Former White House Chief of Staff and former UNC president Erskine Bowles will speak tonight in Duke's Page Auditorium along with U.S. Senator Alan Simpson (Wyoming) on their ideas for reigning in the federal budget. The discussion will air tomorrow night and Friday night on UNC-TV.

Bowles and Simpson are co-chairs of the bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, a budget commission started by President Obama in Februrary 2010.

The event at Duke, "Decision Time: Bowles, Simpson and the Federal Budget," is part of the Sanford School's Terry Sanford Distinguished Lecture series, which brings notable speakers to Duke's campus. UNC-TV will record the event in its entirety and then air it as two "North Carolina Now" programs at 7:30 p.m. on January 19 and 20.

Philip Bennett, a Duke public policy professor and managing edior of the PBS series "Frontline," will moderate the discussion.

Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Market forces will push North Carolina's record-high gas tax even higher in July --  unless political forces decide otherwise. 

Democrats were in charge four years ago when drivers were unhappy about rising gas taxes, so they capped the tax for two years at 29.9 cents a gallon.  That ceiling was converted to a legislative floor in 2009, and our inflation-adjusting tax has risen since then to an all-time high of 32.5 cents.

The General Assembly’s new Republican leaders seem likely to put a lid on it again.

“They have not specifically talked about this in caucus,” says Ray Martin, press secretary for Republican Sen. Phil Berger, the Senate president pro tem. “But it’s likely they’d want to look at capping any increase in the tax.” ... [MORE]

The state Department of Transportation’s proposed budget shows that the Perdue administration is counting on the Republican-led legislature to allow gas taxes to keep rising this year.  But without lifting a finger, Republicans have the power to let gas tax rates fall sharply instead.

[2/18/11 correction:  Legislative action would be required to prevent gas tax rates from rising again in July. See below.]

The variable tax rate fluctuates as a portion of the average wholesale gas price, and in January it climbed to a record high level of 32.5 cents a gallon.  Perdue’s budget, released today (see below), projects an increase of another penny a gallon, to generate record-high gas tax collections of $1.74 billion in 2011-12.

[2/18/11 correction:  That assumes the Republican-led legislature will allow the tax to keep rising. A GOP legislative spokesman says that seems unlikely.] ... [MORE]

Gov. Bev Perdue's proposed budget has been a hot ticket today and has been slow to upload from the state's website.

I've attached a copy here.

Have at it.

Just click the pdf below.
 

Documents:

The budget news for next year is looking even bleaker for the Wake County school system.

Based on today's budget briefing from Chief Business Officer, the school district is staring at the loss of $100 million next year, including all the money from custodians and most of the money for clerical staff.

A big chunk of the lost money is from the end of federal stimulus dollars.

The Wake County school board voted this afternoon to reinstate after-school activity bus service used by middle schools and high schools.

Wake will use a combination of federal and local funding to reinstitute the service, which had been dropped for this school year for budget reasons. The 65 activity buses had transported home students who had stayed after school for athletics, tutoring, band and other extracurricular activities. The buses took the students to community centers.

School board members admitted they made a mistake by having eliminated the service when working on the budget in March.

Wake County school board vice chairwoman Debra Goldman is expressing her unhappiness with the new budget and her support for the changes in board meeting structure.

In a blog post Friday, Goldman writes that she voted against the revised budget adopted earlier this month because she didn't feel that her concerns were answered about the last-minute staff recommended changes. An example she cites is the proposed changes for Project Enlightenment.

"The Budget came up for a vote and I was the only Board member NOT to vote for it," Goldman writes. "There is a lot of work to do, and though it is described as a 'fluid document,' there is a tremendous amount that concerns me, on many topics."

The Wake County school board has scheduled a special meeting for Monday to potentially restore funding for after-school activity bus service.

The school board has agreed to eliminate the activity bus service earlier this year to help deal with the tight budget. But with the start of traditional-calendar schools on Wednesday, parents have complained about losing the bus service used by students who take part in sports, clubs or other extracurricular activities.

According to the board meeting agenda, the "service elimination creates potential inequities in after school educational opportunities available to all students." Board members will talk about reinstating the program by using part of the $27.7 million the district is expected to receive out of the state's $300 million share of the federal Education Jobs Bill.

You've got some unhappy families right now dealing with the loss of after-school activity buses that dropped off Wake County students to community centers near their homes.

As noted in today's article by Thomas Goldsmith, the school district cut the bus service in an attempt to save money. These 65 buses transported students who were on campus after classes for things such as tutoring, sports and band.

Beverley Clark, a former school board member who has been a vocal critic of the new board majority, said the move is ill-advised.

Another Southern institution has been removed by the Wake County school system.

As noted in today's article, Moon Pies have been removed from the list of snacks sold at Wake elementary school cafeterias. In addition, middle and high school vending machines will no longer contain snacks with more than 200 calories or packages with more than one serving.

Whole wheat hamburger buns and hoagie rolls are now in while most white breads are gone from Wake cafeterias.