State Sen. Clark Jenkins, D-Edgecombe, said that Eastern North Carolina "faired well" with appropriations from the record $21.4 billion state budget that was passed during the General Assembly recent short session.

When asked what Edgecombe County will receive from the budget, the Tarboro businessman said the education budget was increased $150 million this year from last year, $100 million was put in the clean water management trust fund and 7,300 more children are eligible for free health care.

He also said free health care for uninsured adults was expanded, and drop out and gang prevention programs each received $15 million.

But the 3rd District senator said the biggest thing that came to his area was funding for East Carolina University's Brody School of Medicine. Out of the $500 million that was appropriated to the 16-school UNC public university system, Jenkins said ECU "got 20 percent of it, which is pretty good."

The funds will be used for two projects; $65 million for the second half of construction for the ECU dental school, and $37 million for the school's family medicine center.

"That'll benefit all of us," Jenkins said, adding that he was proud to be able to save such a large chunk of education money for the 3rd District.

The General Assembly also approved a modified version of a boat-towing bill Jenkins sponsored that drew a lot of attention.

Jenkins had been questioned about a conflict of interest in supporting the bill, because he did not disclose his ownership of a Nags Head marina prior to the vote.

The new law now allows boats up to 10 feet wide to be towed during the day time, and boats up to 9.5 feet wide to be towed at night. The old laws just allowed boats up to 8.5 feet wide to be towed.

Jenkins said the new law "accommodates the majority of the recreation boaters that are out there."

He said the boats most of the time are pulled on wide, multi-lane highways and "not down some back farm road" where they can cause road damage and be difficult to handle.

He said the new law also takes care of "the vast majority of the people" in the boating industry in North Carolina. He said the old towing laws were detrimental to the state's boating industry.

Boat manufacturers in the state account made $600 million last year, Jenkins said, and that number goes "absolutely over a billion dollars" when the rest of the boating industry is counted.

The old laws threatened part of the industry, as Jenkins said several national fishing tournaments were threatening to cancel if the old 8.5-feet-wide law remained unchanged.

One such event, he said, was a king mackeral tournament in Atlantic Beach during the fall.