Looks like a proposal to consider consolidations and closures among the 17 UNC campuses to save money has bit the dust this legislative session. It comes up perennially (read the story here
). We had a Point of View ready to go on the subject by John L. Sanders, a retired UNC system vice president and a former head of the Institute of Government.

Note: If you have information on additional sales, let me know in the comments section, and I'll add them to the list.

It's prime time for fall consignment sales in the Triangle -- the perfect opportunity for parents to save money on fall and winter clothing for their kids.

Nearly a dozen consignment sales are scheduled over the next several weeks in the Triangle.

It's a great way to make a little money on the clothes your kids have outgrown and then turn around and save again by purchasing the next size up from other Triangle families.

A fringe benefit is "the recyling aspect," said Diane Willeford, a mom of two boys and an organizer of the KidzStuff Consignment Sale at Hayes Barton Baptist Church in Raleigh.

"There's no reason for things I'm done with to be thrown away and added to the landfill while it still has a lot of useful life left," she said.

In addition to clothing, many sales also offer toys, books, games, bicycles and baby equipment. Clothing sizes range from newborn to juniors. Some also offer maternity clothes.

Most sales offer early shopping days for volunteers and sellers, and many offer discounts in the final days of their sales.

Click on the links to individual sales to get sale hours, directions and information for buyers and sellers:

The sales circulars are full of back-to-school deals but you can stretch your budget even further using back-to-school coupons.

Here are several I've found:

In her new proposed budget, Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue generally agrees with transportation proposals aired by House Republicans last week to put a cap on the state gas tax and to postpone new and increased ferry tolls for a year.

Ferries:  Perdue angered legislators in February when she refused to start collecting new tolls on two toll-free ferry routes, and higher rates on three tolled routes, as ordered in the state budget last year.  She cited economic hardship in ferry-dependent coastal communities.  Republicans sharply criticized Perdue but shied away from fighting her on this.  Both budget drafts, theirs and now hers, would put off the new tolls until July 2013.

But there's a difference here: What to do about the additional $2.5 million in toll collections that had been expected in the budget? ... [MORE]

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.