Even as signs that the recession may be slowing, the North Carolina General Assembly has gone past their July 1 deadline to pass a funding bill. Staff and students alike are waiting for the General Assembly to pass the State Senate Bill 202, which will set the budget for, among other things, the North Carolina university system.
Most students in the North Carolina university system are waiting to hear if an additional charge in August will be levied, but until the bill passes it is unknown what the charges, if any, will be.
There is talk of limiting or eliminating out of state scholarships, in which the out of state student attends school, and the state will only receive an amount of money that equals in state tuition.
North Carolina residents receive the lower rate because they have presumably paid taxes that help offset the additional fees required to educate the student. The problem is, the student or the parents that have lived out of state may have never paid North Carolina state taxes; this to them is unfair and costly. They also claim that this mostly only benefits schools with a large sports program.
If the Senate bill passes with its current figures Western Carolina University will receive over $91,800,000 while North Carolina State University, a much larger school, will receive over $400,000,000 in academic affairs alone. Also dependent on the passing of the budget is the EARN grant, which gives money to students who are 200% below the federal poverty level.
If the bill is passed in its current form, movie-goers will see increased taxes on movie tickets, increased sales tax, internet sales tax, and an increased tax on liquor.
Among the bills that were passed on July 1 is House Bill 97 which allows active duty military or reservists on leave in North Carolina to be able to obtain a hunting or fishing license for free, Senate Bill 204 that lets retirees of the teachers’ and state employees’ retirement system to return to employment as nursing instructors without losing retirement benefits, and Senate Bill 1089, which allows parole officers to transfer low-risk individuals on probation to an unsupervised probation.
