The N.C. General Assembly Appropriations Conference Committee, which has been charged with reaching a compromise on the two budget plans, held its first meeting Monday. Lawmakers are confident they will reach a consensus within the next few weeks.
The Senate passed its version of the budget for the 2002-03 fiscal year June 19. The House version cleared the floor Aug. 13.
The Senate has proposed a 2.4 percent cut in UNC-system funding -- a total of about $42 million. The House has proposed cuts of 3 percent, trimming the UNC-system budget by a little more than $52 million.
"That's one of the big differences," said House Appropriations Committee Co-chairman David Redwine, D-Brunswick. "If we don't do that we'll have to come up with an additional $36 million."
But Senate Appropriations Committee Co-chairman Howard Lee, D-Orange, said the Senate will fight the reduced salary funding rate.
The House budget also proposes to take $10 million in overhead receipts from research institutions -- about $7 million of which would come from UNC-Chapel Hill -- and redistribute the money to seven focus growth institutions.
The Senate budget has no such provision, and senators say they will fight to allow research schools to retain their overhead receipts.
"We want to be able to protect overhead receipts," Lee said.
Representatives also want to eliminate the $1.1 million subsidy to operate the Smith Center at UNC-CH. Senators have no such intentions.
"The House budget is a very anti-Chapel Hill budget," said UNC-CH Chancellor James Moeser.
"We have strong support in the Senate and will try to push the budget to the Senate side."
Both budget proposals include an 8 percent systemwide tuition increase for in-state students and a 12 percent increase for out-of-state. Both also provide the full $66 million in funding that UNC-system officials requested for enrollment growth.
The House has offered $4.5 million in funding for financial aid, while the Senate has appropriated none.
Redwine said House members will fight to have financial aid funding in the finalized budget.
"If we raise tuition, we need to fund financial aid," he said.
Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight, D-Dare, and other Senate leaders are willing to consider funding financial aid, said Amy Fulk, press secretary for Basnight.
"There's certainly a commitment in the Senate to higher education," she said.
But before legislators even begin to delve into reconciling university appropriations, they have to get their revenue numbers in line.
"This is the greatest difference in revenue in the House and Senate since I've ever been here," Lee said.
Redwine attributed the differing revenue numbers largely to the House's and the Senate's disparate tax packages.
"The tax package that we passed and that they passed are a little different," Redwine said. "Ours has loopholes, and theirs does not."
Though many of the differences in the House's and the Senate's budgets are significant, lawmakers said they are not locked in to their respective budgets.
"You have to look at this thing in a holistic point of view," said Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand, D-Cumberland.
"I try to keep an open mind because we do have to come to some sort of conclusion."
The State & National Editor can be reached at stntdesk@unc.edu.
