Sorry, no budget yet. But hey, what's the rush?
Published August 26, 2015
Editorial by Fayetteville Observer, August 25, 2015.
For a while last week, there was some hope that North Carolina would have a budget soon, maybe even by the time the kids went back to school.
Well, the school buses hit the roads this week, but the budget is now 57 days late and it won't be finished anytime soon.
The governor and leaders of the House and Senate agreed on a bottom line more than a week ago and we applauded that good first step. But this week, legislative leaders are saying they're going to need another budget extension beyond the Aug. 31 deadline they gave themselves earlier this month. Now they're looking at Sept. 4, at the least, and maybe after Labor Day.
They've still got a way to go before we're in record-setting country. That would be a Halloween budget agreement. But we're already seeing way more trick than treat, given the chaos that the delays have imposed on every level of government and industry that is dependent in one way or another on the state budget.
With lawmakers lost on the trail between incompetence and irresponsibility, we don't know when to expect a completed budget. And it's downright disheartening that there's so much more work to do after the budget.
Kind of makes you wish this were an election year, doesn't it?
