State lawmakers in the House and Senate plan to work together on drafting a new budget this year, rather than having separate proposals come out of each chamber.
"It won't be us vs. them," Rep. Harold Brubaker, a Republican from Randolph County, told several hundred people this morning at the Economic Forecast Forum in Durham. "The new leadership has the same fiscal mindset."
Developing a unified budget would be a major change from how the process has happened in past years, but would return to a collaborative approach used in the 1970s, Brubaker said.
The forum, sponsored by the N.C. Chamber and N.C. Bankers Association, is an annual event focused on the state's economy in a new year. This year's version included a morning panel to discuss the grim state budget situation, and projected deficit of $3.7 billion.
Panel members agreed that the state's fiscal problems will require serious cuts in agencies and programs, and will almost certainly mean lost jobs.
"We know our spending has to come down," said Sen. Peter Brunstetter, a Forsyth County Republican who will co-chair the Senate's appropriations committee. "There are no sacred cows at this point. We're all in this together and we need to set North Carolina back on the right track."
Gov. Bev Perdue plans to present her proposed budget to the legislature by mid-February, and administration officials have been working on a plan for several months, said Charlie Perusse, her budget director.
Lawmakers also have already started the process of developing their version "in earnest," Brunstetter said. That includes working with economists to identify some of the "fundamental changes" that need to be made.
The state health plan and retirement plan are among the "things that need to be fixed," he added.
Another priority for state lawmakers will be to review rules and regulations that are unnecessary and create roadblocks to economic growth, Brubaker said.
"If we're going to jumpstart this economy and promote jobs, we have to make it easier to do business in this state," he said.
Comments
RE: BUDGTARYS ISSUES IN NORTH CAROLINA:
January 3, 2011 - 7:44pm — beachbum3I personaly have a lot of misgivings about allowing the banking industry an the chambers of commeences to write the state budget in the frst place as that they will inevidentably slant it to protect the special an coporate intrest just as the republican themselves will be doing as thehy have allways favored the coporte instrest over the real human instrest iof the hard working north carolinainas that make this sate this nation as a whole run . question who pays the most in taxes right now it surely is not the coporate intrest or the pro-business instrest for they pay virturally nothing in proporation to what they earn when compared with what an indivsual citizens earnns per week/month/year in the paychecks we as a state are in deep nedd of a governor that has the ture instrest of the citizens of this state in mind an will work hard to protect the instrest of the average citizens in this state an not just protect the pro-business an coporate insterst for they are simply hoarding their revenues an not really working to evena attempt to crerated the needed jobs releif that the citizens of this sate are in need of stop the incentive giveaways to the coporate instrest bev once an for all. But fear not bev you will be one an done an i feel sure that you can count on every state employee an thier family members to do their best to make sure that this happens come 2012. i know that i personaly will do so thank you
The more Bean Counters the more it gets confuse
January 3, 2011 - 2:07pm — ConMaxLets see now! You got the senate and the house getting together to fiqure out the budget and you have the Govenor working out her budget and than you have the Corporate Republican Emperor of North Carolina working up his own budget to really wack the masses and deadbeats off government doles.....Sounds like a typical Marx movie of who is in charge of cleaning up the Monkey Cage?