News-Record.com

Gov. Bev Perdue is putting together her budget proposal for the tax and spending plan that would take effect July 1. Because the state is facing down a budget shortfall that's somewhere in the $2 billion-to-$3 billion range, she asked agencies to give her potential budget cuts.

Unhappy with the first round of suggestions, she asked agencies to go back and look for more things that could be cut.

The results of that new round of suggestions were boiled down into this spreadsheet, which details options the agencies have offered up as budget cutting alternatives.

The spokeswoman who passed this along stressed these are OPTIONS, not recommendations and not things the governor necessarily will do.

But worth noting for High Point: The Commerce Department recommends doing away with $866,250 in recurring funding for the Furniture Market. That's money that goes to promote the market and was mentioned as vulnerable in a story I wrote for today's paper.

Also among the potential cuts is reducing state funding for the Shakespeare Festival, which is based in High Point.

These cuts were the "deeper, more programmatic changes" Perdue asked for after getting the first round of optional budget cuts. They only add up to about $74 million, which does not get you that big of a dent on a $2 billion (or more) budget gap.

On a related note, the governor's office sent this along late today:

As part of Gov. Perdue’s ongoing efforts to manage the current fiscal year budget shortfall, she is taking the following steps under Executive Order No. 6:

Asking most state agencies for further reduction amounts from 7 percent to 9 percent. Governor Perdue will continue to protect public education as much as possible while managing the shortfall.

As a precautionary step to manage cash flow, the state will transfer up to $300 million dollars from several special accounts into the General Fund. The money will be put into a reserve and may be used to support General Fund obligations if necessary. These transfers will be managed so that existing activities supported by these special funds aren't impacted. The state annually faces cash flow issues between mid-February and April 15. The state's cash position is more heavily impacted this year because final corporate payments are now due by April 15, 2009, rather than March 15, 2009.

Reserve Transfer Amount Current Cash Balance

Education Lottery
Reserve Fund $ 50 million $ 50 million

Clean Water
Management
Trust Fund $100 million $251 million

Public School
Building
Capital Fund $100 million $316 million

Public School
Textbook Fund $ 50 million $ 65 million

Total $300 million $682 million

“The state constitution requires that I balance the state budget, and I will do that while protecting public education as much as possible,” said Gov. Perdue.