North Carolina is about four weeks behind last year in sending out taxpayer refunds in a deliberate policy to manage state government's fiscal crisis.

"We're backed up on that about four weeks," Ken Lay, the state revenue secretary, said in an interview.

Lay said he has heard from numerous taxpayers expressing concern about their tax refunds — some of them from people who have lost their jobs and are in dire financial straits, Rob Christensen reports.

"Some people have asked: Have you stopped writing checks?’" Lay said. "We haven't. Since the beginning of the year we've sent out refunds totaling more than $900 million. We continue to send out refund checks every week."

"What we are doing is managing the distribution of the refunds very carefully because we are keeping our eye on the budget and on the cash flow," Lay said.

Lay said the average refund, for people eligible for a refund, is $542.

The typical turn around time — from the time the tax form is submitted until the arrival of the refund – is six to 12 weeks for paper tax returns and two to four weeks for tax forms filed electronically.

Gov. Beverly Perdue's Cabinet includes only one first.

The state's first female governor has appointed the state's first female secretary of the N.C. Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Linda Wheeler Hayes.

As noted previously, many of the remaining glass ceilings for women in North Carolina involve law enforcement positions such as Attorney General, Correction Secretary or Crime Control Secretary.

(In addition, there has never been a female secretary of Environment and Natural Resources or Transportation.)

Perdue's Cabinet includes one other woman — Cultural Resources Secretary Linda Carlisle — but that's not news. Six of the seven secretaries who have served since that department was created in 1971 have been women.

Meantime, the Cabinet includes three black men: Correction Secretary Al Keller, Revenue Secretary Kenneth Lay and Crime Control Secretary Reuben Young.

There have been previous black secretaries of all three departments, especially Crime Control and Correction, as well as the departments of Administration and Environment and Natural Resources.

In all, Perdue has essentially tied former Gov. Mike Easley's 2001 Cabinet, which also had only five white male appointees and was described as "perhaps the most diverse" in North Carolina history.

Here at Dome we've been working furiously to get to know Gov.-elect Beverly Perdue's 10 cabinet secretaries. And while we aren't experts yet, we've found a few facts that we find intriguing. Test your knowledge with our quiz.

The secretaries are: Lanier Cansler (HHS), Linda Carlisle (Cultural Resources), Britt Cobb (Administration), Gene Conti (DOT), Keith Crisco (Commerce), Dee Freeman (DENR), Linda Wheeler Hayes (Juvenile Justice) Al Keller (Correction), Kenneth Lay (Revenue) and Reuben Young (Crime Control).

— Which secretary holds a Ph.D. in anthropology?

— The new cabinet job is the first government post (local, state, federal) for this secretary.

— Only one of Perdue's new cabinet secretaries was a Tar Heel of the Week in The News & Observer. Which secretary was featured in the 2002 story?

— This secretary is the only member of the cabinet to have run for statewide office.

— The 4-H honored this secretary in 2000 for outstanding alumni work.

— This secretary was formerly an assistant attorney general for the state of Texas.

— Which secretary, known for fundraising prowess, helped the Girl Scouts' Tarheel Triad Council raise $7 million for a new campus?

— This cabinet secretary was a White House Fellow from 1970 to 1971.

— A manager of four North Carolina cities, this secretary is the Brevard City Manager Emeritus.

— In a former job, this secretary presided over 800 criminal trials.

Answers after the jump.

   Comments (0)

Gov.-elect Beverly Perdue finished naming her cabinet Tuesday with picks for to lead the state's revenue, environment, health and administration agencies.

Revenue: Kenneth Lay, a marketing executive with Bank of America in Charlotte.

Environment: Dee Freeman, former executive director of the Triangle J Council of Governments.

Administration: Britt Cobb, the only member of Gov. Mike Easley's cabinet to keep his job.

Also today, Perdue named Lanier Cansler, a lobbyist and former legislator, to lead Health and Human Services.