Leaders need new budget priorities
Thursday, November 13th, 2008
By Staff
Raleigh
If you had to suddenly cut 5 percent from your family’s budget, how would you do it? I suspect most people would include the term “priorities” somewhere in their answers.
Because of overzealous spending commitments and overly optimistic revenue projections, North Carolina is facing what many are calling a budget crisis. In short, the current state budget spends significantly more money than is available.
In response to this crisis, budgetmakers in Raleigh have been frantically trying to figure out how to cut roughly 5 percent of this year’s spending in order to make ends meet.
On Nov. 6, the state’s Office of State Budget and Management unveiled its plan to trim about $900 million in spending — and tap almost $300 million from the Rainy Day Fund — in order to close the current year’s budget gap.
The planned spending cuts involve a combination of measures, including: withholding money from all major state agencies, ranging from 1.5 percent (Public Schools) to 5 percent (General Government, Natural and Environmental Resources) of each agency’s budget; freezing capital projects not receiving federal matching funds; holding back unspent funds carried over from 2007-08; and putting off repair and renovation spending on government property. (more…)
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