RALEIGH – North Carolina conservatives have been out of power in Raleigh for a long, long time. Indeed, the modern conservative movement – that post-war mixture of libertarian economics, cultural renewal, and prudential reformism – has never been in power in Raleigh.

Naturally, then, North Carolina conservatives have no shortage of ideas for legislation. For years, they have called for fundamental changes in law enforcement, education, health care, transportation, and other areas. As realists, they know they won’t see all their ideas transformed into policy. But realism doesn’t call for inaction or premature capitulation. It merely calls for setting priorities.

Running on conservative themes, Republicans won majorities in both chambers of the North Carolina General Assembly. In the weeks following their victory, as GOP leaders began the transition to power in Raleigh, they stressed that the two most important items on their agenda will be improving the state’s economy and balancing the state’s budget without tax hikes.

Those are the right priorities. But both will require months of work during the 2011 legislative session and beyond to accomplish. In the meantime, there are several initiatives that can be introduced quickly without distracting needed attention and energy from the economic and fiscal challenge. Indeed, some of these ideas would aid the legislature in their quest to reduce the cost of state government in order to bring the state budget into balance.

The research staff of the John Locke Foundation compiled a list of 11 such ideas that could be enacted in The First 100 Days, which happens to be the title of the resulting policy document. Here is a thumbnail sketch of each one:

• Open up the budget process with 72-5-10. That is, revise legislative rules to post state budget bills online 72 hours before the first vote, provide a five-year forecast of each provision’s fiscal impact, and require the state to accumulate rainy-day reserves totaling at least 10 percent of the state’s General Fund.

Put the state’s checkbook online so policymakers, journalists, watchdogs, and average citizens can keep a close eye on expenditures.

• Repeal taxpayer financing of political campaigns. Taxpayers hate it, it violates basic constitutional principles, and there are better uses for the money.

• Prohibit forced annexation. Municipalities should be allowed to expand their borders only if subject to approval by affected citizens.

• Remove the cap on charter schools and change their oversight to prevent the existing public-school cartel from obstructing competition.

• Expand the pool of qualified public-school teachers by removing unnecessary barriers to state certification.

• Pass a constitutional amendment for voter approval that would end the abuse of eminent domain by government agencies.

• Repeal the North Carolina lottery. If North Carolinians want to gamble, that’s their business. But the state should not monopolize the market, derive extraordinary revenue from it, and encourage North Carolinians to gamble on the promise that it will improve education.

• Repeal corporate welfare programs. We should reduce the cost of doing business in North Carolina for all firms, large and small, rather than carving out special tax credits, cash payments, and other goodies for the politically connected.

• Repeal the state’s renewal-portfolio standard. In 2007, the General Assembly passed a bill requiring the use of expensive energy sources such as wind and solar power, thus jacking up the price of electricity for all North Carolina households and businesses. The state’s economy suffered a self-inflicted wound despite the lack of any significant environmental benefits from the legislation.

• Repeal ObamaCare. Obviously, the North Carolina legislature can’t do this itself, but it can assist nationwide repeal efforts in numerous ways, such as holding hearings to illustrate the federal bill’s massive costs and counterproductive regulations and urging state officials to join multi-state lawsuits challenging its constitutionality.

I’m all for being realistic. But I also recall Otto von Bismarck’s observation that “when you say that you agree to a thing on principle, you mean that you have not the slightest intention of carrying it out in practice.” Perhaps the wily Bismarck was speaking only for himself. Let’s hope so.

Hood is president of the John Locke Foundation.