RALEIGH – During her first two months on the job, Gov. Beverly Perdue has for the most part endorsed an agenda of transparency, fiscal restraint, and government reform. During the next couple of months, North Carolinians will get a clearer picture of how Perdue plans to turn her promising rhetoric into reality.

On making state agencies and spending more transparent, the governor has already issued an executive order promising a comprehensive, accessible online resource for North Carolina government. We’ve long favored the idea, and hope that what the Perdue administration has in mind will include these key features:

• A detailed, searchable, and structured version of North Carolina state budget. Essentially, citizens should be able to review the state’s checkbooks on a timely basis, as well as salaries of key state personnel.

• A detailed, searchable, and structured database of the state’s contracts with private vendors and nonprofit service providers.

• A searchable, structured database of outcome measures for major state functions such as public safety, education, transportation, and human services.

As for fiscal restraint, Perdue is about to release her budget plan for the 2009-11 biennium. According to preliminary indications, it calls for sizable budget savings across state government, with larger cuts in spending for general government, HHS, and the UNC system and smaller cuts in spending for K-12 education, public safety, and mental health. Apparently it does not call for a broad-based tax increase, which is wise, but it may include a targeted tax hike on smokers or drinkers, which is unwise.

If Perdue’s budget follows those parameters, it will be substantially better for taxpayers and the future of North Carolina than fiscal conservatives could have expected given the rhetoric of last fall’s gubernatorial campaign. We’ll see. The John Locke Foundation will be releasing its own state budget plan in the coming days, too. Generally speaking, the direction of our budget alternative may well resemble Perdue’s – but we’d take the state further along the path towards smaller government while alleviating the state tax burden and addressing some longer-term fiscal challenges. Here are the outlines of our forthcoming plan:

• Appropriate $18.6 billion for the General Fund budget in 2009-10, a savings of 11 percent off the continuation budget of $21 billion.

• Reduce state spending the most in areas such as business subsidies (51 percent), welfare programs (21 percent), general government (15 percent), and UNC (12 percent). Reduce spending the least in our highest-priority items of public safety (4 percent), community colleges (6 percent), and K-12 education (10 percent, largely in non-classroom expenditures).

• Reduce state government’s workforce by some 5,000 positions, a reasonable target given that North Carolina ranks relatively high in government employment as a share of the population.

• Reform North Carolina’s tax code to broaden the tax base, eliminate special credits and business subsidies, reduce the corporate tax rate to 6 percent, and provide nearly $400 million in tax relief for household investments in education, health care, and child-rearing.

• Devote $300 million next year to shoring up the state employee health plan and another $300 million for the state treasurer to add to the state’s pension-fund portfolio. Recent trends have imperiled the state’s ability to finance these employee-benefit obligations.

Lastly, Gov. Perdue seems to be following through on her promise to let transportation professionals, rather than the appointed Board of Transportation, make decisions about specific transportation projects. Again, we’ve long advocated this change as part of a comprehensive reform strategy that includes downsizing the board and setting transportation priorities based on real performance data and realistic long-term goals.

But so far, so good.

Hood is president of the John Locke Foundation