By NICOLE CARTRETTE

A $2 billion dollar surplus puts N.C. lawmakers in a comfortable spot heading into the short session that began on Tuesday.

Teacher and state employees looking for pay increases, counties in need of Medicaid relief, corporations and small business hoping for tax cuts and those in support of a minimum wage increase are just a few of the entities pushing their way to the top of the short session’s agenda.

Constituents who want to make sure that lottery money is spent on education are not far behind.

Pay raises, education

√ Legislators want to make sure lottery funds go to education, Senator R.C. Soles Jr. said. “Other states have found ways to get around that,” Representative Dewey Hill warned. “We want to make sure that does not happen here.

“Education is a big part of us being here,” Hill said. Teacher raises and ensuring lottery money goes only to education are top priorities, he added. State employees who have not seen a salary increase in five years can expect a salary increase of 5 to 7 percent, he anticipates.

Raising teacher salaries, reducing class sizes, and offering scholarships with lottery money are a few of the education goals Soles hopes to achieve.

Medicaid relief

With a surplus in the legislators pocket it is likely Columbus County — which pays more for Medicaid than school facilities — may find the Medicaid relief that commissioners have requested for three consecutive years. The county’s 15 percent share of Medicaid costs increased to $6.33 million for 2006-07 — an increase of 70 percent since the year 2000, the N.C. Association of County Commissioners reports. One-third of property taxes collected in the county go to Medicaid costs.

“We are pushing to have North Carolina take over the funding for Medicaid,” Soles said.

Hill said a Medicaid relief bill is in the rough right now and drafters are considering reducing and capping the counties’ share. According to the N.C. League of Municipalities Legislative Bulletin, the relief could result in sales tax implications. The House Select Committee on Health Care has a subcommittee reviewing a proposal that suggests in exchange for proceeds of the existing one-cent local sales tax the state pay 100 percent of Medicaid costs.

Tax cuts

Providing tax incentives to small business to provide health insurance to their employees is a recommendation Soles intends to support.

“We want to extend healthcare through programs offered to small businesses,” Soles said.

Boosting the economy through attracting more industry to North Carolina and the district is yet another issue Hill and Soles are emphasizing.

Soles thinks tax cuts will help boost the economy and support industry growth.

Minimum wage

A minimum wage increase is likely to take place this session, Soles indicated. The current minimum wage is $5.15 per hour. Legislators are potentially going to raise it to $6.15 an hour. That would increase the yearly salary of a minimum wage worker working 40 hours a week from $10,712 to $12,792.

Most minimum wage earners in North Carolina are adult women working to support families, says the N.C. Justice Center, an advocacy group. The group insists that today $5.15 will purchase less than the minimum wage of $4.25 did in 1995.