Basnight and Berger
Senate leader Marc Basnight said Wednesday that there won't be any tax increases this year. In a brief speech to the North Carolina Chamber Wednesday afternoon, Basnight said that the legislature will focus on boosting education and fixing the mental health care system. "I don't believe you'll see taxes this year whatsoever -- any kind of increase," said Basnight, D-Dare. Gov. Mike Easley has proposed raising alcohol and cigarette taxes to help pay for higher teachers' pay and improvements to the state's mental health care system.
Meanwhile, Senate Republican leader Phil Berger told the group that teachers should be paid differently. Berger said teachers should get extra pay for working in challenging environments or for taking jobs that school systems are having trouble filling, such as those in math, science and special education. "More money, blindly spent, by adding to existing strategies is not the right answer," he said. He criticized Easley's proposed budget for cutting a pilot program that used pay as an incentive to hire math and science teachers. Berger also called for the state to make "a serious commitment" to career, vocational and technical education.
(Dome, THE NEWS & OBSERVER, 5/15/08).
No comments:
Post a Comment