Budget cut suggestions
State agencies have sent Gov. Bev Perdue a list of things they could cut in order to close North Carolina's $1.1 billion $1.8 billion $2 billion $3 billion really big budget deficit.
Click here to peruse the list.
A spokeswoman for the governor stresses "these are only options, not recommendations, promises or anything like that."
There's not enough detail to tell much about what might specifically impact Greensboro or the surrounding area.
Update: After speaking with Chrissy Pearson in Perdue's press office, she says the governor is unhappy with the cuts suggested.
"She wants to get a little bit deeper. ... We're talking about making government work more efficiently," Pearson said.
Most of the cuts, she added, were compiled by folks working for Gov. Mike Easley's administration. Perdue has asked her own cabinet secretaries to go back and take a look at what might be cut.
"Some of these options look like they might be reasonable; there are some other things that may not be so reasonable," Pearson said.
I would think some of the public safety or HHS items on the list might go in the unreasonable, or at least likely to cause a ruckus, pile, including:
- * Closing: McCain Correctional Hospital
- * Cutting the DOT funding of the Highway Patrol by $5.8 million
- * Freezing health choice (the state's CHIP program) enrollment to save $4.8 million
Due to recent automated spamming attacks on our blogs, we are temporarily requiring commenters to authenticate themselves via TypeKey® before posting comments to any News & Record blog in order to prevent denials of service. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.