Tag: state budget

Day One: McCrory outlines immediate needs, challenges (video)

January 7, 2013 at 7:32 pmCategory:Uncategorized

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Governor Pat McCrory held the first press conference of his new administration Monday to share with reporters the good, the bad and the ugly.

The ugly, according to the new governor, would be the state’s information technology systems – so “broken” in many departments,  it will be essential to work with contractors to modernize existing programs and create better back-up computer systems.

McCrory said his budget director and cabinet secretaries would also be examining the maintenance operation needs of state buildings in serious need of repair:

“This is not just true of buildings, but we’ve had this example with roads and other infrastructure, where we build new things without having sufficient operations money to run them,” said the governor. “This is a long-term structural breakdown…that you can’t put on any one individual or political party. This is an institutional structural breakdown.”

The bad: While North Carolina has a razor thin surplus, the state faces a “cash-flow crunch” likely through May, as the Revenue Department works to process income tax refunds in a timely manner.

Asked about the possibility of seeking new revenue in the upcoming legislative session, Gov. McCrory said that was off the table: Read More…

Meet the new boss

December 20, 2012 at 12:19 pmCategory:Uncategorized

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Art popeWhen the rumor surfaced yesterday that arch-right-wing money bags and politcal attack ad king Art Pope would be Pat McCrory’s new budget director, there was a lot of denial amongst the folks we talk with over here at Policy Watch. Folks simply couldn’t believe that the new Guv would take such an outrageous and politically risky step.

This would be like a President Romney appointing the Koch brothers as his directors of the EPA and IRS.

But, here we are, 24 hours later, getting our arms around the idea that the man actually did it! Today’s edition of the Fitzsimon File will explore this momentous decision in more detail so be on the lookout, but here is a preliminary take:

In one fell swoop, before he’s even taken office, Pat McCrory has done at least three very ill-advised things: Read More…

Canaries in the school bus lane

September 7, 2012 at 2:25 pmCategory:Uncategorized

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(Cross-posted from the blog of the North Carolina Council of Churches).

By George Reed, Executive Director

You probably know how the phrase “canary in the coal mine” came into being, but it doesn’t hurt to repeat it. Before there were other ways of monitoring for dangerous gases in coal mines, like carbon monoxide, miners took caged canaries with them into the tunnels. If gases were present, they would kill the canaries first, perhaps giving the miners a chance to escape. They were what we might call an early warning system today.

There were some big ole yellow canaries in the school bus lanes of Wake County’s public schools last week. The first days of the year were a disaster, at least in terms of transportation. Children waited for buses that ran late or never came at all. In the afternoons, some kids didn’t get home until 6:00 or later. The school system fielded thousands of calls from irate parents. Read More…

Damning with faint praise

July 5, 2012 at 7:50 amCategory:Uncategorized

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Though it’s not so clear to me that the GOP could have simply walked away and stayed away as they threatened to do (and as the editorial accepts as a given) a piece in this morning’s Winston-Salem Journal has a generally accurate take on some key outcomes of the recently adjourned General Assembly:

“This supplemental budget will mean further cuts to our public schools, the schools that educate the vast majority of North Carolina children. The legislature did not add back enough state money to offset lost federal stimulus money that had been paying thousands of teachers.

Class sizes will grow. There will be fewer course offerings. Teachers will be laid off.

But, had the veto been sustained, Read More…

Together NC condemns Senate budget, game-playing during final debate

June 14, 2012 at 2:43 pmCategory:Uncategorized

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Together NC, the coalition representing more than 120 non-profit organizations, service providers, and professional associations, has released a statement sharply criticizing the state Senate’s passage of its budget proposal:

‘We are deeply disappointed that the North Carolina Senate passed its extremely backwards budget plan. Cutting more out of public schools, health care, and infrastructure is the exact opposite of what North Carolina needs for full economic recovery. It is also completely contrary to public will. This is a sad day for all of us who’ve worked to make North Carolina a better place to live, grow up, grow old and do business.

To add insult to injury is the manner in which Senate leadership debated their final vote on the state budget. They played political games by proposing a vote on the temporary one-cent sales tax increase that we and many others have called for to restore deep budget cuts yet didn’t allow for full deliberation of the proposal or serious consideration. It turned out it was a joke vote.

It’s not a joke to the nearly 3,000 educators who lost their jobs due to last year’s budget cuts and those that will lose them in the year to come. It’s not a joke to the youth in North Carolina who will no longer benefit from innovative tobacco prevention programs. It’s not a joke to the low-income four year olds who will miss out on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to succeed in school. And it’s not a joke to the seniors who can no longer receive eyeglasses.

Voters elect their representatives to make serious decisions about the direction of our state. To ignore that responsibility is a failure to lead. To make a mockery of it is to lead in the wrong direction.’

To further express its displeasure with the state spending plan, coalition partners are convening the first annual Backwards Budget .5K next Tuesday. Participants will race backwards around the Halifax Mall (directly behind the General Assembly) to shine a spotlight on the legislature’s backwards approach to the North Carolina’s budget.