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RALEIGH (By John Hood, Carolina Journal Online) - After Gov. Beverly Perdue’s sudden, clumsy sabotage of the emerging tax-hike deal in the General Assembly late last week, there was a wave of predictions that legislative leaders would have to start all over, that the Senate might return to its sales-tax-on-services position and refuse to budge, and that budget negotiations might last well into August or even September.

Count me as unconvinced.

The broad outlines of the state budget Perdue and the legislature are going to pass this year have been evident for weeks. They will spend a little over $20 billion in General Fund and federal-bailout dollars. They will raise taxes primarily by hiking the retail sales taxes by a penny, gouging cigarette and alcohol users some more, and applying a surcharge to state income-tax bills.