News-Record.com

Note: Updates below w/ audio and a mention of the state health plan.

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Gov. Bev Perdue talked to NFIB this afternoon. Afterward, she was mobbed by a crowd of us scruffy media types.

Among the things on our minds: how's the current year budget crisis going. Perdue has been forced to cut funding for state agencies because tax collections have been below estimates.

April 15 is a big tax collection day and many are anticipating the news from this year's April surprise might be bad.

"I did meet this morning with Charlie Peruse," Perdue said. She asked how revenues were doing.

"Charlie looked at me and said, 'The sales tax revenue for this past quarter are fairly good.' I don't know what that means.

"I said, 'Charlie, how hopeful are you?' He said, 'I feel comfortable that we have a long, long way to go but it isn't as bad as it could have been.'"

Perdue said that personal and corporate income tax figures were still to be tallied and that it would be Friday or early next week before there were reliable numbers.

And, she added, that the state would send out another round of tax refunds this week.

More to come, including audio.

Update: Click here for the audio of Perdue's Q+A with us scruffy media types.

She covers taxes, the budget, how federal stimulus funds are handled and is asked about Gov. Mike Easley's problems with accounting for SUVs his family has been driving:

"I'm seeing the same reports that you're seeing and reading the same stories you're reading, and I look forward to the facts being put out there for everybody in the state to think about. That's what it's all about, giving everybody a chance.

On the stimulus, Perdue said she learned something new from Dempsey Benton, her office's stimulus czar.

"He tells me something that I didn't know until yesterday, that the rules are such that the money cannot be co-mingled ... with state funds...All 50 states will almost have to set up a shadow budget. So if I'm going to use federal recovery funds for daycare slots or for job training, then I'll have to have two separate accounts. I'll have to have a North Carolina account and an account that's unique to the recovery dollars. The strident and stringent requirements ... are as complex and convoluted as I've ever seen."

Asked about potential tax changes in the state - in particular, changes that would tax more things but lower the rate, Perdue was circumspect:

"If the Senate and the General Assembly plans to move forward, I will be a partner in the activity that they undertake, I will be critical when it's important to be critical. But all in all, we all understand that in North Carolina and in America, that the system of providing services just based on property tax for county government and personal and corporate income tax needs to be re-examined.

"It's time to re-examine the tax structure. I don't know if this is the perfect time of if you'll see anything come this session. But it is healthy to have this kind of conversation and I admire the General Assembly for doing that"

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"I think it's a hard time to talk about any kind of broad-based taxes, just because of the economy. So I'll have to see what it is they have in store for us...It's early in the whole General Assembly session."

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Update: During her speech to the NFIB members, Perdue also mentioned the state health plan. She noted some legislators were sitting in the room:

"I'm going to say this because we've got some House members sitting around here, not many senators. We need a state health plan, we need that bill brokered out. If you don't do it by Friday, we're going to see Blue Cross and our state health plan begin to cut off payments to providers, just when they need the money the most. And if by Monday or Tuesday there isn't a brokered bill, it's going to cost us $15 million out of North Carolina's very meager rainy day fund. I think we can come to a solution on that bill and I hope that you bill."

Also, she made mention of a trip to Charlotte tomorrow, that may be of interest for those in the banking sector:

“Tomorrow I’m going to Charlotte. I’m doing a special announcement. We’ve worked for weeks, months actually, on a kind of recovery plan to work with the folks in Charlotte in the financial services industry.”

I asked a Perdue staffer about the announcement. They said it would involve the banking industry but not be limited to that sector. They also added that the announcement would be "fairly specific to Charlotte."