RALEIGH – Maybe it’s my fault, mine and others who have called for months for Gov. Mike Easley to emerge from whatever barrow he’s been in and start acting like a governor. Today the governor went down to Pender County to sell his idea of “walling off” unspent Hurricane Floyd relief fund from legislative appropriation (see http://www.heraldsun.com/state/6-254194.html).
Last year, Easley deserved credit for putting a portion of the unspent Floyd money, then totaling nearly $400 million (so much for all those emergency needs), into a reserve in case it was needed to balance the budget. At the end of the fiscal year, it turned out that he didn’t need the roughly $120 million for that purpose. He now says he’d like to spend it on hurricane-related projects. House budget-writers, including Rep. David Redwine (D-Brunswick), want to see it used for General Fund purposes given the state’s $1.6 billion budget deficit for FY 2002-03. Indeed, Redwine would like to add $50 million more in unspent Floyd money to the budget.
Redwine is correct on this, and Easley is way off base. The Floyd account was overfunded during an emergency legislative sessions in 1999. Eastern North Carolina leaders asked for as much as they could, and got almost all of it in the immediate aftermath of the disaster. Former Gov. Jim Hunt and his administration did not work diligently on a plan to take care of real state responsibilities, such as public infrastructure and money to improve flood mapping. Instead, they received what amounted to a padded insurance claim from local officials, added some additional items to the mix, and then dared lawmakers to say no.
It was fiscally irresponsible. Putting $830 million off into the Floyd account helped to drive the state budget into deficit a year later. Hunt was conveniently out of the picture, so Easley inherited the problem (as was true in many areas). But he has failed to rethink this huge subsidy to the economic development of Eastern North Carolina, which comes at the expense of families and businesses elsewhere in the state who are also suffering from a weak economy.
The folks I know down east don’t want to be thought of as welfare recipients capable of surviving only on the largess of taxpayers in Raleigh, Greensboro, Charlotte, and the rest of the Piedmont and western counties. They want real economic investment in the region, something that will happen only when we cut taxes and regulations and improve public services in the region.
Easley’s hollow promise to protect the Floyd money from legislative oversight is not helpful. It may boost his sagging poll numbers a little in eastern counties, though.