Perdue budget would raise cigarette tax $1 a pack

RALEIGH (Winston-Salem Journal) - Gov. Beverly Perdue's budget proposal released Tuesday would seek a dollar-per-pack increase in North Carolina's cigarette tax and higher alcohol taxes to help narrow the state's $3.4 billion budget gap for the coming year.

Perdue's plan also would seek to reduce spending by $1.3 billion each of the next two years and reduce the state's overall work force by more than 1,030 positions in the fiscal year starting July 1.

That doesn't include potential job losses in the public schools and university system, which would have more flexibility in making their own cuts.