Joe Coletti had this to say about the budget plan Gov. Beverly Perdue unveiled this morning:
“The governor?s budget is not nearly as fiscally conservative as advertised. Her own budget director admitted that Medicaid spending, listed as a large cut, actually has higher spending in this budget. Add in the federal money from the original stimulus bill and the state budget reaches $20.8 billion in General Fund spending.
An example of the smoke and mirrors in the budget is the governor?s setting aside $100 million in the Savings Reserve Account, the state?s rainy day fund. This looks like a fiscally prudent idea, but $85 million of that is set aside to offset the temporary repeal of the death tax this year, before it returns in 2011.
Gov. Perdue highlighted a number of targeted incentives that help North Carolina?s ranking in Site Selection magazine, but do little to actually help entrepreneurs and businesses in the state.
The entire budget debate illustrates the problems we brought up last year in taking the federal stimulus money. If it goes to pay for recurring expenses, it just delays the day of reckoning. Regardless how it is used, there are a number of strings attached to those dollars.
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