It is true that North Carolina’s budget situation isn’t as dire as it is in other states. JLF president John Hood adds further perspective, but the bottom line is “a $3.7 billion budget gap is a $3.7 billion budget gap, regardless of what’s going on in New Jersey or California.”

Meanwhile, the Winston-Salem Journal tackles a subject Commander Hood addressed earlier —-whether to cut salaries or jobs. As you can probably imagine, the Journal favors cutting salaries —heaven forbid government workers lose their jobs.

But cutting salaries gets complicated, at least the way the Journal envisions it:

There are ways to mitigate the impact of a salary cut. First, it should be temporary with legislators writing into law that salaries will rebound to current levels at a date certain. Such a provision would necessitate another legislative vote to maintain the lower salaries.

Also, if salaries are cut, the legislature should find the money to guarantee that individual state pensions are not adversely affected. (Average salary is a component in the formula that determines pensions.) Employees should get pension credit for their current salaries, not reduced salaries.

…..Finally, any salary cut should be progressive, as they have been in private industry. Low salaries should be cut by a low percentage, higher salaries by a higher percentage. And while the state constitution prohibits cutting legislators’ salaries, lawmakers should give up a portion of their other remuneration — for personal expenses, for example — so that they share in the pain.

In fairness, Hood was against an across-the board cut, asking “why should a stressed-out probation officer trying to keep dozens of convicts from returning to a life of crime get the same 15 percent pay cut as someone working in, say, the Department of Cultural Resources or college administration?”

But he also concluded that we elect public officials to do the tough jobs, and either they’re up to the job or they aren’t. They obviously haven’t been up to the job for many, many years now, but this year they have no choice.