Is North Carolina ready for a Web 2.0 budget?

A grassroots group called Citizens Informed is pushing for the state budget and spending to be available online in a more searchable and linkable format.

For several years, the budget has been posted as a massive PDF — essentially an online printout.

Launched in November, the group is calling for the budget and spending to be "searchable, accessible and user-friendly," though it gives few details on exactly how that should work.

Director Laurie Onorio, a 24-year-old Garner resident who works in public affairs, said the group hopes the state will model similar sites in Texas, Missouri and Alaska. (Gov.-elect Beverly Perdue has also called for "Google transparency" on state spending.)

For now, the group has about 35 individual members and support from the conservative John Locke Foundation and Civitas Institute. The Web site also makes some conservative critiques of the budget, noting that "$50 million of your tax money is allocated for 'open space.'"

But Onorio said the group aims to be bipartisan.

"We want to get anyone and everyone who supports this on board," she said. "This is not a partisan issue whatsoever."

The John Locke Foundation will target some of Mike Easley's pet projects.

The conservative think tank's fiscal analyst told Dome that it will urge state lawmakers to cut newer programs and expansions of older ones in the state budget in the face of a massive drop in tax revenue, including expansions of dental schools, a research campus in Kannapolis and a Shanghai office for the N.C. Department of Commerce.

"Some of the more recent additions to the budget should be the things that are on the chopping block," said Joe Colletti. "We survived until 2008 without some of these things; we can do without them now."

He said the think tank will also argue for higher user fees on budget items such as the N.C. Zoo, the N.C. Symphony and college tuition.

Colletti said he is hopeful that an initiative to provide "Google transparency" to state contracts proposed by Gov.-elect Beverly Perdue will cut costs as similar measures have done in other states. He said private contractors who can provide services for less will be more likely to put a bid in if they can easily see on a public Web site what the state is already paying.

"Most of those other (Web) sites are less than a year old, but they're already having a tremendous impact on savings," he said. "The more we can make it open and allow people to see what we're spending money on, the better off we'll all be."

Previously: Liberal think tanks fire first shot on budget

How do you define Down East?

One way to determine the boundaries of North Carolina's vaguely defined coastal region is to ask small business owners who have picked the name for themselves.

A search of business names on Google Maps shows Down East Hearing Care, Down East Stained Glass and Down East Kennel & Supply, among many others, in the area east of Interstate 95.

Businesses with the words "Down East" in the name range from Rocky Mount down to Wilmington and are located in Kinston, New Bern, Greenville, Manteo and Morehead City.

That meets the newer, broader definition of the term for the coastal plains of North Carolina. 

A number of "Down East" businesses in Carteret County also meet the narrower definition historically used to describe the home of so-called "high tiders."

Previously: A narrow definition of Down East; do Down Easterners have a lock on the governorship?

Quick: What's the first name of the Democratic gubernatorial nominee?

If you said "Beverly," you'd be correct. But if you said "Bev," you'd also be correct.

Lieutenant Governor Perdue has gone by both names in her time in office, but her campaign currently seems to be promoting "Bev" over "Beverly."

Both her campaign and official Web sites list her as "Bev," as have a number of mailers and e-mails. (Her official lieutenant governor's Web site, however, has more than a few references to "Beverly" on it.)

Perdue has gone back and forth professionally. In 1996, she was on the ballot as "Beverly M. Perdue," a reference to her maiden name. In 2000, she was on the ballot as "Beverly Perdue" and in 2004, she was listed as "Beverly Eaves Perdue," adopting her second husband's last name.

But she was on the May 6 primary ballot as "Bev Perdue."

More after the jump.

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Two Google ads are up on Elizabeth Dole.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee has a pro-Dole ad up on searches for her name:

Elizabeth Dole US Senate
Strong Leadership for No. Carolina.
Help Elect her to the US Senate
www.NRSC.org/Dole
North Carolina

The ad links to the same page on Dole as an anti-Hagan ad.

A second ad attacks Dole:

Dole Earns An "F"
View Senator Elizabeth Dole's
middle-class voting record here.
TheMiddleClass.org

It links to a Web site by the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy, a liberal group founded during the Civil Rights era that issues ratings for members of Congress.

A negative Google Ad is up on Kay Hagan.

A search for the Democratic Senate nominee's name returns the following ad:

Say Nay to Kay Hagan
Tax-And-Spend Liberal.
Budget Catastrophe. Stop Her Now.
www.NRSC.org/Hagan
North Carolina

The ad appears to be paid for by the National Republican Senatorial Committee, although the link takes you to a page about U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole.

The page www.nrsc.org/hagan returns an error message, and the black-and-white image of Hagan on the Dole page doesn't link anywhere.

Dole used to head the NRSC, which is one of the major outside groups that advertises in Senate races. It does not appear likely that the NRSC will get involved in the North Carolina race this year.

At a recent debate, Dole called on Hagan to reject outside advertising.

Voters have the most questions about Beverly Perdue.

According to Google Suggest, the Democratic candidate for governor turns up the most patterns of searches of the gubernatorial candidates.

Type in "Bev Perdue" here and you get "bev perdue for governor," "bev perdue campaign," "bev perdue north carolina" — similar to the results for her Democratic and Republican rivals.

But you also get "bev perdue chicken" and "bev perdue beer money."

The first search may have to do with her 2004 ads featuring people doing a chicken dance, but the second is clearly related to Richard Moore's ad on an old quote of hers about college tuition. 

Whatever else you think about Moore's attacks, the "beer and party money" quote was clearly the most successful.

Kay Hagan is running a Google Ad.

Google searches for terms like "Elizabeth Dole" bring up this ad: 

Kay Hagan for US Senate
Standing up to special interests
for North Carolina in Washington DC
kayhagan.com
North Carolina

Richard Moore has a new Google Ad up.

Dome can't figure out what keywords bring it up, but we saw it while surfing a political Web site about the U.S. presidential race.

Here's the text of the ad:

Perdue and Transportation
Slush funds, insider deals, and a $120 million bridge in her hometown
www.RichardMoore.org

Interesting that the negative Google Ads continue, but it's more interesting that it directs readers to Moore's Web site (and a recent YouTube video about Beverly Perdue) and not one of the anti-Perdue sites he's created. 

State Auditor Les Merritt is now running a Google ad.

Under a search for his name, the following ad shows up:

Auditor Merritt
The Taxpayers' Watchdog -
Getting the Job Done
www.AuditorMerritt.com
North Carolina