Budget Preview: NER and The Important Role Played by State-funded Nonprofits in Economic Development
March 18, 2013 at 9:30 amCategory:NC Budget and Tax Center
With the imminent release of the Governor’s budget—possibly as soon as later today—this is the last in a series of posts looking at key issues ahead in the FY 2013-15 North Carolina state budget. This post examines the Natural and Economic Resources (NER) area of the budget, the functional area that provides spending for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Department of Agriculture, Department of Labor, the Clean Water Management Trust Fund, and a variety of programs associated with the state’s economic development efforts. These include the Department of Commerce, the N.C. Rural Center, the N.C. Biotech Center, and about a dozen nonprofit entities that are funded as part of the Commerce-State Aid portion of the budget.
While the main story about NER in FY 2011-13 involved the dismantling of DENR’s regulatory functions and overall 49% cut in funding to the total budget area, the story for this biennium will likely involve the state pass-through funding from Commerce-State Aid to the various nonprofits engaged in economic development efforts on behalf of the state.