WHAT HAPPENED: The General Assembly's short session was in full swing, and while bill filing and committee business carried on at a fast clip, most anticipation was on state budget development. House and Senate budget writers have been working to align on spending items for passage, ideally, in the very near future.
WHAT IT MEANS: If budget adjustments keep to the pace described in media reports, then the conference report for
Senate Bill 99 (a former insurance bill made into a vehicle for the budget) could be publicly released and up for its first votes next week. State budget writing is a tedious process with a lot of moving parts, but outlets as of late Thursday were quoting chief House budget writer
Rep. Nelson Dollar as keeping with a June 1 approval target. Nothing is certain.
ON TAP: There are plenty of proposals moving through the channels, including a broadband measure that legislative budget writers touted on Thursday. You can read more about that in this Bulletin.
THE SKINNY: Soon we'll know the specific contents of the legislature's budget and what they'll mean for cities and towns. But beyond the aforementioned, insiders don't anticipate a crush of other lawmaking as legislative leaders seek a shorter-than-usual short session.
The U.S. Census Bureau has released new population estimates for North Carolina, broken down by locality. The News & Observer has made available a detailed table that includes estimates at the county and municipal levels. You can view that here.