As mentioned in the previous post, the North Carolina House released its budget plan, and debate has begun this morning. The N&O offers this overview of the House plan. You can read all 333 pages of the budget bill yourself here, and also view the “money report”, which provides line items and specific dollar amount changes in appropriations, here.
Disapp0intingly, neither document provides any context regarding how much is actually spent on each specific program. The money report merely represents the proposed changes to appropriations, usually without indicating how much was spent on the program the previous year, or how much total will be spent after the change is made. And the majority of the budget expeditures – those that are not targeted for any changes – are not mentioned at all. These items are on auto pilot and continue to go unmentioned, often growing every year according to growth rates factored in to the “continuation budget.”
Be sure to check in at nccivitas.org as we will provide more analysis of the House budget plan in the coming days.
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