Today @NCCapitol (April 12): UNC-CH chooses new chancellor as McCrory marks 100 days

UNC Chapel Hill is scheduled to name a new chancellor this morning. Gov. McCrory will mark his 100th day in office Monday. And lawmakers don't plan to tackle the public part of the budget process until May.

Posted 9:33 a.m. Apr 12, 2013 — Updated 9:46 a.m. Apr 12, 2013

@NCCapitol Staff

RALEIGH, N.C. — Good morning and welcome to Today @NCCapitol for Friday, April 12. This is WRAL's roundup of what you need to know about North Carolina state government today.

CHANCELLOR: WRAL News has learned that the interim president of Dartmouth College, Carol Folt, is expected to be named the first female chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The UNC Board of Governors will meet Friday to vote on the new chancellor.

LEGISLATURE: There are not legislative committees or floor sessions scheduled for today.

BUDGET: Sen. Pete Brunstetter, R-Forsyth, the senior budget chairman in the Senate, said we are still weeks away from the budget subcommittees beginning their public work on the state spending plan. "It will probably be early to mid-May," Brunstetter said Thursday after the Senate adjourned for the week.

GOVERNOR: Gov. Pat McCrory's public scheduled includes a visit to Dunn for another in his series of Main Street Tour stops this afternoon.

MCCRORY: Observers say that, until recently, McCrory has worked quietly to define his job and his expectations for state government. With recent announcements about the budget, creating a public-private partnership to run much of the Commerce Department and remaking Medicaid, he has begun to lay out his own vision and strategy. The governor will hit day 100 on April 15, but he shrugs off the milestone and questions about whether he has shifted from following the legislature's lead to taking the lead himself. As he describes it, 100 days might has well have been a frenetic 100 hours.

"We're putting in very full days and nights," McCrory said. Those days and nights are likely to remain full as McCrory faces his next 100 days and what could be some of the most crucial tests of his administration.

WRAP: Capitol Bureau Chief Laura Leslie and reporter Mark Binker cover Thursday's news from the legislature in The Wrap @NCCapitol.

MCCRORY and UNC: Gov. Pat McCrory on Thursday had his first meeting with the University of North Carolina Board of Governors since proposing massive cuts to the university system last month.McCrory included a $135 million cut to the UNC system in his 2013-14 budget proposal, although steep tuition increases on out-of-state students could help campuses recoup some of that lost funding. “I just wanted to let you know it’s tough out there," he told members of the Board of Governors during a meeting in Pembroke. "The revenue that’s coming in right now – our projected revenue for the next two years – is based upon about a 2.3 percent growth.”

PANTHERS: The bill that will allow Charlotte to use a pair of tourism taxes to pay for upgrades at Bank of America Stadium, where the Carolina Panthers play, is now law. Senators passed the measure 45-0 Thursday. RELATED, from the Charlotte Observer: "Negotiations between the Carolina Panthers and the city of Charlotte over stadium upgrades are expected to reopen Monday after passage of a stadium financing bill by the N.C. General Assembly."

LOTTERY: The state House on Thursday approved legislation that would require the North Carolina Education Lottery to provide more information to the public about the odds of winning and the present value of jackpots.

WATER: The state House gave tentative approval Thursday to remove Asheville's water system from the city's authority and put it under the governance of a regional board.

PRE-K: A proposal filed Thursday would drastically reduce the number of four-year-olds eligible for NC Pre-Kindergarten. House Bill 935, filed by Appropriations chair Justin Burr, R-Stanly, would change the definition of an 'at-risk' child. Under current income guidelines, children from families of four making less than $51,000 are eligible for the free program. Children currently enrolled under that definition could continue the program. For future enrollments, H935 would change the cut-off to 100% of poverty, which is about $22,000 for a family of four.

SCHOOLS: State Superintendent of Public Instruction June Atkinson said Thursday that legislation moving forward in the Senate that would assign letter grades to each North Carolina public school would provide a misleading picture of their annual performance. Senate Bill 361, which is also known as the "Excellent Schools Act of 2013," would use a points system based on achievement test results and other measures, such as graduation rates, to arrive at a final grade of A through F.

DOGS: A bipartisan group of House lawmakers filed a bill Thursday that would define the standards of care large commercial dog breeders must provide to their dogs.

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