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Tuesday: Money, money, money
posted at 2008-07-02 00:24 | Last modified 2008-07-02 08:47
Budget (and no, there isn’t one yet)
At a press conference today, Gov. Easley pushed legislators to trim the budget to match a $70M drop in tax receipts projected by the revenue folks.
"I have not signed an unbalanced budget – knowingly – since I’ve been governor. I walked into a 2 1/2 billion dollar shortfall. ...If there’s any way I possibly can avoid it, I’m not gonna let the next governor walk into what I had to walk into."
Hear it here.
Listen Now!
Easley also said he didn’t want to identify what issues might push him to veto the budget. But he did say he’s no fan of the Senate’s proposal to cut the state’s gift tax.
"Certainly very troublesome to me is the tax cuts for the wealthy. I just don’t think this is a good time to do that... especially when you’re already low on revenues. And that’s about an 18 to 20 million dollar item. "
Easley jokingly scoffed at a suggestion that his lame-duck status would lessen his influence over the budget process.
"No, they don’t have to worry about me in January. But they do have to worry about me in July, and August, and September, and October, and especially November. [Audience laughs.] And I want to make sure that we’re all on the same sheet of music."
(What’s he going to do, stump for them? That’d be novel.)
Meanwhile, back at the ranch …
Binker says Pro Tem Marc Basnight and Speaker Joe Hackney agreed tonight to make $70M in cuts, but not on where they'll make them.
It's more complicated than you might think. If it were just a question of shaving off $70M any-old-where, they could take it out of reserves or the rainy-day fund. But $45 million of the cuts need to come from recurring money - the kind everyone wants. Reserves and rainy-day funds are one-time money, so they can’t cover the whole tab.
So where’s it coming from? No one knows yet. Basnight and Hackney said they’re asking the “professional staff” to find cuts. They’re still hoping to have a compromise plan to read in by Wednesday night. That’s not impossible, but it isn’t looking likely, either.
Per diems in Estonia
The other hot topic of the day was the N&O story on expensive European arts trips taken by First Lady Mary Easley. The Gov got testy with a couple of reporters (one from TV who earned it, and one from the AP who didn’t) when pressed on details like the chauffered Mercedes.
"If you go overseas, that’s what you see. You don’t get off the plane in Rome and tell them you want a Crown Vic. The taxis are Mercedes. Now it sounds like a big deal here. And somebody’s got to drive it. If you’re in Ireland, or Belgium, or England, they drive on the other side of the road. We don’t know how to do that."
Right side, left side, whatever - we’ve seen the man wreck a racecar, people. Do you really want him causing an international incident in Italy, or - worse yet - turned loose on an unsuspecting Autobahn? The mind reels.
Seriously, the car expenses were the least of my issues with any of the trips. What were they supposed to do, hire random taxis and run a background check on every driver?
Some burger...
I had a lot less sympathy for other expenses. Easley made a valid argument for arts exchange trips in general – an earlier one led to the recent NCMA Monet exhibition that brought $24M in tourism into Wake County. But did that junket require $800 hotel rooms?
Easley says he’s not in charge of “menus or venues,” even though he's the boss of the folks who are. Hear it here.
Listen Now!
And then there’s “Quarter-Pounder-Gate”:
“Let's be honest about it. A cheeseburger and onion rings cost 60 dollars over there. You know, the dollar’s very, very weak now.”
(Weak, yes, but not that weak. If your burger's more than 30 bucks, it’d better be Kobe.)
“It cost what it cost, and I want Commerce to aggressive as they can be to make sure that we have jobs for people in this state.”
But the question wasn’t Commerce and jobs – it was arts and ballet tickets. So come on, Gov – admit the expenses got out of hand, offer to cover the First Lady’s share of the tab, and make it go away so we can all move on.
Devil’s Advocate
Easley scored a point today arguing about how the N&O sold the story: “Mary Easley trips cost taxpayers $109,000.” That’s not exactly accurate. The headline makes it sound like the total was her bill, but both trips involved several people. And everyone involved seems to agree Mary Easley had little say in the planning.
It might have been more accurate to say “NC Cultural Sec'y Libba Evans’ trips cost taxpayers $109,000,” or even to blame it on NCMA’s Larry Wheeler, both of whom had more to do with the bottom line than Mary Easley did. But then, neither would've sold as many newspapers.
Comments? Drop me a line.
