RALEIGH – Gov. Beverly Perdue gave her first State of the State Address to the North Carolina General Assembly Monday night. Those who were looking for specifics on her forthcoming budget or rhetoric destined for the annals of political wordsmithery were surely disappointed.
I was expecting neither. So I found myself enjoying some of her alliterations and turns-of-phrase, and appreciating her call for fiscal conservatism during difficult economic times in North Carolina.
My favorite moment of her appearance was early and unscripted. During the lengthy series of formal introductions and ovations, Perdue tried to move things along by waving the lawmakers and dignitaries down in their seats. “All right, y’all, that’s enough,” she said impatiently. “Let’s get down to business.”
Someone should say that about 20 more times to the state legislature. Maybe it will sink in.
Another good moment came later in the prepared address when Perdue got into an extended riff about the need for fiscal restraint. “Starting today,” she said, “it is no longer business as usual for North Carolina’s budget. I want all our citizens to know it is a new day. Everything is on the table. We don’t have time for talk-show political posturing or petty partisan games. Not on my watch.”
I’m pretty much on Perdue’s page on this issue, so she must have been talking about the posturing of some other talk show panelist.
Then the governor said that “cutting the fat” was “a cliché that does not go far enough.” Funny, the misuse of that phrase is one of my pet peeves, too. When politicians complain that proposed savings in a government budget go beyond cutting fat” to “cutting muscle and bone,” they inadvertently reveal a lack of understanding and perspective.
When households and businesses enter tough times and have to cut back to keep their expenditures and revenues in line, they don’t have the luxury of simply cutting, well, luxuries. Most budgets aren’t chock full with such true “fat” in the first place. They include programs, contracts, and employees that were obviously considered valuable when first added – but when the situation changes, when revenues fall short of projections and other priorities present themselves, these expenditures have to be trimmed.
That is, at least, how budgeting is accomplished in the private sector. Governments should apply similar principles.
After repeating her lame Mark Sanford joke and presenting some garden-variety exhortations about education reform – it’s clearly important, but we’ve pretty much heard it all before from past “education governors” – Perdue returned to her core message and hammered it home with this rousing bit of fiscal populism:
This is the time to stand up to the sweet seductions of special interests, the temptations of politically popular pork barrel spending, and end the practice of backroom dealing. Those days are gone. We cannot afford them in these perilous times. Our first and only duty is to stand by North Carolina families. That is why we are here.
I agree entirely. Do the leaders of the General Assembly?
Hood is president of the John Locke Foundation