HOUSE SNAGS PLAN TO BUILD 3 MORE PRISONS

Proposal Slipped In By Senate Includes Site For Tabor City

RALEIGH - Members of a state House committee, upset that senators seemed to
bypass them, may delay an effort to build three new prisons, including one
tentatively planned for Columbus County.

The House Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over tax and public
debt issues, heard a presentation Thursday on a provision in the Senate
version of the proposed state budget that would use a lease-buy arrangement
to build the new prisons.

Some representatives said they were upset that Senate leaders - instead of
sending a prison bill to the House, which would have been reviewed by the
House Finance Committee - inserted the construction plans in the budget
proposal. The budget proposal is now being discussed in closed-door
negotiations between House and Senate leaders.

"It's inappropriate to put something in the budget without it going through
the House Finance Committee," said Rep. Joe Hackney, D-Orange, leader of
the House Democrats. "Many of us in here are partisans for this committee
and don't like this."

The hearing was called by committee Co-chairman Paul

Luebke, D-Durham. He questioned the method proposed by the Senate as well
as the need.

The lease-purchase plan, where the state would create a corporation that
would sell bonds paid off by lease payments from the state government,
would saddle the government with too much borrowing, he argued.

"The real problem is the incarceration of nonviolent felons," he said. "The
answer is changing sentencing guidelines. If we changed them the right way,
we wouldn't need to build three prisons; perhaps we'd need only two."

According to information collected by General Assembly analysts, the state
prison system is short 2,600 beds. The shortage is expected to grow to
nearly 6,400 by 2010.

Sen. John Kerr, D-Wayne, who spoke during the hearing, said it is important
that the General Assembly act quickly.

"This bill was put into the budget because it is time-sensitive," he said.
"We have a narrow window to save $25 million."

The provision needs to be passed in June at the latest, he said, to save
money by retaining a concrete plant erected to provide materials for state
prisons now under construction and to avoid increased construction costs
from the phase-in of the International Building Code.

Among other changes, he said, the code would require new prisons to have
extensive sprinkler systems.

Sen. Kerr also argued that the state enjoys top bond ratings on Wall Street.

Based on laws passed in the 2000-02 legislative session, the state
Department of Correction is to look at potential prison sites in Bertie,
Greene and Columbus counties. More than $500,000 has been spent preparing
sites in Bertie and Greene counties, according to Sen. Kerr. Columbus
County was added during Senate deliberations earlier this spring.

Sen. R.C. Soles, D-Columbus, has been at work with local officials in Tabor
City. They have identified a site that the city and Columbus County could
buy and which the Department of Correction says fits its needs, he said.

County leaders want the prison because it would bring 400 jobs to the
region, which has some of the highest unemployment rates in the state.

The finance committee will meet again Monday afternoon to discuss the plans.

Rep. Dewey Hill, a Columbus County Democrat and vice-chairman of the
committee, said he doesn't think the critics could derail the plans.

"I don't believe they can do it," he said. "They'd have to convince the
Senate to take it out of the budget; and I don't think that's possible at
this point."