“Under the Dome” has an interesting item about state government’s increasing debt load during Kay Hagan’s tenure as a chief budget writer in the state Senate.
To critics of that increasing debt, Hagan can claim correctly that she is not solely responsible. She was one of three Senate Appropriations chairs (“big chairs”), all of whom shared decisions with as many as eight House Appropriations chairs. In addition, some decisions were handed down to Hagan and the other big chairs from the Senate president pro tem and House speaker. (We should also note that Hagan and fellow Senate big chair Walter Dalton scaled back their roles this year as they pursued higher office.)
If Hagan makes the valid argument that she shouldn’t bear the blame for the increasing state debt, the flip side is that she can’t claim all the credit for decisions about the state budget that she would like to tout. Very few state budget decisions are attributable to any one person. And claims about balanced budgets deserve extra scrutiny.
