My Spotlight on the final budget is now online. Read it and weep for the future damage to your family’s finances embedded in state government’s continued spending growth.
If you still have strength after that, consider how one person is defending the budget:
- The same self-described conservatives decrying the size of the budget also frequently rail against using one-time money for ongoing expenses. [Is there supposed to be a contradiction here?]
- tax cuts are also recurring expenses as they reduce state revenues every year [Mr. Spock?]
- The State’s Rainy Day Fund now has almost $800 million in it, an all time high. [Though still far short of the 5% statutory limit and nowhere near realistic needs]
- The budget eliminates the sales tax on electricity for agricultural and manufacturing companies [so tax incentives for energy consumption are now good? Then why promote energy conservation and higher electricity prices in SB3?].
- as a percentage of personal income, North Carolina’s total state and local taxes in the period from 2000-2005 were at the same level as they were in 1990s [Yeah, but it’s the period from 2005-2007 that gets really ugly]
