Cooper names deficit devotee Perusse Budget Director

by Mark Shiver, What Matters in North Carolina, posted by Capitol Connection, January 3, 2017.

Gov. Roy Cooper’s recently announced appointments to key positions in his administration continue to highlight his escape from reality. He named Charlie Perusse as state budget director. Yes, that Charlie Perusse, the one who already had a run at the job under the state’s last Democrat governor, Beverly Perdue, and performed in a less than stellar manner. A negative $3.7 BILLION less than stellar manner.

First Cooper named Ken Eudy as his senior adviser, a guy who has written proudly that he does not stand in support of our military. (See also http://nccapitolconnection.com/2016/12/15/the-irony-of-roy-cooper/). In a disturbing display of insult and tone-deafness to the vast military presence in North Carolina, both active duty, retired and their families, Cooper essentially set himself up to not be taken seriously when addressing these vital members of our community.

Now he has done the same thing again, only this time with the state’s purse strings. As reported at WRAL.com on December 21, 2010,

Amid a projected $3.7 billion deficit, State Budget Director Charlie Perusse will leave his post in the coming weeks to take a job with the University of North Carolina system.

Thank you very much Mr. Perusse for that excellent job overseeing the money of North Carolina’s hard-working taxpayers.

To be fair, the budget deficit, ($3.7 BILLION) that Perusse left behind for greener pastures cannot all be pinned on him. After all, the General Assembly passes the state budget, and it was under their rein of overspending and overtaxing that the state found itself financially shipwrecked. And of course, North Carolina – like the rest of the nation – was still reeling from the effects of the Great Recession.

A trip down memory lane finds the state budget in 2006 with a $2.3 billion projected revenue surplus. Did the Democrats act with fiscal prudence like the Republican majority has been doing since 2011? Absolutely not. The budget in 2006 increased spending almost 10 percent, with an additional nine percent increase in 2007. And no money was set aside into the rainy day fund, a practice that the current General Assembly has prudently adopted, and has proven to be crucial in light of Hurricane Matthew in the east, and the wildfires in the western part of the state.

While Perusse was not at the top of the budget office under then Gov. Mike Easley, he was the deputy director, getting his fill of throwing taxpayer cash into the winds of unrestrained spending.

Of course 2008 came calling, cashing in markers all around the country, and North Carolina was not exempted from the throes of the “Great Recession.” The Democrats in the legislative majority and in the Governor’s mansion had to pay the financial piper, and under the leadership of those like Perusse, crafted state policy to the tune of a $3.7 BILLION deficit by the time then State Budget Director Perusse made his exit.

The same WRAL report referenced above described part of Perusse’s responsibilities as state budget director: “He oversees development of Gov. Beverly Perdue’s recommended budget, monitors spending and revenue to maintain a balanced budget.” It is unclear what part of monitoring spending and maintaining a balanced budget a multi-billion deficit falls under, but it is safe to say that this part of the job description was unfulfilled by Perusse and the tax and spend liberals he served with in the Easley and Perdue administrations.

So here we are in 2017. Cooper has gone to the Perdue well and named Perusse his budget guy. Having spent the last several years crafting budgets in academia at the UNC System, a place not known for its conservation of public money, it’s not likely a more fiscally prudent Perusse is now back in the state budget office.

As with Eudy, Cooper is demonstrating a huge disconnect with the citizens of North Carolina. The state loves and appreciates it military, having a huge presence here with multiple bases and thousands of active and retired service members. What does Cooper do? Appoints Eudy who has disrespected the military and apparently is proud to have done so.

Second, the citizens voted out the tax and spend-crazed liberal majority in 2010. Since 2011, the conservative majority in the General Assembly has balanced the budget, given multiple teacher pay increases, and set in order the Division of Employment Security, Medicaid and the State Health Plan, all of which were left in disarray under Perdue and the Democrats.

By appointing Perusse, Cooper seems to be saying he longs for the days of wasteful spending, higher taxes and huge budget deficits. The people of North Carolina don’t want those days to return, and are mighty blessed to have Sen. Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore in place to prevent the return to the kind of debt-ridden shambles the state was in the last time Perusse was in charge.

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