The state budget debate is on the backburner this week at the General Assembly as lawmakers scramble to keep non-budget legislation alive by getting it through one chamber before Thursday's crossover deadline.
House leaders might welcome the budget break after last week's news that state revenues were coming in far below the already revised expectations, creating a hole $1.5 billion deeper than the one the Senate filled.
That means raising more revenue than the Senate or making more cuts, a sobering thought considering the Senate budget deeply slashed spending on public schools, early childhood programs and other human services.
House leaders continue to publicly predict that they will fill the hole with cuts alone and say there's little chance they will raise more revenue than the $500 million in the Senate plan.
That's not good news. The House budget writers must raise more money than the Senate given last week's revenue figures, but they also need to reexamine the Senate's funding choices and priorities, and its sacred cows.
Some things ought to be easy like choosing between spending $5 million dollars to renourish the beach on Bald Head Island or maintain services for seniors and people with disabilities that could keep them out of a state institution.
The Senate spends $5 million on the Bald Head beach project and $2 million for Nags Head, the only coastal projects in the budget that are not matched by federal money. Beaches don't belong higher on any list than helping people with disabilities bathe, dress and take care of themselves.
Ending in-state tuition for out-of-state athletes is another obvious place for the House to find savings. The in-state provision was slipped into the budget four years ago and provides a $10 million windfall for the athletic booster clubs at UNC-Chapel Hill and N.C. State.
It is time to get the taxpayer money back and help kids in classrooms instead of taking care of the well-connected alumni at half court of the Dean Dome.
The House could delay the reduction in the transfer from the Highway Trust Fund to the General Fund. The $39 million would pay for gap funding for toll road projects decided by legislative leaders, not transportation officials.
Delaying toll roads in the districts of powerful legislators can wait a year or two so Smart Start and More at Four don't have to reduce the number of at-risk children they help.
Then there are programs that deserve funding, but ought to at least be on the table like everything else in a year when programs that help kids stay in school are in line to be eliminated.
The Clean Water Management Trust Fund has received $100 million a year for the last several years and it has made a difference in many communities. But couldn't it get by on $30 million or $40 million for a year or two?
North Carolina's annual share of the national tobacco settlement is roughly $140 million a year. It is divided between the Golden Leaf Foundation, the Health and Wellness Trust Fund and the Tobacco Trust Fund.
All three funds can point to successful programs they have helped and jobs they have created, but what's wrong with using the settlement money next year to avoid cuts at mental hospitals or programs that keep nonviolent offenders out of prison, saving money and lives?
Then there is trhe almost universal assumption that teachers and some school employees will receive a 1.8 percent raise next year from a step increase in the salary schedule that will cost $64 million.
Teachers deserve more money, but the governor has already called for furloughs and budget leaders may call for more of them next and say repeatedly they are also considering significant layoffs.
It doesn't make much sense to give teachers a raise the same year you are also reducing their pay or laying people off.
The Senate spends more than $500 million on expanding programs at the same time it is deeply cutting others. Some of the expansion is vital, like paying for the increased cost of the State Health Plan and the enrollment iincreases in schools.
But is this the year to increase the state appropriation to the North Carolina Research Campus in Kannapolis, while cutting funds to build public schools around the state?
Even if House budget writers decided to delay all these programs, they still would need to raise more revenue than the Senate to avoid making draconian cuts.
They need to do both—pass a progressive revenue package expanding on the Senate's well-crafted effort, and delay spending on things that can wait to avoid hurting programs and people that can't.
It's not that hard to figure out when you think of the budget for what it is, a list of priorities. Let's protect children and seniors instead of beaches and booster clubs.
(Editor's Note: Friday's Fitzsimon File incorrectly attributed some comments about the statewide smoking ban in the Senate debate to Senator Pete Brunstetter. The Senator who wondered if restaurants should stop serving butter and sugar was Senator Andrew Brock, not Senator Brunstetter. The Fitzsimon File regrets the error, but still doesn't understand what butter and sugar have to do with protecting people from the dangers of secondhand smoke.)
