News 14 Carolina - Political Connections

Busy day in politics for a Friday! The biggest probably centers around a war of words between Gov. Easley and lawmakers.

Easley is mad they don't have a budget. He issued an executive order (using Leandro as legal standing) to give $114 mill to schools for More at 4, reducing class size, etc. Here's a sampling of what he said.

"Currently we're only a month or so away from schools opening and lawmakers need to be on the same real time as schools are."

"Current negotiations, working sheets and discussions we've had with the General Assembly make it clear to me that at least at the moment any budget they were to pass is not something I would be able to sign.""

"I think a lot of the legislators over there are scared of the realtors and they've got to decide, do they want to stand by the realtors or stand by the people they represent." (referring to Senate's refusal to agree to a land transfer tax as part of a deal to take up the county's portion of Medicaid).

Upon hearing the news conference by Easley here's some of Rep. Mickey Michaux responses.

"I heard the comment about wasted time and if he thinks staying here until 11 p.m., 12 a.m. at night and working on weekends is wasting time then I really don't know what wasting time is."

"Iguess folks get antsy when they think things aren't going their way, but we are taking the responsible position -- we are thoroughly going over the budget"

They all hope to get along next week and get a budget signed into law though.

By the way...Rep. Beverly Earle has filed to run for mayor in Charlotte. If she somehow won..wow would that neck of the woods have lost just about all their experience in the GA with a Mr. Black gone now too.