For the first time since 2001, Gov. Mike Easley is proposing a budget plan that does not include new tax increases. However, his 2004-05 plan does contain hundreds of millions of dollars in new spending financed by previous, costly tax hikes on North Carolina families and businesses. A better fiscal choice would be to eliminate low-priority items from the budget and repeal prior sales and income tax increases. The best choice would be to implement JLF’s Freedom Budget plan.