Budget Deficit Remains $2.5 Billion

Nonpartisan professional legislative staff say the state still faces a $2.5 billion budget hole, despite claims by Gov. Beverly Perdue and others that the deficit has diminished to $1.9 billion.

Perdue and legislative leaders failed to cut spending, as a national recession severely decreased the state’s revenue.  Instead, they imposed “temporary” taxes on struggling North Carolina families, and patched the budget holes with federal stimulus money.

Their refusal to make tough choices resulted in government growth, double-digit unemployment and the highest taxes in the southeastern United States.

Data from nonpartisan professional legislative staff show the budget’s steady climb from $13.3 billion in 1999 to more than $20 billion this year. Only in 2008 did the budget shrink – by less than 2.5 percent.

Republicans now in charge of the General Assembly are working to craft a budget that gets government off the private sector’s back and lets North Carolinians keep more of their own money.  They have promised to lower taxes, eliminate waste and reform education.  Those changes will enable the private sector to add loads of new jobs in the years and decades to come.

“It’s time to face the facts: the state is broke,” said Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger (R-Rockingham).  “That demands we make unprecedented tough choices – but they are the right choices to make.  Some will disagree and attack our efforts.  But people expect the politicians who made this mess to do more than demonize us for cleaning it up.”



Tweet