The House passed a bill that could increase funding to the UNC-system by $10.5 million.
By a 73-46 margin, the Modify 2011 Appropriations Act passed its second and third readings late Wednesday night. The bill will now go to the Senate.
The funding increase is significantly less than the $216 million increase sought by UNC administrators and the $145 million increase included the governor’s budget proposal.
UNC administrators have been working in Raleigh to gain more funding as the N.C. General Assembly revises the state’s biennial budget, which was passed into law in June 2011 for the fiscal years 2011 through 2013. The state usually revisits its budget before the second fiscal year commences.
Hannah Gage, chairwoman of the UNC-system Board of Governors, said the legislature’s proposed budget does not fund many of the board’s priorities.
“It’s hard to decipher what’s going on with the House budget but on the surface, it appears that it does not fund our primary enrollment growth needs, nor all of our need based financial aid,” Gage wrote in an email.
Rep. Hugh Blackwell, R-Burke, said it was not possible to increase funding by the amount proposed in Perdue’s budget because it calls for a statewide tax hike.
“This is not the time to put more taxes on people,” Blackwell said. “Our cuts focus on programs that don’t need taxpayer dollars so we can give more to programs that benefit students,”
The vote was mostly along partisan lines, with every Republican and five Democrats voting to support the budget.
