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 Is it really the best they could do?
by Tom Campbell
August 6, 2009
Listening to legislators defend the just-passed state budget was like hearing a broken record. Over and over they said it was “the best they could do.” Unquestionably this was the worst economy any of them had ever experienced, the gap between projected state revenues and expenditures was almost five billion dollars and the differences between the House and Senate were more dramatic than in many a year. After haggling for more than a month, with one budget shot down by Governor Perdue, conferees finally agreed, saying it was the toughest negotiations they ever encountered and the compromises they reached were the best they could get passed by their respective houses.
But was it their best? How can it be best to spend million more on our university system this year than last year while forcing local school systems to cut 225 million dollars, almost sure to result in increased class sizes and fewer teachers? Is it best to raise university tuitions twice in one year while allowing 12 million dollars in breaks to wealthy groups like The Rams Club, The Wolfpack Club, Morehead Scholars or Park Scholars? How can it be best to raise taxes on everything we purchase, penalizing people for earning more than average wages, while failing to make significant cuts to pet projects and lower priority programs? What statement does it make about our priorities when we slash budgets for the mentally ill but dole out questionable tax incentives to corporations?
Whenever I brought home less than a stellar report card my parents would ask me if this was truly the best work I could do. They knew I was capable of better and they demanded it from me. We can say the same about this budget.
Our legislators knew before they convened that North Carolina, like the nation, was in the throes of a recession. They may not have known the depth of the downturn, but by mid-April the severity was pretty obvious. Since coming to Raleigh in late January there has been plenty of time for legislative leadership to discuss both where we are at this moment in history as well as where we want to go. This could have been an opportunity, as was the case in Governor Max Gardner’s Depression administration, to have established priorities for government, to have reorganized government to reflect new visions and to have eliminated waste, duplication and lower priority spending. There was more than ample time to have decided how to make significant reforms to our tax codes. In the six months they have been meeting they could have addressed these and other major issues.
The plain truth is that nobody wants to sacrifice for the common good. Everyone talks about cutting the budget, just not their pet program. Our leaders listened to lobbies and special interests, not the average citizen.
There are many fine people who serve in our legislature and we acknowledge again that these are extremely difficult times, but at the moment we needed visionary, humble, consensus-building leaders, willing to do what was best for the most of us. We didn’t get it and the consequences of this budget will be hard for many to bear. |
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