Gov. Perdue issued a memo to state agencies to begin preparing plans on how they would cut their budgets by 5, 10 and 15 percent. From the N&O:
The state’s top budget officer sent a memo to a wide swath of state officials Thursday ordering up plans for next year’s budget, which is expected to have a $3.3 billion hole in it. The stark news: Agencies must write plans on how they would cut 5 percent, 10 percent and 15 percent on a permanent basis. Officials will be asked to find underperforming programs, unnecessary services and redundant employees.
To see the memo, click here.
As indicated in the N&O article, the memo directs state agencies to look for reductions in the following areas:
? Eliminating duplicative and underperforming programs.
? Reducing layers of management and administration.
? Streamlining and consolidating programs, offices and services.
? Reducing operating funds due to service efficiencies.
But shouldn’t finding these inefficiencies and unneccessary expenditures be an ongoing process? Why do government officials wait until a “budget crisis” before they begin to examine how they spend our money?
Indeed, if this kind of scrutiny and responsibility would have been exercised on a regular basis over the last 30 years, North Carolina’s state budget would easily be balanced even during this recession.
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