This week’s “Daily Journal” guest columnist is Becki Gray, Vice President for Outreach at the John Locke Foundation.

RALEIGH — Beginning Jan. 26, Republicans will lead the North Carolina General Assembly for the first time in more than a century. New leadership can bring a real difference to the table — so long as the incoming majority realizes those differences.

Their challenges include facing a massive shortage in available funds to maintain the core functions of government, reforming a failing education system, and resuscitating a sluggish economy. It’s going to take a different way of looking at things.

True fiscal conservatives would not continue the programs Democrats have created — only spending less money. Instead, Republicans should vow to end the unsustainable growth of government, the pet projects, and the nanny-state mentality. Republicans must change the fundamental role of government in North Carolina and prove that they are not “them.”

“They” used shenanigans and tricks to balance the budget while growing government. Well, the party’s over. You can’t gimmick your way out of decades of fiscal irresponsibility. “They” have dug a $3.7 billion budget hole by overspending. There are no more savings accounts and trust funds to raid. There are no more shell games you can play by taxing services and calling it “tax reform,” using lottery money to pay teachers, or taxing Internet sales. You can’t shift the costs of paying for government to cities and counties.

The Democrats are smart. They’ve tried all the tricks. The state budget has grown 63 percent over the last 10 years while population has grown only 18 percent. The only option is addressing the state’s spending obsession aggressively and attacking it with real cuts, real reform, and real restraint.

“They” have propped up a failing education system. Thirty percent of North Carolina’s high school students don’t graduate. Sixty percent of those who do graduate require remedial classes before starting at a community college or university. Preschool programs offer an initial boost that fades quickly by the third or fourth grade. Testing is inconclusive and expensive.

Obviously, “their” plan isn’t working. Charter schools have been successful in offering innovative choices for families. Let’s have more. Offer a $2,500 tax credit to any family who would like to pursue options outside district schools. Career and vocational technical schools with 90-percent-plus graduation rates should be expanded as well.

“They” have spent millions of dollars in targeted tax breaks and incentives to attract companies that have done little to get the economy moving. North Carolina lost 12,500 jobs in November (the most in the country), and the unemployment rate has exceeded 9 percent for two years, again, among the highest in the country. State-subsidized jobs in short-term construction do not grow the economy. Get government out of the way, and let the free market work. If you can’t find the backbone to repeal the Bill Lee Act, JDIG, the One NC Fund, and all the other corporate welfare programs, just eliminate the funding.

Since 2004, more than 6,500 new regulations have been introduced in North Carolina while the legislature has struck down only seven. “They” are trying to control everything from juice boxes in day care centers, to where smokers can enjoy a puff, to landfill restrictions so strict we’ll have to export our garbage, to where our energy comes from.

“They” have written many bad laws over the years. But laws can be changed. Even the state constitution can be amended. Everything else can be revisited, repealed, or rewritten.

Start here: Repeal taxpayer-funded campaigns. Rewrite the tax code so the burden is lower and more evenly distributed. Repeal the bad and outdated laws, rewrite the good ones, and leave your mark on North Carolina government.

“They” have left you a mess. But you can fix it and do it your way. Things can be different, thank goodness. You are not “them.”