Nonprofits say N.C. budget cuts would devastate

Nonprofits say N.C. budget cuts would devastate
The Associated Press
Published: Tue, Jun. 02, 2009 07:32AMModified Tue, Jun. 02, 2009 07:43AM
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tool goes here RALEIGH -- More than 80 nonprofit organizations and service providers want North Carolina lawmakers to raise additional revenue to ease the pain of potential budget cuts the next two years.

The coalition called "Together NC" scheduled a news conference Tuesday in front of the Legislative Building as House members move closer to assembling a state government spending plan.

House budget-writers are looking at cuts deeper than the Senate and Gov. Beverly Perdue offered in their spending proposals because state revenues have dropped dramatically in recent months. The budget gap for next year is at least $1.5 billion wider.

Together NC says closing that gap with spending cuts only would hurt low-income families and that a tax increase would protect them.

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I don't get that last paragraph. I understand that spending cuts would hurt low-income but how does a tax increase protect them?

Simple! A tax increase would continue to fund government subsidies and social welfare programs at or near current levels.

Reading between the lines here, but it is implied that spending cuts will dramatically affect the low-income families because spending on the programs which provide services to the needy will see the chopping block BEFORE eliminating or reducing non-essential jobs within state government will be considered. Same goes for salary and benefit cuts within state government.

The short version is that if you have a government job you should somehow be immune to economic forces which affect taxpayers at large.

It's easier to mobilize social welfare recipients in large numbers to rally for tax increases than it is to find viable solutions to reducing the size and scope of state government.

Let us not forget that one of the largest groups receiving social welfare benefits across the board in North Carolina is the illegal immigrant community and their US born dependents(?). Isn't it odd that no one in the General Assembly or Governors office has brought that into the debate? Wonder how much we could trim from the budget if we stopped giving away the resources an ever increasing number of legitimate North Carolina residents are in need of?