It was hot outside, shimmering waves of distortion rising from the baked, white stone and concrete out front. Inside, it was a bit cooler.

The 120 people who make up the North Carolina House of Representatives were debating the chamber’s proposed budget.

And really, there wasn’t much to debate.

A tightening economy meant a tightening budget. As such, the $21.3 billion budget didn’t have much in it to make anybody mad. And unlike past years, at least to this point, less discretionary money hasn’t led to more fighting over what’s available.

The end result was a budget that raised spending less than 4 percent from the previous year, didn’t raise taxes and provided modest raises for state employees ranging from $1,100 to 3 percent.

A few Republicans grumbled about the half-billion dollars in new non-voter-approved borrowing, the money mainly going to build new university buildings and prisons. The borrowing continues a trend that probably should have caused more than grumbling and heartburn.

Still, Republicans had little more to complain about, and most hopped aboard the train to vote in favor of the plan written by Democratic budget-writers.

Oh, but wait. There was at least a little drama.

Rep. Carey Allred, an Alamance County Republican, brought up one of his perennial complaints — that the highest-paid state employees don’t deserve raises.

As usual, Allred’s motion to strike out raises for top agency officials, bringing their pay up to $123,000, failed. But the ball was rolling now. Allred had some particularly choice words about the pay of State Lottery Director Tom Shaheen, with his annual salary of $246,000. “When I voted for the lottery, I didn’t mean for the director of the lottery to be the winner of the lottery,” Allred quipped.

And the State Lottery Commission — its money coming from lottery receipts and freed of some state budget constraints — had just voted to give a 5-percent raise to its 225 employees.

And it’s an election year.

Democrats weren’t about to be outdone.

The next day, as the second of two required votes was about to be held, Rep. Ty Harrell, a Wake County Democrat, introduced an amendment limiting lottery employees to the same raise as other state employees. Now the rolling ball was a blur. The House voted unanimously for the measure.

In Harrell’s view, and apparently in that of about 119 other people, giving lottery employees a larger raise wouldn’t do much for the morale of other state employees.

“They shouldn’t be given any preferential treatment,” Harrell said afterward. “I think that’s kind of an outrage.”

Of course, the vote might also be taken as a sign about the continuing ambivalence a lot of North Carolinians still have about the game, almost three years after its creation.

Or, maybe House members just needed something to fuss about.

They sure didn’t find a whole lot else to quarrel and fret over in this budget.