No. 669: Where Did North Carolina Go Wrong?

“How did North Carolina get into such budget problems” is a frequent question asked among public-policy thinkers and regular citizens during the past couple of years. Although many factors contributed, clearly an important one is that North Carolina spent an increasing share of its income on government functions in the 1990s, and when the economic slowdown and recession came in 2000-‘02, the high level of spending could not be sustained.