Opinions
Martin used basic budgeting
Gov. Jim Martin may have pro
posed radical changes in North
Carolina fiscal policy when he for
mally offered a set of three major
tax cuts to the legislature. But in
the budget methods Martin used to
prove he could cut taxes and still
match spending to revenue, he was
as traditional as the governors
who've come before him.
"There's no voodoo economics
in this budget," Martin said as he
explained his budget to reporters.
He meant that he chose not to
employ any of the budget gim
micks which were available to him
but which North Carolina's fiscal
ly cautious governments have
usually avoided.
There are at least five gimmicks
which Martin could have employed
to make his job of projecting a
balanced budget easier. All five are
well understood in the General
Assembly and most certainly
would have been quickly rebuffed.
Martin could have jacked up the
revenue projections for the ap
proaching years. If he'd said more
money was coming in, then he'd
have had more to spend on tax cuts
and expansion items like educa
tion. But the budget has tradi
tionally been drawn on very
Watching
By Paul T.
O'Connor
cautious budget projections and
Martin chose to stick with those
which Gov. Jim Hunt had used
before leaving office. As Martin
described it, he chose the "fiscally
conservative, traditional
econometrics" Hunt and previous
governors had used.
Martin also fully funded all
employee slots. Charlie Hughes,
his issues coordinator during the
campaign, has suggested less than
full funding as a way of reducing
the discretionary funds available to
governors. But big industrial states
have gotten themselves in trouble
this way and Martin decided he
wasn't going to try that.
Nor did he try to project budget
reversions - money that will be
budgeted but not spent ? in future
years. That money will be there,
probably to the tune of S100
million each year, but a cautious
budgeter holds that back until it is
actually in the bank before
deciding where to spend it in the
future.
Martin plans a major efficiency
study of state government and
hopes to save hundred of millions
of dollars.
Finally, he didn't try to brighten
his revenue forecasts with any pie
in the sky promises about
economic growth from his supply
side economics. He honestly
believes his tax cuts will bring
rapid growth to the state and thus
increase tax revenues. But that is
speculative, so he didn't budget on
those projections.
Shortly after his election, Martin
met with the state's top budget
analysts. Their message to him was
clear: North Carolina budgets
along very cautious and conser
vative lines and the legislature has
gone into that budget in the past
four years and cut out all the easy
stuff.
By adopting the same budgeting
procedures of his predecessors,
Martin set the stage for a budget
battle that revolves around policy
questions and not charges of
"voodoo economics."
- ???wwnn m^m^mmmmmmmrnrn
\ .There go those Democrats, scaring everybody again.'.
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