On The 2008 House Budget
Brian Balfour
| June 4, 2008
The 2008 proposed House Budget would:
Exceed Taxpayer Protection Act guidelines on a biennial basis.
- Spending totals $21.35 billion, up by $2.48 billion over FY 2006-07. This would represent a biennial spending increase of 13.2 percent.
- By comparison, inflation plus population from July 2006 to July 2008 totals just 10.6 percent.
- The total would mark a 47 percent increase in state spending since FY 2001-02.
- In contrast, population plus inflation over that time would equal only 33.1 percent.
Increase General Fund spending while decreasing Highway Trust Fund appropriations.
- The House Budget proposes a $692 million increase in General Fund spending, but decreases Highway Trust Fund spending by $65 million.
- The percentage of Highway Trust Fund revenue going to administration would increase by 26 percent (from 3.8 percent to 4.8 percent), at the expense of new road construction – which will decrease by more than $60 million.
Ignore the public’s voice.
- More than half a billion dollars in new “special obligation” debt would be authorized – none of it approved by voters.
- Not one penny of new state debt has been approved by North Carolina citizens during Governor Easley’s administration. Roughly $2.4 billion in debt has been authorized since 2000, all without voter approval.
- The Civitas Institute’s May 2008 DecisionMaker poll shows that 77 percent of voters think the General Assembly should not be allowed to borrow money without voter approval.
Raid trust funds to expand programs.
- Nine trust funds are raided for more than $60 million to finance new General Fund spending. Included is $21 million taken from the Disaster Relief Reserve, and $5 million each from the Tobacco Trust Fund and Health & Wellness Trust Fund.
Increase fees on working families and businesses.
- Fees for laboratory testing for newborn babies would increase by 35 percent.
- The renewal fee for a notice filing of the offer of securities would increase fourfold.
- This would amount to a de facto tax of roughly $2 million on entrepreneurs wishing to raise capital to grow their business – discouraging job creation.
Further increase already escalating construction costs
- The flat rate portion of new project fees for health care facilities would be doubled in most cases, increased by even more in the case of mental health facilities. This would amount to an increase of approximately $822,000 in the cost of building new health care facilities.
- A new $10 fee would be created for “each commercial flood hazard determination performed for improved real estate and mobile homes in North Carolina.”
