Notable budget reactions
Most of the reactions to Governor Beverly Perdue’s budget this week were fairly predictable. Republicans for the most part denounced it because it continued part of the 2009 sales tax increase and didn’t make enough budget cuts for their liking, though it may be impossible to ever make enough budget cuts to satisfy them.
Many progressive Democrats weren’t thrilled that Perdue proposed cutting the corporate income tax, but were happy that she protected teachers, stayed away from video poker, and didn’t rely on cuts alone to address the shortfall.
Two reactions to Perdue plan deserve a specific mention. Former Charlotte mayor and failed gubernatorial candidate Pat McCrory’s comments were noteworthy because they didn’t make much sense.
McCrory, who managed to say with a straight face that he hasn’t made the decision yet to run for governor again in 2012, told WITN-TV that Perdue’s budget is “nothing close to what she promised citizens she would do.”
McCrory apparently wasn’t paying attention when Perdue promised to protect education and invest in economic development and streamline state government.
In McCrory’s defense he has been busy since the last election, hanging out with right-wing groups like Americans for the Prosperous and making speeches everywhere in the state where at least two Republicans are having lunch. That probably has nothing to do with any political plans for next year.
Republican Senator Thom Goolsby also panned Perdue’s budget but not just because it kept some of the 2009 sales tax hike on the books or because he didn’t think it cut enough. Goolsby was upset because Perdue only recommended cutting the corporate income tax two percent, from the current 6.9 to 4.9.
Goolsby told WWAY-TV “When I ran for this office I said we need to get rid of this corporate tax period. It taxes businesses, and it’s passed right on to consumers. I agree with her at least wanting to lower it, but I want to see it gone.”
State budget officials say the reduction in the corporate tax that Perdue is proposing would cost $303 when fully implemented in 2012-2013. That means it would cost roughly another $800 million to eliminate it now as Goolsby proposes.
Add that to the extension of the sales tax increase he doesn’t like and that means lawmakers would need to find another $1.7 billion cuts beyond the 10,000 positions Perdue wants to eliminate. Too bad the reporter didn’t ask Goolsby how he’d pay for abolishing the corporate income tax. The teachers in Wilmington can probably figure it out.
From the Fringe
This week’s From the Fringe again features the Pope Center to Dismantle Public Higher Education, but not the usual fringe suspect at the group George Leef. This week it’s the group itself finally explicitly revealing its purpose with a poll for its readers to help the group determine “what’s wrong with higher education.”
Staffer Jenna Robinson writes the introduction to the poll, which is basically a list of the all the criticism of universities from the Center, from the claims about overselling colleges, “bloated budgets,” and the ever popular “liberal bias.”
Then it’s on to the survey, where readers can choose one of five answers to the question “what’s your biggest concern about higher education?”
The choices are falling academic standards, bias on campus and in the classroom, runaway costs and spending and overselling college and credential inflation. The fifth category you can check is “something else” and you can elaborate in the comment section.
Here are a few possible answers that didn’t make the Civitas list; the growing lack of access to higher education for kids from working poor families, the damage that may be done to the UNC system by the slash and burn budget cuts from the Republican General Assembly, the now annual tuition increases, and the amount of time and resources that universities must spend answering absurd charges and public record requests by far-right think tanks who are trying to destroy them.
Oh, and one more, the growing influence on the curriculum and academic integrity of large, private donors, particularly one who appears to have mounted an effort to take over the economics department at N.C. State.
The Pope Center ought to recognize that name and be familiar with his funding.
