Perdue warns lawmakers as new budget year begins

The Associated Press

Published: July 1, 2009

RALEIGH - Gov. Beverly Perdue said North Carolina leaders need to pick up the pace on budget negotiations now that the new fiscal year has begun.

Perdue told reporters Wednesday outside her office the state is losing millions of dollars each day that a state government plan is late.

The Legislature agreed Tuesday to a stopgap spending plan that gives lawmakers two more weeks to work out a deal.

The governor sounded ambivalent about competing House and Senate revenue packages, each of which would raise about $1 billion in new taxes this coming year. She said she would prefer a short-term revenue solution to narrow the budget gap but is willing to consider a compromise that would expand the number of services subject to the sales tax.