News
Easley budget halves spending increase
Plan includes raising teacher salary above the national average
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Published: May 11, 2008
RALEIGH
Gov. Mike Easley will propose increasing state government spending Monday by less than half as much as last year, as he tries to provide for his signature education programs and leave a sound budget for his successor.
Easley's spending plan will include suggestions for adjustments to the two-year budget's final year, which will begin July 1. He will propose making "several hundred million dollars" in spending cuts to keep the growth to about 4 percent, said his budget adviser, Dan Gerlach. By comparison, spending was up more than 9 percent to about $20.7 billion in the budget's first year.
Gerlach said that the targeted reductions wouldn't hurt classroom education or access to human services.
"There will be concerns about the reductions," he said, but "there's not a lot of things that we're eliminating."
Also, spending will be tempered because the state isn't collecting revenue at the same breakneck pace as it has in the past two years.
Sen. Phil Berger, the minority leader, said that Easley and the Democratic Legislature will be hard pressed to keep up with spending that has grown nearly 30 percent since 2004.
"We forget the other side of this equation," said Berger, R-Rockingham. "The revenue is a direct result of the (high) tax rates we've got."
For years, Easley has talked about leaving the budget in decent shape for his successor. He entered office in January 2001 and within a month was prompted to use emergency powers to plug a budget hole that reached $1.6 billion the following year.
Easley's budget tries to keep improving access to quality education from prekindergarten to college by building on programs started in previous years, Gerlach said. Those programs have included the More at Four early childhood program, class-size reductions in primary-school grades, and giving high-schoolers more opportunities to take college classes.
Easley has said that those initiatives will better prepare students for the world economy by teaching them the skills needed to perform high-tech, high-paying jobs that aren't as likely to be eliminated.
Gerlach said that the budget proposal will also:
□ Raise the average salary of public-school teachers above the national average.
□ Spend $20 million to expand children's health insurance and child-care subsidies and help home-owners at risk of foreclosure.
□ Increase staffing for the state's probation and parole system.
□ Restore money to the state's Juvenile Crime Prevention Councils.
□ Propose a sales-tax holiday in October for energy-efficient appliances and other devices.
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