South By North Strategies, Ltd.

A recent brief from the N.C. Budget and Tax Center sketched eight strategies that could help close North Carolina’s estimated $3.7 billion budget shortfall. From the brief:

Over the course of the recession, demand for certain state‐funded services has increased alongside rising poverty and declining median household income. There are more adult workers upgrading their skills at community colleges and more elderly, disabled, and low‐income residents in need of basic assistance. In addition,   the state must continue to fulfill its obligations to educate children, keep the public safe, protect the environment, and invest in the public structures that support a sustained economic recovery and high quality of life for all North Carolinians.
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The rising need for vital services and the depression of revenues to pay for those services is driving the state’s budget shortfall. Current estimates suggest that state policymakers arriving in Raleigh this week face a $3.7 billion shortfall. This shortfall is in addition to two years of budget cuts that have resulted in a 10‐percent cumulative reduction of the state budget.
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While the predictions of economists like those at Moody’s Analytics suggest that North Carolina is likely to recover faster than the nation, it is certainly true that job growth will be slow, and state revenues will not recover to pre‐recession levels for several years. It is therefore essential that policymakers in North Carolina leave no stone unturned as they seek solutions to the state’s fiscal challenges….