Ben Niolet and Kevin Kiley of the News & Observer offer a good summary this morning of the final state budget deal, though I wish they’d avoid statements like this one: 

The deficit was an unprecedented shortfall for the state. It forced
Perdue, who took office in January, to make difficult choices to keep
the budget in balance and forced her to defer some of her ambitious
campaign proposals.

Ignoring the use of “unprecedented,” which could be subject to argument, the writers ought to have quoted someone as calling Perdue’s budget choices “difficult” and her campaign proposals “ambitious.” 

Reading that paragraph, my first thought was, “Says who?”