There was no made-for-television event at the State Capitol recently when Governor Beverly Perdue signed legislation banning video sweepstakes parlors, the latest version of video poker that lawmakers outlawed several years ago in the wake of a series of corruption scandals.

No smiling legislators were standing behind her; nobody received their own video poker veto pen as a keepsake.

Instead a day later the legislative leaders determined to outlaw the industry with such a checkered past received something quite different, a signal from Perdue that she really isn't all that committed to keeping the scourge of video poker out of North Carolina, not when there's a chance to raise several hundred million dollars a year by legalizing and taxing video poker operations, or even more likely turning them over to the state lottery to run.

Perdue said if we have video poker, it needs to be effectively regulated. Her spokesperson later clarified to the Associated Press that Perdue "would be open to look at legislation to see what direction to take that." She just signed a bill outlawing the industry, but she's open to another direction?

Perdue made similarly puzzling remarks after signing a bill to reform the state Alcohol Beverage Control system, legislation designed to address the abuses in several local ABC fiefdoms without abolishing the system that provides revenue for local governments by privatizing liquor sales in the state altogether.

That came as a relief to privatization opponents, that Perdue did not propose or push to privatize the system. Yet.

After signing the ABC bill Perdue said she was committed to preserve the core mission of state government and "if that requires privatizing a piece of state government, I believe the General Assembly will have the courage – and folks across the state – to do what is needed to do to stand up and be sure that North Carolina's core missions will be all right."

There's an argument to be made to get the state out of liquor business, but the budget crisis shouldn't prompt a rash of privatization schemes or selling off state assets to raise money to balance the budget.

Arizona has tried that, selling the Capitol building and leasing it back from its owner. But there are still huge budget problems there and now the state doesn't even own the historic building where lawmakers are trying to solve them.

Perdue says she is already working on next year's budget and there are plenty of reasons to get a head start thinking about it. The shortfall could reach $4 billion when temporary taxes expire and federal stimulus money disappears.

There's nothing wrong with looking outside the box for budget solutions that would protect vital state institutions and services. But selling or privatizing big pieces of state government shouldn't be on the list and neither should enabling the video poker barons to exploit more people and buy more politicians.

That's a right-wingers dream that could have worse long-term effects on the state than the immediate budget crisis they would help address.

If Perdue's serious about laying the groundwork for filling next year's budget hole, she ought to be talking about things like comprehensive tax reform, revisiting the use of tobacco settlement money and making multinational corporations pay the taxes they owe.

Those are out of the box solutions too and ones that don't dismantle the state government she was elected to lead.