After suffering through the gimmickry of the Governor’s? and the Senate’s versions,? the House is working through their version of the State’s budget for FY 2011.? Scheduled to be considered by the full Appropriations Committee tomorrow morning and on the House floor Thursday for second reading vote and probably after midnight Thursday, for what would technically be a Friday third reading vote, the House version looks like even more gimmickry. ? Here are my baker’s dozen on what’s wrong with the House version:

  1. It adds $50M in corporate welfare rather than creating a fair playing field for all businesses.
  2. Rolling Holliman?s H.E.L.P. bill in and claiming it helps small business is a joke ? this provision is a band-aid on a hemorrhaging wound.? It sets up a tax credit if you employ someone for three years ? works out to $333 a year* ($1,000 total) benefit.?If you really want to help businesses, government needs to lower the tax rate so it matters and for everyone (see #1 above) and then get out of the way.
  3. It sets us up for $3B shortfall (or more depending on the recovery of the economy) next year.
  4. Continued whining about firing teachers.? If positions are eliminated, how about starting at the administrative level by cutting assistant principals by 15%? to get $13.5M. Cutting nonessential programs like funding to school connectivity of $18M (97% of schools have internet access); increase of one student per classroom would yield $170M in savings.
  5. Relying on one time revenue to fund recurring obligations ? What happens when it runs out?? $1.3B in federal stimulus money, $12M in TANF funds for More At Four.
  6. Using taxpayer?s money to fund private industries that turn into boondoggles:? Kannapolis Research Center ($20.5M), NC Biotech Center ($13.2M).? It cuts half the funding to the Global Transpark ($50M).? Heck, why stop there? Cut that sucker loose finally and save another $50M.
  7. Instead of pouring another $13M into drop out prevention grants, take a break, evaluate the results of the $35M we?ve already spent, see if there is anything worth pursuing before spending any more on this program.
  8. It grossly underfunds reserves ? the Reserve or Rainy Day Fund, State Health Plan and the State employee?s pension funds.?This is setting us up for future disaster.
  9. It doesn?t go far enough in moving towards self-funding of programs ? in addition to the ferry fee, they could add in a user fee for state parks, privatize railroads and save $42M and eliminate abuses of inflated salaries and pay for play if they privatized the ABC stores.
  10. Short-term solutions for long-term problems. Instead of really making changes to limit the role of government, feed the free market and encourage personal responsibility; this budget continues years of tax and spend politically driven public policy.
  11. Medicaid entitlements are the fastest growing portion of the budget and the House increases it $50M more than the Senate.? Medicaid grows two ways:? covering more people and giving away more stuff.? Rein it in by bringing it in line with what our neighboring states offer and save $500M, take Health Choice back to 2003 enrollment and save $80M and roll back coverage for children to 2005 levels to save $20M.? If government is gong to provide for those who are truly needy, everyone else is going to have to take care of themselves.
  12. Oily math:? They?re spending $20.5B not $19B when you add in the stimulus money from the Feds.? The House uses $128M in lottery money, which ups their education spending by $21M, not $69M less as they claim.? The temporary tax increase from last year is still in there so claims of no tax increase are just wrong.
  13. Includes a bunch of new programs and expansion of old ones, even the resurrection of four old programs ? all told worth $121M.? (Complete list available upon request – [email protected]) In these tough times all new and expanded government programs should be off the table until people are back to work and the economy gets moving again.? Then we can look new programs.? Til then, we?ll just have to make due with the government we?ve got.

Those are mine.? Anybody else?

* Corrected amount