N.C. House Budget Plan Overspends, Ignores Problems

JLF budget analyst says Senate could make improvements

RALEIGH (Carolina Journal Online) – The N.C. House’s proposed $21.2 billion state operations budget spends too much money on unproven ideas, overspends one-time money for long-term expenses, and sets up future legislatures for budgetary problems. That’s the assessment of a John Locke Foundation analyst who’s studied the House plan.

“The good news in this plan is that the House avoided the tax increases and shaved some of the spending increases proposed in Gov. Mike Easley’s budget,” said Joseph Coletti, JLF Fiscal Policy Analyst. “But there’s still plenty of bad news in the House plan. State senators could make major improvements to this plan.”

The Senate took over the budget-writing process after the House endorsed its budget June 5 by a 104-10 vote. “If senators ask what’s wrong with the House plan, they’ll find quite a bit,” Coletti said. “It is the most important policy document the legislature will pass, and it gets nearly every policy wrong. It commits government resources in the wrong places, with the wrong assumptions, and no evaluation of the results.”