environmental Lab, and Fennebresque is an attorney.

The four newcomers were Fred Eshelman of Wilmington, executive chairman and founder of Pharmaceutical Product Development Corp.; W. Louis Bissette Jr., an attorney from Asheville; Thomas Harrelson of Southport, vice president of AECOM, a former state legislator and DOT secretary appointed by Republican Gov. Jim Martin; and Phillip Walker, senior vice president with BB&T in Hickory.

NOTE: THIS BLOG POST HAS BEEN UPDATED (4:11 p.m.)

Bill Daughtridge, a member of the UNC system's Board of Governors, is now working as senior policy advisor for House Speaker Thom Tillis.

It's an unusual arrangement, since members of the UNC board aren't supposed to work for the legislature, which oversees its budget.

But in this case, Daughtridge is not drawing a salary, said Jordan Shaw, a Tillis spokesman.

"He is helping us out on a volunteer basis and we're very appreciative," Shaw said. "No cost to the taxpayers."

Still, the UNC system's lawyer isn't yet totally comfortable with the arrangement. General Counsel Laura Luger said she's waiting for a written opinion she's expecting soon from an attorney with the General Assembly.

"One of the things wer're guided by is not simply a conflict but the perception of a conflict," she said. "I'm conservative about potential conflicts."

The UNC system code says no member of the General Assembly "or officer or employee of the state or of any constituent institution" may serve on the UNC board.

The code does not distinguish between paying and non-paying jobs.

Daughtridge is a former state legislator himself, having served three terms in the N.C. House representing Nash County.

Before becoming senior policy advisor, Daughtridge briefly served as interim chief of staff while Tillis transitioned into the post.

Daughtridge is a 1975 graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill, where he was a Morehead Scholar.
 

North Carolina's business lobby kicked off this year's legislative session with an ambitious to-do list in a Republican-controlled statehouse.

The N.C. Chamber feted its members Tuesday at the N.C. Museum of History in downtown Raleigh with speakers, legislators and hors d' oeuvres.

The group hopes to achieve goals that were out-of-reach in past years when Democrats controlled both houses of the General Assembly.

"It's a new era," said Lew Ebert, the chamber's president and CEO. Ebert said the chamber will be pushing for a pro-growth, pro-jobs agenda.