Gov. Beverly Perdue says the steep drop in revenue made it hard to keep a campaign promise to help seniors.

Perdue was responding to questions posed by readers of The Charlotte Observer. Two readers asked her about a plan Perdue touted during her campaign to expand the homestead exemption and freeze property tax evaluations for seniors who make less than $50,000 and have lived in their homes for 20 years.

Perdue said the recession and a steep deficit made such a promise difficult to keep.

North Carolina faced a shortfall of $4.7 billion — a 20 percent hole in the state budget — for this fiscal year. Even with new revenue and federal recovery funds, we cut $2.1 billion from the state budget. As a result, many tough decisions had to be made to balance the budget and to protect public school classrooms and other core services in health and public safety.

I'm hopeful that as the economy rebounds we'll be able to make progress on many issues this budget could not address.

Republicans have said Democrats overstated the size of the deficit by measuring available revenue against what they would have hoped to spend in the best of times instead of what was actually spent in the previous year.

State contracts are now available online.

Gov. Beverly Perdue announced today the launch of N.C. OpenBook, a Web site that provides a database of 2,500 state contracts and 5,000 grants.

"We’re going to let the sun shine in on state contracts," Perdue said in a statement.

The Office of State Budget and Management is working with state agencies to streamline paperwork so that all contracts will be available by the end of the year.

Perdue also pledged to feature information about state agency performance measures and planning on the site eventually.

Modeled after state and federal transparency efforts, N.C. Open Book was created by an executive order on Perdue's first day, fulfilling a campaign promise.

The project will cost an estimated $900,000.

Gov. Beverly Perdue promised to cut wasteful spending.

In a page on her campaign Web site, Perdue pledged to create an "independent and bipartisan body" of 15 citizens to suggest ways to cut the budget.

The proposal is modeled after the Base Realignment and Closure process for closing military bases.

"In the first year of each budget biennium, the BRAC Budget Board will present a maximum of ten separate governmental efficiency proposals," the pledge reads.

The legislature will have to vote on each proposal.

Perdue has already fulfilled part of this promise, signing an executive order today creating the board.

Gov. Beverly Perdue promised to focus on the arts.

In a page on her campaign Web site, Perdue gave a few general goals and made a few specific promises:

* Promote collaboration between the N.C. departments of Commerce, Environment and Natural Resources and Cultural Resources on the arts.

* Expand the Main Street program to help towns involve creative businesess and nonprofits in downtown redevelopment.

* Support a "smart, fair system" to help local arts groups recapitalize hundreds of community facilities across the state.

She also said she would protect and develop cultural heritage sites, support and expand arts education and "hear the voice of the arts community."