Political candidates make it sound so easy. They want to cut government, getting it off your back, out of your business and your wallet. They seldom mention that government is probably the biggest single service provider most Americans employ today and, as Gov. Bev Perdue's recent budget proposal demonstrates, cutting government means cutting services many of us use.
Perdue and the General Assembly have their work cut out for them, as Perdue made clear in a visit to the Journal on Thursday. Individual taxpayers will decide whether they agree with the cuts that she and the legislators will make this year. Here are just a few of the things that would be cut if Perdue's budget became law.
State parks will close. To save $3 million, Perdue is proposing to close state parks two days a week. The Division of Parks and Recreation will decide which parks close on which days, but North Carolina families that use the parks for inexpensive summer vacations may find them closed when they get to the gate.
School-bus purchases will be delayed. This is a common budget-cutting practice, but it's been used so much that some pretty old buses are on the road. Some children might find longer waits at the curb as schools adjust to fewer bus drivers, too.
The UNC-Chapel Hill School of Nursing will cut its enrollment by 25 percent, or 56 students, in anticipation of budget cuts. Other universities will drop majors, maybe even departments. It's possible, for example, that an N.C. State family will celebrate the admission of a child only to learn her preferred major will no longer be offered.
State grants to nonprofits will be zeroed out. There will be no state money for Special Olympics North Carolina, for example. For some organizations, the grant cuts will be devastating, for others not so much. But services will be lost or reduced at many in a ripple effect to government cutting.
Perdue has said she is limiting cuts to public education, and she reiterated her commitment to education Thursday. But her budget would shift some costs to the counties, and they will have to decide whether to increase their contributions to school operations or order appropriate cuts. One alternative means higher local taxes while the other means a cut in services. The total number of school workers employed by the state's 100 counties whose jobs are at stake in these cuts surpasses 4,400, and cuts of that size will certainly affect the efficient operation of our biggest service provider, the public schools. The cuts to Winston-Salem/Forsyth County schools could number as many as 400, although officials hope, with attrition, to limit the number of actual layoffs to about 150 or less.
It will be up to each voter and taxpayer to decide if we support or oppose these cuts to the services we use.
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