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Monday: Hurry Up & Wait
posted at 2009-03-16 23:59 | Last modified 2009-03-17 00:32
Governor Bev Perdue rolls out her budget proposal Tuesday morning. Embargoed press access starts at 10:30, with the official unveiling at 11:30 at the Admin Bldg. in downtown Raleigh. Lawmakers will get their own briefing on the spending plan at 1:30 Tuesday in 643 – you can listen online if you’re so inclined.
Perdue previewed her education plan today during her first meeting with her Education Cabinet. While higher ed will take an overall cut, as will DPI and school administration, she says specific areas will see more money, not less.
She’s calling for an additional $7M for job training at community colleges, and a K-12 per-pupil spending increase of about 2.5%, roughly $350M. She plans to pay for it all through a combination of federal recovery funds and deep cuts in other areas.
Job creation and retention, and education -- purely and simply, if your bailiwick isn’t involved around one of those priorities, there are only bad times ahead for you in the budget, for the most part.
Perdue also said she’d just learned that NC is among 12 states chosen by the feds to highlight how federal recovery funds are being put to use.
And so that makes what the locals are gonna do with their investments of recovery dollars even more important. We want North Carolina to be a showcase, rather than a show-stopper, so it’s really important that there be tremendous transparency and accountability in this money.
The Gov also said she’s had more bad news this week from State Revenue Secretary Ken Lay, who reports corporate tax revenues are still in freefall.
You know, it’s early in this whole process….we don’t know what anything’s gonna look like until our April 15th collections are in. And again, I’m hopeful that the economy is beginning to turn around. We’re all hopeful. But I believe the people of North Carolina depend on their elected leaders to do the right investments and decision-making.
Blue and Red
The State Health Plan reform bill, S287, made it to the Senate floor tonight for all of about 2 seconds, the time it took for sponsor Tony Rand (D-Cumberland) to move it to Tuesday’s calendar.
Did the move have anything to do with the dozens of SEANC members upstairs in the gallery, oozing opposition? Good question. Rand said he pulled the bill because “some people” want to look for an alternative to a proposed prescription plan change that independent pharmacists say would drive them out of business. He says there could be an amendment on the floor tomorrow. Here's what Rand had to say to reporters after session tonight (1:26).
Listen Now!
SEANC members who showed up tonight to watch the vote told me they don’t think state lawmakers have all the facts, especially in regard to Blue Cross’s profits for administering the plan.
SEANC reps say the changes in S287 are bad news for state workers, but they’re also opposed to charging state employees any premium to keep their health plan in the black, saying even a small premium would just open the doors to a bigger one down the road. They say their anemic annual raises can’t even keep up with their rising out-of-pocket costs for health care, let alone the actual cost of living.
S287 is scheduled for a Senate floor vote tomorrow, when its supporters can safely expect any debate to be overshadowed by the Governor’s budget announcement. Coincidence?
Sad News
The N&O embarked today on yet another round of job cuts, part of a national McClatchy "contraction" (aka bloodletting) aimed at bringing up company dividends by cutting 1600 positions. N&O Publisher Orage Quarles says 78 jobs will be eliminated here, 27 of them in the newsroom. (There’s really not much left to cut elsewhere at this point).
Across the country, other McClatchy papers saw similar cuts – Idaho, Seattle, Bradenton, Biloxi, Kansas City, Lexington will all see some combination of job cuts, pay cuts, furloughs and buyouts this week. Half a dozen more underwent cuts last week. And the Charlotte Observer is expected to undergo its own round of cuts next week.
It's not just McClatchy, of course. Winston-Salem Journal owner Media General announced late last week it's cutting its Washington bureau. Gannett's furloughing workers, as is Greensboro.
As a reader', I feel like the papers are racing themselves to the bottom, trying to see if they can run out of content before they run out of money. As a reporter, I wish I knew how to express how sorry I am that so many smart, dedicated, passionate people have lost their livelihoods on the way down.
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