Legislative Report #06-08

Report 06-08
June 21, 2006

SPECIAL REPORT: BUDGET CONFEREES

The House and Senate have appointed members to the joint conference committee that will resolve differences between the respective budget proposals for 2006-07. The Senate appointed 32 members and the House appointed 57 members.

Decisions regarding compensation for employees and Cost-Of-Living Adjustments for retirees are made by the leaders of Senate and House Appropriations and Finance Committees as well as the majority leaders from both chambers. A listing of these key conference committee members is presented below.

Senators

Walter Dalton
Linda Garrou
Kay Hagan
Tony Rand
David Hoyle
John Kerr
                                        
Representatives

Jim Crawford
Beverly Earle
Bill Owens
Edd Nye
Doug Yongue
Debbie Clary
Wilma Sherrill
Joe Hackney
Mickey Michaux
Paul Luebke
William Wainwright
Julia Howard

You can obtain the complete list of the budget conferees from the General Assembly web page (www.ncga.state.nc.us).

MAKE CONTACT!

We urge our members to contact the key conference committee members. Also, if your Senator or Representive is among the other members of the conference committee, you should contact them as well. The conferees are trying to complete their work no later than next Tuesday. At this point, the best we can hope for is that the conferees will consider moving back to the 3.7% COLA that was recommended by Governor Easley. The conferees would have to identify another $20 million to fund the 3.7% COLA.