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State budget leaves cuts to school systems

By Benjamin Niolet and Kevin Kiley

McClatchy Tribune Wire Service

Published: August 4, 2009

Key Democrats in the House and Senate reached a budget deal Monday that would pass the task of cutting education spending to local school boards across the state.

The budget agreement, which would go to the full House and Senate for votes this week, would feature budget cuts across state spending and include about $990 million in new taxes that Democrats said were needed to offset the most painful cuts to education and social services. The actual budget document was not expected to be completed until late Monday. Budget negotiators warned of steep cuts that would put some state employees out of work.

All categories of state spending would see cuts ranging from 5 percent to 12 percent, said Sen. Linda Garrou, a Winston-Salem Democrat and budget negotiator. The carnage would have been worse without the new taxes.

"I can't tell you the number of teachers we would have lost if you did not have this additional revenue," she said.

The agreement would maintain class sizes from kindergarten to third grade and place the burden for making cuts in higher grades on local officials. The budget would implore local officials to try to protect classroom instruction but leaves it to them to determine whether class sizes would increase. Public education would see a 4.8 percent cut, $1.8 billion, from last year.

Gov. Beverly Perdue, also a Democrat, has said the budget should spare the classroom.

Republicans said the education cuts passed on to local schools would lead to the very cuts Perdue said she wouldn't accept.

"The state can't sit there and say we haven't cut 'x' number of positions when you've reduced funding such that positions will be cut," said Rep. Nelson Dollar, a Cary Republican.

"To me, it sounds like the legislative Democrats decided to increase class size, and the governor signed off on that, but she doesn't want to call it a class-size increase," said Sen. Phil Berger, an Eden Republican and the chamber's minority leader. "You can call it a smart way of dealing with the budget, or you can call it a cynical way of dealing with the public."

Republicans have been largely shut out of budget negotiations. They have been carefully tracking who voted for tax increases along the way, with next year's House and Senate races on their minds. Republicans have said the state had plenty of lower priorities that could have been cut without the need for new taxes.

"The principle of raising over $2 billion in taxes over the next two years at a time when our economy is in the worst shape it's been in in 30 years is a burden working families in our state shouldn't have to bear," Dollar said.

The tax plan would raise the state sales tax by 1 cent and levy a surcharge on income tax for individuals earning at least $60,000 or couples earning at least $100,000. The state would also raise taxes on cigarettes and alcohol and apply the sales tax to certain online purchases.

The state is facing an unprecedented drop in revenue and is constitutionally required to produce a balanced budget. Democrats contend the deficit is $4.5 billion or more. Republicans say that figure is exaggerated and doesn't properly account for the $1.3 billion in federal stimulus money. Rep. Mickey Michaux, a Durham Democrat and senior budget writer, said the deep recession forced budget writers to make painful decisions.

The state will lose scores of vacant positions. Some state employees will lose their jobs, Michaux said.

"There will be live bodies in there," Michaux said of the job cuts.