State tax revenues were down 21 percent last month compared to the previous April.

A new report from state Controller David McCoy notes that tax revenues declined by $623.7 million in April of 2009.

That put the total decline for the year to date at $1.7 billion, or 11 percent.

The declining tax revenue is caused by a sluggish economy and high unemployment. It led to a negative balanced of $284.7 million in the general fund at the end of the month.

That deficit would have been higher but Gov. Beverly Perdue transferred $139.6 million from rainy day funds during the month and a Senate bill transferred another $250 million to keep the State Health Plan afloat, the report notes.

In turn, the deficit has led to slower tax refunds, with $224.6 million still unrefunded to state taxpayers as of May 8, according to the report.

Gov. Bevely Perdue's open book will cost $900,000.

A panel charged with making the state's data systems work together approved Friday spending up to $900,000 to build NC OpenBook, which would make state contracts, grants and spending searchable and accessible to the public, reports Ben Niolet.

Perdue pledged during the campaign that she would make state contracts easier to track. She called for the OpenBook project in an executive order on her first day at work.

But getting all the state's procurement systems to talk to each other isn't a simple job, said Jonathan Womer, deputy state budget director.

The goal is to have a limited system up and running for testing by spring. A more complete site that would be accessible by the public would be ready in the summer, he said.

The state is modeling its site on the federal site, USAspending.gov.

The plan is to allow searches by vendor and agency as well as by geography, such as by county or legislative district.

The money will come from a $5 million pot the legislature dedicated to data integration, said State Controller David McCoy.

The state's revenues dropped $286 million or 14.3 percent in January compared to the same period last year.

The news was released Monday in a report by state Controller David McCoy.

"Revenue growth is slowing dramatically," McCoy said in a news release. "This decline was expected, and the state's financial plan was adjusted, but we are continuing to feel the strain of budget pressures." 

According to McCoy's report, personal income tax collections accounted for the nearly all of the loss in revenue for the month. McCoy also reported that investment earnings declined by $16 million, or 89 percent. State spending is down by 1.7 percent. Education and health and human services spending, the largest category of state expenditures, was 5.6 percent higher in January.

Perhaps a reflection of all this bad news, sales and use taxes, alcohol and tobacco taxes grew by $42 million or 8.5 percent in January 2009.

David McCoy will be the next state controller for North Carolina.

The House voted 113-0 Thursday to confirm McCoy's nomination, the final major hurdle before McCoy can assume the office. The Senate voted 44-0 in favor of confirmation in May, David Ingram reports.

The 200-person controller's office is considered among the most important in state government. It is responsible for keeping the state's books, handling payroll for 90,000 state employees, managing cash flow and describing the state's fiscal health to Wall Street bond raters.

The job of state controller carries a seven-year term, making it largely independent of legislators and the governor, and a salary this year of $153,319, or about $14,000 more than the governor's salary.

McCoy has served as Gov. Mike Easley's chief budget officer since 2001, and Easley nominated him to be controller in April. McCoy will be the fifth person to hold the job since legislators created it in 1986.

Legislators weighed McCoy's qualifications, which are different from those of his predecessors. He is a lawyer and has master's degrees in education and public health, not in business or finance. But there was no debate in the House Thursday.

The term of outgoing controller Robert Powell had been scheduled to expire July 1.

Gov. Mike Easley's budget director, David McCoy, is a step closer to becoming state controller after the Senate Commerce committee endorsed his nomination this morning.

The full Senate and House must confirm the appointment, reports Lynn Bonner.

In his long government career, McCoy has held posts as varied as state transportation secretary and deputy secretary in the Department of Administration.

Franklin Freeman, a top advisor to Easley, credited McCoy for his accomplishments as head of the state budget office.

Freeman said McCoy "helped guide this state through the worst fiscal crisis since the Depression."