South By North Strategies, Ltd.

A new report from the NC Budget and Tax Center lays out strategies for rebuilding North Carolina’s recession-battered public institutions.

Only when the state collects adequate revenue can it educate students, train workers, and keep communities safe and healthy. These last four years have taken a severe toll on North Carolina’s public structures and systems, including public schools, colleges and universities, roads, courts, parks, and hospitals. After responding to the initial recession‐driven collapse in state revenues with a balanced approach of targeted spending cuts and additional revenues in 2009, state policymakers have taken a harmful cuts‐only approach to dealing with diminished revenues and growing demand for education, health care, and other core public services.
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In fact, industry‐standard economic modeling finds that the 2011‐13 state budget will result in tens of thousands fewer jobs in North Carolina’s public and private sectors over the two years of the budget. In the long term, there is significant evidence that cuts to tax‐financed investments in education, health, and public works threaten the state’s ability to sustain a robust, sustainable economic recovery