You may have wondered why the Back to Basics Budget includes $1.5 billion in federal dollars from the stimulus for FY2010 and $500 million for FY2011. In preparing the budget, we took a realistic assessment of what revenues would be available to the NC General Assembly and the stimulus money would clearly be one source of revenue, as much as we would prefer Gov. Perdue rejected the money and its strings.
Since the federal money would be available to spend, our objective was to show the least habit-forming way of applying it. For Medicaid, we showed that the state could take the money the first year and prepare the system to transition to block grants. For education, we used it to pay down debt and to delay cost reductions or tuition increases for two years, again preparing the system now for the eventual end of federal money.
The Left have suggested $1 billion in new taxes to fill in “30 percent” of the budget hole that they repeatedly claim to be $4 billion (new math). Even with the $1.7 billion in federal money the governor budgets, they implicitly call for $300 million to $1.3 billion in program cuts that they refuse to specify. They can only complain.
North Carolina for too long has had excess spending with little to show for it. Maybe the General Assembly can try a little restraint this year and not pile on the 10.7 percent of people without a job.
