Legislators dreamed up this dorky idea that teacher pay could be increased if, while still draining funding from the education budget, the advertising budget for the North Carolina Education Lottery would be doubled. Supply your own synonym for poo.
As an alternative option, the JLF’s Sarah Curry estimated the state could free up $667 million in the current budget by reverse logrolling:
Budget negotiators should take the opposite approach, Curry said. “Rather than one set of budget negotiators accepting particular programs or higher levels of spending from their counterparts, with the expectation that those counterparts will do the same, legislators should agree to accept the lower spending numbers for each departmental budget,” she said. “After all, a majority in at least one chamber already has decided that the lower spending figure will satisfy citizens’ needs under current budgetary constraints.”
