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Headlines : North Carolina
NC gov wants higher sales tax for education
Perdue said her spending proposal for the year starting July 1 will call for a temporary sales tax increase of three-quarters of a penny, whose revenues would be dedicated to public education. That would raise the sales tax consumer in most counties pay from 6.75 percent to 7.5 percent.
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Headlines : North Carolina
State government reorganizes seeking more efficiency
North Carolina state government is undergoing the biggest reorganization in 40 years, in an effort by Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue - with the support of the GOP legislature - to save money during difficult financial times.
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Headlines : North Carolina
NC: Gov, lawmakers tussle over Medicaid shortfall
How to close North Carolina's projected $139 million Medicaid shortfall this year is once again breeding conflict between the governor's office and Legislature.
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Solutions : North Carolina
Transparency and accountability in North Carolina's state budget
North Carolina should expand NCOpenBook.gov to provide transaction-level detail updated daily with spending and revenue for all of state government. Each state agency should provide easy access to its transaction information on every page of its website.
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Solutions : North Carolina
Education spending in North Carolina
The state should discontinue the confusing practice of allocating funds to each school district using various funding formulas. Coupled with open enrollment for schools statewide, student-centered funding would ensure that schools of the parents' choosing receive funds necessary to educate each child and nothing more. The state should also implement a merit pay system for teachers that will pay a portion of their salary based on the value that they add to their students' academic performance.
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Gov. Bev Perdue
Office of Governor Beverly Perdue
20301 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-0301
Phone: (919) 733-5811
Fax: (919) 733-2120
http://www.governor.state.nc.us/
Charlie Perusse, State Budget Director
Office of State Budget & Management
20320 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-0320
Phone (919) 807-4700
Fax: (919) 733-0640
www.osbm.state.nc.us
charles.perusse@osbm.nc.gov
2012 Legislative Calendar: Convening and adjourning date TBD. Will be set by resolution.
Legislative Budget Leaders:
Rep. Harold J. Brubaker (R), Chair, House Appropriations Committee, Harold.Brubaker@ncleg.net 919-715-4946
Rep. James W. Crawford, Jr. (D), Vice-Chair, House Appropriations Committee, Jim.Crawford@ncleg.net 919-733-5824
Sen. Peter S. Brunstetter (R), Chair, Senate Appropriations & Base Budget Committee, Peter.Brunstetter@ncleg.net 919-733-7850
Sen. Neal Hunt (R), Vice-Chair, Senate Appropriations & Base Budget Committee, Neal.Hunt@ncleg.net 919-733-5850
Rep. Julia C. Howard (R), Chair, House Finance Committee, Julia.Howard@ncleg.net 919-733-5904
Rep. Dale R. Folwell (R), Vice-Chair, House Finance Committee, Dale.Folwell@ncleg.net 919-733-5787
Sen. Fletcher L. Hartsell, Jr. (R), Co-Chair, Senate Finance Committee, Fletcher.Hartsell@ncleg.net 919-733-7223
Sen. Bob Rucho (R), Co-Chair, Senate Finance Committee, Bob.Rucho@ncleg.net 919-733-5655
Sen. Tom Apodaca (R), Chair, Senate Ways & Means Committee, Tom.Apodaca@ncleg.net 919-733-5745
Sen. Andrew C. Brock (R), Vice-Chair, Senate Ways & Means Committee, Andrew.Brock@ncleg.net 919-715-0690
The current state budget can be found here.
North Carolina is required to pass a "balanced budget." Article III, Section 5 of the 1971 Constitution states that the total expenditures of the State for the fiscal period covered by the budget shall not exceed the total of receipts during that fiscal period and the surplus remaining in the State Treasury at the beginning of the period. Section 143c-4-1 of the State law further declares that the budget recommended by the Governor and the budget enacted by the General Assembly shall be balanced and shall include two fiscal years beginning on July 1 of each odd-numbered year. Each fiscal year and each fund shall be balanced separately. The budget for a fund is balanced when the beginning unreserved fund balance for the fiscal year, together with the projected receipts to the fund during the fiscal year, is equal to or greater than the sum of appropriations from the fund for that fiscal year. North Carolina law forbids the carrying over of a deficit from one year to the next. North Carolina law requires the Governor to keep a watchful eye on the budget, and to make necessary corrections when deficits begin to develop.
Our study revealed that despite the balance budget requirements mentioned above, North Carolina's Budgetary Comparison Schedules reported three years of budget deficits (negative net transactions).
The State maintains the following individual major funds: the General Fund, the Highway Fund, and the Highway Trust Fund. Information within the CAFR for all other funds is aggregated for presentation purposes. The State budgets on a cash basis and the major governmental fund that is budgeted is the General Fund. This is evident by significant differences between actual and budgeted figures (revenues and expenditures) being reported with the State's CAFRs. [from the Institute for Truth in Accounting]
Find the state's bond ratings here.
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K-12 Education :
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HEADLINES: North Carolina
NC gov wants higher sales tax for education
Perdue said her spending proposal for the year starting July 1 will call for a temporary sales tax increase of three-quarters of a penny, whose revenues would be dedicated to public education. That would raise the sales tax consumer in most counties pay from 6.75 percent to 7.5 percent.
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SOLUTIONS: North Carolina
Education spending in North Carolina
The state should discontinue the confusing practice of allocating funds to each school district using various funding formulas. Coupled with open enrollment for schools statewide, student-centered funding would ensure that schools of the parents' choosing receive funds necessary to educate each child and nothing more. The state should also implement a merit pay system for teachers that will pay a portion of their salary based on the value that they add to their students' academic performance.
- View All North Carolina articles
Budget Gimmicks :
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HEADLINES: North Carolina
Senate bill would transfer special funds money to general state budget
Under the bill, about $8.2 million in uncommitted One North Carolina Fund and Job Development Investment Grant money would be transferred to the General Fund to help reduce the state's $3.7 billion budget deficit.
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HEADLINES: North Carolina
NC court: State can't use special funds to balance budget
Splitting 3-3, the N.C. Supreme Court has let stand a lower court ruling that former Gov. Mike Easley acted improperly in 2002 when he raided the state's Highway Trust Fund to plug a $1 billion budget shortfall. A spokesman for Gov. Bev Perdue said she does not feel restricted by the ruling, which applies only to the Easley case. Perdue moved money during the last budget cycle from the Clean Water Trust Fund, the lottery reserve fund and funds for building public schools and buying textbooks. Perdue is now facing a predicted 2011 revenue shortfall of over $3 billion. Her office said the state's top executive has a constitutional duty to balance the budget during an economic crisis.
- View All North Carolina articles
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Solutions: North Carolina
Transparency and accountability in North Carolina's state budget
North Carolina should expand NCOpenBook.gov to provide transaction-level detail updated daily with spending and revenue for all of state government. Each state agency should provide easy access to its transaction information on every page of its website.
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Solutions: North Carolina
Education spending in North Carolina
The state should discontinue the confusing practice of allocating funds to each school district using various funding formulas. Coupled with open enrollment for schools statewide, student-centered funding would ensure that schools of the parents' choosing receive funds necessary to educate each child and nothing more. The state should also implement a merit pay system for teachers that will pay a portion of their salary based on the value that they add to their students' academic performance.
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Solutions: North Carolina
Spending reform in North Carolina
North Carolina should define government's role in each policy area. Some policy goals are better achieved by families, charities, or free enterprise. It should post budget bills online 72 hours before the first vote and provide a five-year fiscal note with each budget. The state should also expand the rainy day fund to 10 percent of General Fund appropriations in the most recent fiscal year.
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Solutions: North Carolina
Start Building a Better Budget: Seven steps to saner state spending
Article presenting seven steps that would make future budgets better, including posting budget bills online 72 hours before the first vote and providing a five-year fiscal note with each budget.
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North Carolina
Public Employee Pension Debt Explodes
Analysts put liability at $3.23 trillion - more than $10,000 per person.
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BLOG : Michigan, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, North Carolina , Louisiana
Tick Tock Goes the Pension Bomb
Public sector compensation and retirement benefits have made headlines lately for their sheer size and weight in comparison to the private sector. The problem of unfunded liabilities is decades in the making, but the bills are starting to come due this legislative session. Budget leaders are learning that they won't have decades to undo this disaster.
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North Carolina
Perdue Signs $19B State Budget Bill On Time
The North Carolina General Assembly gave final approval Wednesday to a new state government budget that contains no raises for state employees for a second straight year and threatens to underfund pension contributions even more if extra money doesn't arrive from Congress. Gov. Beverly Perdue signed the bill into law, marking the first time a budget was approved on schedule since 2003.
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Indiana, North Carolina , California, New York
The Other Financial Crisis
Nearly everywhere, tax revenue plummeted as property values tanked, incomes dwindled and consumers stopped shopping. Falling prices for stocks and real estate have made mincemeat of often underfunded public pension plans. Unemployed workers have swelled the demand for welfare and Medicaid services. Governments that were frugal in the past are just squeaking by. Governments that were lavish in the good times, building their budgets on optimism and best-case scenarios, now risk being wrecked like a shantytown in an earthquake.
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West Virginia, New York, Washington, Tennessee, North Carolina , California
Underfunded Teacher Pension Plans: It's Worse Than You Think
To all the other fiscal travails facing this country’s states and largest cities, now add their pension obligations, which are far greater than they may realize or are willing to admit. This paper focuses on the crisis in funding teachers’ pensions, because education is often the largest program area in state budgets, making it an obvious target for cuts.
