The budget is still being hashed out in the North Carolina General Assembly, but this tidbit from WRAL makes it seem like Republicans are doing a bit of charity work by helping Democrats write their talking points in November.
Those budget technical corrections were tacked onto an unrelated bill, House Bill 805, Thursday morning in the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Among the dozens of provisions, it transfers $500,000 from the state’s Emergency Response and Disaster Relief Fund to Gov. Pat McCrory’s office in order to handle litigation over House Bill 2.
“The governor asked for it,” Senate Budget Chairman Harry Brown, R-Onslow, said.
Lawmakers, he said, didn’t know exactly how much the state might have to spend defending the controversial law.
Here’s the relevant section of the “technical corrections” bill:
If House Bill 1030, 2015 Regular Session, becomes law, then of the funds appropriated in that act to the State Emergency Response and Disaster Relief Fund (Budget 48 Code 19930), the sum of five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000) in nonrecurring funds for the 2016-2017 fiscal year shall be transferred to the Governor’s Office (Account Code 13000) to be used to fund costs incurred from litigation related to S.L. 2016-3.
The budget, as it stands now, earmarks $10 million total for the Emergency Response and Disaster Relief Fund, meaning that 5 percent of the money would go towards litigation defending HB 2. Thanks Pat!
The Senate approved the corrections bill today, but it’ll still have to pass the full Senate and House.
The N&O notes that last year, the General Assembly set aside $8 million through mid-2017 to fund the state’s legal defense of its laws. Apparently, that’s not enough.
The only question remaining is: Why did they have to transfer the money in the first place? “Disaster” and “emergency” are both perfect descriptors for HB 2.
Oh well, at least it’s almost over.