Virginia Governor Tim Kaine announced today that the state is facing a $641 million budget shortfall next year and is asking state agencies to cut their budgets 5%.
Similarly, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley says his state is facing a $1.5 billion shortfall.
Both Governors lay blame on the slowing housing market and over-zealous projections of revenue growth and the resulting spending that is now coming back to haunt them.
Obviously there are lessons to be learned for North Carolina, unfortunately those lessons only come after the leadership of the General Assembly increased spending 9.5% and issued over $500 million in non-voter authorized debt.
So, will there be a budget shortfall for North Carolina when the General Assembly returns next May? Even if our housing market has been somewhat isolated from the national slowdown, you have to figure that the irresponsible budgeting over the past two years will come back to haunt us sometime real soon.
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