Looming N.C. deficit among nation's largest
Published August 21, 2013
by Bruce Mildwurf, WRAL.com, July 28, 2013.
North Carolina will face one of the largest state deficits in the country next year, according to a new report.
The National Conference of State Legislatures surveyed 35 states to get a picture of their fiscal health heading into the 2011-12 budget year. Thirty of the states are projecting deficits that total $72 billion.
North Carolina's deficit is already expected to be $3.2 billion next year, or more than 16 percent of its $19 billion operating budget. Lawmakers struggled to cut about $1.3 billion from the budget they passed last month.
The majority of the 2011-12 shortfall comes from the end of federal economic stimulus spending and $1.4 billion in temporary taxes, including a penny increase to the state's sale tax rate, that are scheduled to expire next June.
Only California, Connecticut, Minnesota, New York and Texas are projecting deeper 2011-12 budget holes than North Carolina in terms of total dollars, according to the report. When looking at the deficit as a percentage of the state budget, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Minnesota, New York, Oregon and South Carolina are in more trouble than North Carolina, the report states.
August 21, 2013 at 9:04 am
Richard Bunce says:
REDUCE STATE GOVERNMENT EXPENSES.
August 21, 2013 at 10:22 am
dj anderson says:
I thought Bev & the Democrats only got 2.5 billion borrowed from the Feds to give to unemployment increases and extensions! Isn't that why the Republicans cut the $500+ a week to $300+ and time back to normal? Where did the other billion go? Bev & the Democratic Legislators thought like everyone else that the recession wouldn't last 6 months, and no longer than a year after getting the money. Payback is painful.
August 21, 2013 at 12:26 pm
Talmadge Walker says:
This comes from promiscuous tax cuts, refusing to accept federal funds, and increasing the salaries of Pope's political buddies.
August 21, 2013 at 4:23 pm
dj anderson says:
Talmadge, the tax cuts were about, what, 1.3 billion over four years, which could have been applied to the debt instead, true, but truly, that amount would not have been reserved for this debt, would it, not by the Democrats who incurred it and didn't pay down on the principal, and not by the Republicans who are rightfully making employers pay more in on every worker to pay it off.
The accepting of federal funds to increase & extend unemployment benefits is at least $2.5 billion of the debt, which was the problem and not the solution, as I see it.
The increased salaries of the two workers amounts to $40K per year, which if diverted to pay the debt would take a 100,000 years without counting interest, which the two salary increases would not even pay. So, let's leave that one off, except you do get to rub salt in the wounds by saying it.
On this issue, the Republicans can blame Bev & them, mostly for an inherited debt that helped make Democrats lose the election.
Hey, Talmadge & Richard, consider posting your comments on the NCSpin.com page as well as on here. More people will read if in both places, and we need more comments from you guys.
August 23, 2013 at 7:14 pm
EB Lane says:
Does NO ONE see that this is an old article referring to a projected deficit in the 2011-12 fiscal year!!
'Only California, Connecticut, Minnesota, New York and Texas are projecting deeper 2011-12 budget holes than North Carolina in terms of total dollars,"
