The news that Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand (D-Cumberland) will leave the N.C. Senate to take an appointment to the Post-Release Supervision and Parole Commission brought to my mind the quote for which I will always remember this very, very powerful man.

I can’t find a link to the story, but it was so amazing that I kept a hard copy. It comes from the Fayetteville Observer, December 16, 2008, in a story written by Corey G. Johnson. (emphasis is mine)

Speaking to about 45 people at Fayetteville Technical Community College, Rand predicted that the loss of state revenue will prompt more prudent spending decisions by state leaders.

“We’ve thrown money away in the past,” Rand said. “Now, we’re going to make sure we can justify every penny we spend.“

Sen. Rand’s statement is particularly galling in light of the following facts, as detailed by JLF Fiscal Policy Analyst Joe Coletti when he released his alternative state budget in March. (emphasis is mine)

In the most detailed state budget proposal the John Locke Foundation has unveiled in its history, Coletti recommends a total General Fund appropriation of $18.8 billion for the budget year that starts July 1. It would save $2.2 billion (10 percent) from the continuation budget of $21 billion.

“North Carolina’s budget exploded between the 2004 and 2008 budget years,” Coletti said. “Adjusting for inflation, spending climbed from $2,037 per person to $2,336. That’s growth of 15 percent.” The 2008 budget was $5.8 billion higher than the budget for 2004, Coletti said.

Spending growth continued in the current state budget, even as tax revenues started to slow, Coletti said. “Instead of setting money from the previous year’s surplus into the rainy day reserve fund as required by law, legislators spent it,” he said. “This action continued a long pattern of expanding budgetary commitments in good times and helped set up the fiscal crisis confronting Gov. Perdue and the General Assembly now.”

Of course we know how this spend-and-tax cycle turned out. This summer Gov. Perdue signed into law a slate of new taxes and fees totaling $2.7 billion over the biennium. They will hit virtually every North Carolinian. Remember, it was just a few years ago that the state had a $2 billion surplus.