The final report on fiscal year 2010 revenue and spending only tells part of the story. It does not count $1.4 billion in federal bailout funds for the state. The bailout funds were counted in fiscal year 2009 when $680 million rained down on Raleigh.
Counting bailout money for FY2009 but not for FY2010 makes it look like the governor and legislature were frugal and made tough decisions to save $1.1 billion, though no such thing happened.
With the bailout, the state spent $250 million more in FY2010 than in FY2009, or $19.9 billion of $20.1 billion it had available. It would be nice if the Controller’s office recognized this and stopped comparing apples and oranges.
