By By JONATHAN CLAYBORNE
Staff Writer
Gov. Beverly Perdue is set to release her proposed alterations to the state budget today.
The spending-plan changes proposed by Perdue contain close to $1 billion in cuts, said Chrissy Pearson, the governor’s press secretary.
“Pretty much every agency is taking a cut of some sort,” Pearson said in a telephone interview from Raleigh.
The governor’s blueprint reallocates money for investments in key areas, including jobs, the economy, education, healthier communities and “setting government straight,” according to Pearson.
“Setting government straight” is an umbrella term encompassing many things, specifically Perdue’s efforts to usher in higher ethical standards for state government, the spokeswoman related.
In this case, the phrase is applicable to looking for efficiencies — trimming fat from state government, reducing waste, fraud and abuse, making fiscally sound decisions and investing in critical core services, Pearson added.
Health and education services would take less of a cut than others under Perdue’s road map for spending, Pearson indicated.
“Everyone is sacrificing in this budget,” she stated.
Pearson offered no further specifics.
An embargoed copy of the budget will be open for press inspection at 8:45 this morning.
The governor has called a press conference to unveil the numbers at 9:30 a.m. at the N.C. Department of Administration in Raleigh.
In a separate telephone interview, state Sen. Marc Basnight, D-Dare, said the Senate’s appropriations team will meet today and Wednesday.
Basnight, president pro tempore of the Senate, represents Beaufort County.
Basnight said he has sought input from all senators regarding “any ideas of consolidation, efficiencies, cuts, things of that sort” that they might wish to offer.
“Not many suggestions have come in up till now, but they will occur shortly,” he said. “We are on what we hope to be a quick turnaround with the House. You never know for sure.”
The real difficulty is that the projected budget shortfall is an unknown quantity, though budget-writers expect to wrestle with a gap that numbers in the hundreds of millions of dollars, Basnight shared.
“We still have (federal) stimulus money,” he pointed out. “Next year, we do not have it.”
The senator spoke about the Senate’s duties in the budget process.
“My responsibility is much different than the governor’s,” he said. “She presents the budget, we write the budget. Our difficulties and challenges are a bit different than hers. She has the, I guess you could say, the wonderful freedom to choose independently of our thoughts. And it should be such. We have 170 people (in the House and Senate), and my ideas may not jibe with those of someone from Murphy. We have to come to a compromise between the House and Senate after we have compromised among ourselves. You cannot predict what may occur.”
Asked for his thoughts, Beaufort County Manager Paul Spruill took a wait-and-see tack.
“What we’re most worried about as a result of the state budget shortfall is the loss of certain state shared revenues in the human services area, such as the health department,” Spruill said.
He added that he’ll be able to comment in greater detail once Perdue releases her numbers.