N.C. Liberals Cry About Fiscal Responsibility

When I think of spoiled brats, I think of liberals.  These people are fiscally irresponsible and completely devoid of common sense.  If you need an example, all you have to do is look to states like California where it’s a free-for-all.

North Carolina has its share of morons, too.  Local newspapers are infested with pie-in-the-sky editorial boards that can’t spend taxpayer monies fast enough.  These yahoos would spend us into fiscal insolvency in a heartbeat given the chance.

The News and Observer is just such a rag.  Here they are complaining about North Carolina’s rainy day fund:

This is ridiculous, and little more than a gimmick for some lawmakers to run on, demonstrating presumably their great responsibility in handling public money.

What are they? Fifteen-year-old kids with summer jobs whose parents require them to put aside a set amount from their paychecks so they don’t spend it all? Good grief. Legislators ought to be able to handle the budget in a responsible way, and the idea that they have to build up a huge rainy day fund — it’s roughly $1.5 billion — to deal with a crisis is wrong. If a crisis comes, the General Assembly can convene and appropriate the needed money. Period.

Isn’t that precious?  They are calling fiscally responsible lawmakers, children!  Did you notice they treat taxpayers as ATM machines? 

Take a look at the graph below.  This is what it was like when Democrats had control of the purse strings in North Carolina.  God forbid these people take over the General Assembly.

Source:

http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/editorials/article131839454.html#storylink=cpy

https://www.nccivitas.org/civitas-review/no-needs-serious-history-lesson/

North Carolina Named Big Mover in Fiscal Responsibility

When adults took over North Carolina’s General Assembly and governorship back in 2013, republican legislators began a much needed fiscal overhaul of the state’s finances.  Teat squawkers from near and far began to protest.  The lip-smackers began to show up in Raleigh demanding all sorts of taxpayer goodies that we could ill-afford.  They called it Moral Mondays.  I’m here to say there is nothing moral about bankrupting a state.

The tough decisions republicans made saved us from a blue state disaster.  The Mercatus Center ranked North Carolina #21 in fiscal solvency.  Here are their criteria:

·         Cash solvency. Does a state have enough cash on hand to cover its short-term bills?

·         Budget solvency. Can a state cover its fiscal year spending with current revenues, or does it have a budget shortfall?

·         Long-run solvency. Can a state meet its long-term spending commitments? Will there be enough money to cushion it from economic shocks or other long-term fiscal risks?

·         Service-level solvency. How much “fiscal slack” does a state have to increase spending if citizens demand more services?

·         Trust fund solvency. How much debt does a state have? How large are its unfunded pen-sion and healthcare liabilities?

  Mercatus specifically named North Carolina as one of the big movers.  Here is an excerpt:

·         Two states—Maine and North Carolina—experienced a significant shift in their long-run sol­vency ranking. Maine fell by eight spots and North Carolina improved by seven spots.

·         There was little movement in the service-solvency ranking, except in the case of North Caro­lina, which improved its position by six places

All the liberal rags that infest the Old North State can suck on that!  Had our legislators taken their advice we would’ve ranked near Puerto Rico.  Here are North Carolina’s current rankings:

·          Cash solvency measures whether a state has enough cash to cover its short-term bills, which include accounts payable, vouchers, warrants, and short-term debt. (North Carolina ranks 37th.)

·         Budget solvency measures whether a state can cover its fiscal year spending using current revenues. Did it run a shortfall during the year? (North Carolina ranks 8th.)

·         Long-run solvency measures whether a state has a hedge against large long-term liabilities. Are enough assets available to cushion the state from potential shocks or long-term fiscal risks? (North Carolina ranks 17th.)

·         Service-level solvency measures how high taxes, revenues, and spending are when compared to state personal income. Do states have enough “fiscal slack”? If spending commitments demand more revenues, are states in a good position to increase taxes without harming the economy? Is spending high or low relative to the tax base? (North Carolina ranks 18th.)

·         Trust fund solvency measures how much debt a state has. How large are unfunded pension liabilities, OPEB liabilities, and state debt compared to the state personal income? (North Carolina ranks 8th.)

To all the teat squawkers that contaminate Raleigh on Mondays:  being fiscally sound is moral.  Learn it, live it.

Source:

http://mercatus.org/statefiscalrankings/northcarolina

'Twas the Congress Before Christmas

By T.L. Coston

‘Twas the Congress before Christmas and all through the House

Establishment Republicans were stirring along with the louts;

Teat Squawkers gathered in the halls, all fret with care

In the hopes that staffers would grant them taxpayer wares

Citizens were soothed by the midterm elections

As visions of prosperity danced in their direction

Then I and my fellow Americans settled down for a long, holiday cheer

Busying ourselves with family, friends and maybe a beer

When on Fox News there rang such a clatter

I leaped from my couch to see what was the matter

Away to the T.V.  I made a dash

Grabbed the remote and gave it a blast

Statuary Hall was full of buzz

As reporters and politicians mugged about

Cameras and lights filled the place

While media whores pan-caked their face

D.C. courtesans rushed around in delight,

“Good news! The federal government has a green light!”

The House passed Cromnibus with the president’s help

A whopping $1.8 trillion will give you a yelp!

And so the D.C. Establishment wins again

As Americans are saddled with $18 trillion in debt

So enjoy your holidays the best you can

Just remember we’re too stupid to understand

File away another fiscal year

Please…please don’t shed a tear

Republicans say another election has to be won

And so the campaign must go on

So envision a distant capitol with no care, or class

They are wiping their asses with all of our cash

And from the White House they stand and cheer,

“Screw you, voters!  And your Happy New Year!”

NC Democrats to Kill a Mockingbird

Perception is reality.  Democrats have been limping along on that crutch for decades.  Facts mean nothing.  History is to be ignored.  Failed policies would work if the “right people” where in charge.  Day is night.  Night is day.  And through it all, the mockingbird sings.

North Carolina, once again, is experiencing Democratic deceit.  These political operatives would kill that mockingbird if it didn’t sing their song of lies.  John Hood, a bird watcher, at Carolina Journal   wrote an op-ed outlining the fiscal policies of the Southeast region.  Here is an excerpt:

To put things another way, the Left has constructed a theory of North Carolina Exceptionalism. It holds that the state has outperformed its regional peers by maintaining distinctive public policies. Some liberals express the theory by sneering at places like South Carolina and Texas. The Right has responded by challenging the theory’s premise — that North Carolina has significantly outperformed the rest of the Southeast — as well as the empirical basis for the assertion that higher taxes to fund higher spending results in faster economic growth.

Regarding the premise, look at the standard measure of gross domestic product. I recently constructed a nationwide comparison of state GDP trends as compound annual growth rates expressed in four-year increments (corresponding to the terms of North Carolina’s governors). Since 1965, North Carolina’s economy has grown faster than the national average, certainly, but so have the economies of South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and most other Southeastern states. North Carolina’s average growth rate during the period was 7.4 percent (in nominal dollars). The Southeast average was 7.3 percent. Georgia (7.8 percent) and Virginia (7.6 percent) grew a little faster than North Carolina. South Carolina (7.3 percent), and Tennessee (7.1 percent) grew a little slower.

Relatively speaking, North Carolina’s strongest performance occurred during the 1980s, when annual growth in the state’s GDP averaged about a percentage point above that of the Southeast. During the 1970s, however, North Carolina’s growth rate was about a point lower than the regional average.

Since the late 1990s, economic growth in North Carolina has been, at best, lackluster. Which states had the strongest growth? The top 15 states were, in order: North Dakota, Wyoming, Utah, Texas, South Dakota, Alaska, Oklahoma, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Nebraska, Colorado, Louisiana, Arizona, and Maryland. Almost all of these states have either large energy and resource-extraction industries, relatively small and low-cost state governments, or both.

And if that mockingbird don’t sing….

Source:  http://www.carolinajournal.com/daily_journal/index.html

Ron Paul and Jim Rogers on the Federal Governments Confiscatory Tactics

Obama is Lincoln Incarnate?

Obama is no Lincoln.  This so-called president has never led from the front.  As a matter of fact, he hasn’t even bothered to lead from behind.  No, this man is a political opportunist, who’ll capitalize on the events unfolding before him.  Until the events are ripe, that’s when he’ll come off the golf course or some fundraiser where the sheeple fawn over his majesty.

But that’s not how the Media will play this tragedy.  To them, Obama is the savior of the republic, who deigns to come down from Mt. Olympus and grace the plebeians with his omnipresent wisdom; he’ll unite a do-nothing Congress whose Tea Party faction is undermining the will of the people.  Savior Obama is Lincoln incarnate.  So says the Media.  So says the republic.

But somewhere in the hinterlands is the truth.  The Democrats shuttered the Senate republicans, and the House majority were feverishly at work on a budget:
 
Until a call from the president on Wednesday, Senator McConnell says he had had no contact from any Democrat on the fiscal cliff since Thanksgiving. “The phone never rang, so here we are five days from the New Year and we might start talking,” he said in a floor speech on Thursday.

On the House side, Speaker Boehner, who faces a reelection for his post on Jan. 3, says the House has already passed legislation on May 10 and Aug. 1 to avert the entire fiscal cliff, so now the "Senate must act."

"Speaker Boehner will attend a meeting with congressional leaders at the White House, where he will continue to stress that the House has already passed legislation to avert the entire fiscal cliff and now the Senate must act," spokesman Brendan Buck said in a statement on Thursday.

With no new offers from Republicans or Democrats on Capitol Hill, say many congressional analysts, it's up to a president who has little incentive to shoulder a burden that the congressional leaders themselves have failed to take up.

The analysts believe it’s up to this president to solve our fiscal crisis?  This man can’t even get a budget passed in the democratically led Senate.  But they are right in one respect:  he has little incentive to shoulder the burden.  The MEDIA has seen to that!

H/T:  Drudge Report

Source:  http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2012/1228/Fiscal-cliff-meeting-at-White-House-Will-it-be-Lincoln-moment-for-Obama?nav=87-frontpage-entryNineItem

Fayetteville Observer Chucks Truth Under the Bus

I’m beginning to believe that all newspapers in North Carolina are liberal rags. The Charlotte Observer published an editorial by the Fayetteville Observer entitled, “State Budget Chucks Many Services Under the Bus”. And here is how this article leads off:

Which of North Carolina's schools for the deaf do you plan to close? Or would you prefer to shut down a school for the blind, instead?

The choice is real, but don't complain. At least you were offered a voice this time. So which will it be? The Eastern North Carolina School for the Deaf, in Wilson, or the North Carolina School for the Deaf, in Morganton? No dawdling, because if neither is chosen you can kiss the Governor Morehead School for the Blind goodbye.

That isn't conjecture. It's the law - our newly right-sized, fiscally responsible state budget.

Are you shocked? Are you shamed? Poor little deaf and blind kids are about to be denied an education by those evil republican state legislatures.

I can hear it now: Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?

But what the scumbag editors at the Fayetteville Disturber didn’t tell you is that these three residential schools have only 220 students. That is about 73 students per school. Would it not be cost effective to consolidate? Apparently, not to the spendthrifts at the Fayetteville Disturber.

Let’s explore this feigned outrage even further. Not only is the North Carolina GOP children haters; they also despise the mentally ill:

There was a warning of another sort when, earlier this year, the federal government ordered the state to stop using Medicaid to warehouse people with mental illnesses among the residents of elder-care homes. There was a deadline, now past. If those homes lose their Medicaid eligibility, both the mentally ill and many seniors will be left with nothing.

Unfortunately, that was only the insult, not the injury. Along with public schools and the pre-kindergarten program, lawmakers had already targeted funding for mental health programs as well. These are the same programs that have been struggling to restore stability to a system that has been reeling from poor judgment and insufficient resources for a decade.

Let's tally up. That takes care of the mentally ill, the poor, the elderly, the sick, preschoolers, K-12 students and ... Oh yes: Will it be the visually impaired, or the hearing-impaired?

Do the editors at the Disturber consider fraud poor judgment? I know perpetrators consider taxpayer largess to be insufficient, as would many bank robbers. Many of these “warehouses” have been committing fraud since the inception of Medicaid:

As many as 1,200 mentally ill adults, scores of them living in the Lake Norman area, could be forced out of assisted-living facilities as the state tries to enforce a Medicaid rule concerning mental health care centers.

The rule requires assisted-living facilities with more than 16 beds have no more than half of their residents diagnosed with a mental illness. The rule is decades old, but the state is now asking the homes to comply or fall under the designation of “institution of mental disease.” Mentally ill residents in those facilities cannot receive Medicaid funding.

To comply with the state’s new initiative, officials say assisted-living facilities will have to kick out mentally ill residents into an already overstretched mental health system that is not prepared to handle the deluge.

“It’s a disaster in the making,” said Deby Dihoff, state executive director of the National Alliance for Mentally Illness, “because we’re catching up with decades of neglect in the housing options for the mental ill at a time when there are few beds and no money to increase those options.”

The Medicaid law, passed in 1965, had the provision regarding assisted-living facilities. North Carolina, however, looked the other way and allowed the mentally ill to fill those beds because it eased waiting lists and opened up beds in its psychiatric hospitals across the state, said Amy Hart, owner and administrator of Hunter Village assisted-living center in Huntersville and Crown Colony in Mooresville.

Looked the other way? They were defrauding the taxpayers! And I want to know what these teat suckers consider mentally ill. I have hundreds of examples of people, companies, and hospitals who’ve screwed over the citizens of this state via Medicaid. And I wouldn’t doubt that many of these “warehousers” have committed their share of padding the books. Hell, what am I saying they committed fraud!

But what is the law to the editors of the Fayetteville and Charlotte Disturbers. They only care about scoring political points and redistributing the wealth.


Read more: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/09/25/2637573/state-budget-chucks-many-services.html#ixzz1Z6bMupHq

http://www.alldeaf.com/current-events/91596-north-carolina-school-deaf-jeopardy-closing-once-again.html

http://www.huntersvilleherald.com/news/2011/07/28/medicaid-enforcement-could-push-out-thousands-of-mentally-ill/

Senator Kay Hagan Lectures Nation on Fiscal Responsibility

When Senator Kay Hagan speaks on fiscal responsibility, the nation listens.  The great conservative from North Carolina pontificated on our nation’s financial obligations and how disastrous it would be for congress not to raise the country’s debt ceiling:

Hagan, a Greensboro Democrat, is an honorary co-leader of Third Way, a Democratic-leaning, business-friendly think tank in Washington. She was a guest at a Third Way breakfast Tuesday moderated by Bill Schneider, a senior political analyst at CNN who also is a scholar at the think tank

She indicated support for raising the debt ceiling, saying it would be "disastrous" for the United States to default on loans.

She also said the business community must get the message to Republicans as well.

"The business leaders in this nation have got to come out stronger about how disastrous it would be."

Notice the concern that Senator Hagan has for the well being of our country.  Surely, she would’ve done everything in her power to alleviate the millstone that has been hung around this great nation’s neck.  But in reviewing her record, she has done just the opposite.  She voted for expanding the government bureaucracy every chance she had, including Obamacare.  Now, let’s look at how much money she raided from the taxpayers in the year 2009, as per her own government funded website:

· 02/26/09 $5.2 million – 2009 omnibus appropriations bill (includes 13 programs requested by Dole)

· 02/24/09 $3,010,000 – DOT grant money for the Piedmont Triad Airport

· 03/05/09 $103 million – Transit funding-some monies going to purchase hybrid buses or bus repairs.


· 06/19/09 $52 million – grants to reduce energy cost (weatherizing homes & light bulbs)


· 05/18/09 $11.2 million – expand community health services throughout the state


· 07/10/09 $1 million – infrastructure for a future hospital Harnett County


 06/10/09 $2 million – for a minority credit union


· 06/29/09 $20 million – health care infrastructure


· 06/26/09 $796,322 – Pitt County Airport


 06/26/09 $30 million – energy efficiency and renewable energy projects


 06/24/09 $906,840 – Cleveland County Community College


· 08/05/09 $49.2 million – Celgard (a private company) to develop and produce batteries


 08/04/09 $1 million – human nutrition center


· 08/04/09 $4,750,000 – Lumbee Tribe for housing projects, grants and loans for community facilities project.


· 08/03/09 Extends clash for clunkers program.


· 07/31/09 $5.4 million – grants to Greensboro Transit Authority for maintenance and operations


· 07/30/09 $6.4 million – water projects


· 07/29/09 $30 million – local law enforcement 100% funding for 3 years.

· 07/29/09 $79.1 million – memorial and crime victim grants

 07/29/09 $3.9 million – Winston Salem for hybrid buses and other equipment

· 07/07/09 $1.3 million – Raleigh-Durham Airport

· 07/21/09 $15 million – research facility at UNC Wilmington

08/31/09 $100 million – green energy and affordable housing projects

· 08/27/09 $991,722 – Tar River Transit System Rocky Mount

08/10/09 $17.5 million – renewable energy research facility UNC Chapel Hill

 08/10/09 $2.3 million – grant for NC A&T to monitor weather and climate change

· 08/05/09 $28.4 million – Chemetall Foote Corp (a private company) grant to construct lithium material for batteries

· 09/25/09 $400,000 – victims of domestic violence

· 09/24/09 $600,000 – waste water infrastructure in Ahoskie and Greenville

· 09/23/09 $3 million – hybrid buses for Charlotte

· 09/23/09 $3.5 million – triangle youth mentoring program

· 09/18/09 $21 million – lower energy use, reduce greenhouse emissions, and create green jobs

· 09/18/09 $100,000 – clean energy in western NC

 09/17/09 $24 million – Charlotte rail system

· 09/15/09 $693,334 – Iredell County drug enforcement

· 09/15/09 $248,325 – domestic violence in western NC

· 09/10/09 $5 million – green energy to Davidson County, City of Durham, Town of Huntersville, and Wake County

09/04/09 $125,000 – combat substance abuse Cherokee County

· 10/15/09 $475,000 – COPS grants for Cumberland and Person Counties

 10/14/09 $500,000 – reopen Cape Lookout lighthouse

· 10/06/09 $1.9 million – expand electronic records in Greene County

· 10/05/09 $2 million – NC rural broadband expansion

· 09/29/09 $8 million – construction of fire stations

· 09/28/09 $1.2 million – energy efficiency projects in Cary, NC

· 09/09/09 $2 million – NC law enforcement of which 1 million goes to a firing range

· 10/27/09 $400 million – to Duke Energy & Progress Energy (private companies) for a smart grid

· 10/21/09 $1 million – Taylorsville for waste water infrastructure improvements

· 11/23/09 $139,249 – Piedmont Bio-fuels Industrial (private company)

· 11/18/09 $946,034 – Employment Security Commission for propaganda purposes

11/18/09 $100,000 – Telamon non-for-profit organization for migrant workers (illegal aliens)

Does this look like a fiscally responsible person to you?  And yet she has the audacity to lecture us on the ramifications of not raising the debt ceiling.  Unbelievable! 

Source:
 http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/05/18/1205554/hagan-says-us-must-raise-debt.html#ixzz1NPt5vvRa

Pelosi's Fiscal Fairy Tales

Princess Pelosi is delusional. Again, we are serenaded with the fairy tale of Democratic fiscal responsibility, when in fact they didn’t even pass a budget last year. Is that fiscally responsible? Is a $14 trillion dollar debt fiscally responsible? I don’t think so!


The only town that hasn’t felt the recession is Washington D.C. As a matter of fact that bureaucratic hell hole has flourished, while everyone else has suffered. When the princess steps outside and sees the hustling and bustling of federal piglets jostling one another, I can see how she can come to the conclusion that the country is doing great.

Another lie that Pelosi and her den of democratic thieves like to spout is that they and that narcissistic, womanizing, scumbag Bill Clinton balanced the budget. It was a persistent republican congress that harried Clinton into fiscal responsibility. Pelosi and her confederate spendthrifts had nothing to do with it.

Save your bedtime fairy tales for your 26 year old children.

Federal Reserve to Tax the World

The Federal Reserve is about to impose a tax upon the whole world through Bernanke’s quantitative easing scheme. Germany and other countries have been outspoken on the U.S. debt and possible currency crisis:


BERLIN - German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble lashed out Friday at the United States' move of printing huge money to stimulate its slow recovery, saying that these policies would not help but create more troubles.


"With all due respect, my feeling is that the United States is at a loss," Schaeuble told reporters in Berlin, two days after the US Federal Reserve (the Fed) announced it would purchase 600 billion dollars of long-term government bonds by mid-2011, in a new round of "quantitative easing".


"Saying now that we once again make an additional $600 billion available will not solve any problem." Schaeuble said. The difficulties faced by Americans had nothing to do with " liquidity drain."



“Helicopter Bob” Bernanke should take the advice of Germany’s Finance Minister. After all, I’m sure Mr.Schaeble remembers what his parents and grandparents went through with the Weimar Republic.

North Carolina’s Fiscal Chickens are Coming Home to Roost

North Carolina's Fiscal Tsunami

As reported by Civitas

Brian Balfour May 10, 2010

North Carolina's dire fiscal condition will once again take center stage this spring as state lawmakers return to Raleigh to craft a budget for the coming 2010-11 fiscal year. North Carolina's financial woes, however, run much deeper than the daunting shortfall in next year's budget.

While lawmakers will blame the economy, make no mistake: the financial disaster that is North Carolina state government is completely of its own making. Long-term fiscal irresponsibility highlighted by out-of-control spending growth, stunning increases in debt spending and unsustainable financial commitments is to blame.

But just how bleak is the state's financial picture? Outlined below is a summary of North Carolina state government's economic crisis, a "fiscal tsunami" that threatens to overwhelm the state's already-overextended budget in the near and long term.

Dangerous Deficits: $4.3 Billion Structural Shortfall over Next 26 Months (as of May 1, 2010)
State budget writers are facing a real budgetary deficit of roughly $4 billion over the next 26 months. This number represents actual revenue shortfalls (compared to projections), expenses exceeding projections, and revenue streams that will disappear.

• The current state budget is facing a deficit likely to reach almost $650 million.
  
  • General Fund revenue for the current fiscal year (2009-10) is projected to be roughly $391 million below budgeted revenue by the end of the year.¹
    
  • Medicaid expenditures are projected to exceed budgeted appropriations by $250 million or more this year.²
    
• Fiscal year 2010-11 will have $788 million less in revenue than was included in last year's biennium budget.
  
  • Revenue projections made last summer have since been revised down by $703 million.³
    
  • There will also be an estimated $85 million reduction in state revenue due to the one-year estate tax lapse.
    
• State budget finances will drop off a cliff in fiscal year 2011-12: $2.9 billion in lost revenues will need to be addressed.
  
  • $1.62 billion of 2010-11 Federal Stimulus Funds will dry up at the end of the fiscal year.
    
    • This includes $1.04 billion listed as "cuts" and already embedded in the 2010-11 budget courtesy of last year's biennial budget bill, along with another $578 million in additional anticipated federal funds for 2010-11; mostly extra funding for Medicaid.⁴
      
  • The temporary sales, corporate income and personal income tax increases approved in last year's budget will end; leaving a revenue hole of $1.3 billion compared to 2010-11.⁵
    
  • In a nationwide survey, economists project the economy to continue to be very sluggish well into 2011⁶, suggesting slow revenue growth (if any) for fiscal year 2011-2012. More than likely, any revenue growth will fall well short of the lost stimulus and temporary tax revenues.
    
  • The state's rainy day fund is already down to only $150 million, and will not be sufficient to address the state's looming financial problems next year.
    

State Debt: $9.4 Billion and Growing Fast

• North Carolina's true debt burden stands at $9.4 billion. That's an average debt burden of more than $4,000 for every family of four.⁷
  
  • Additionally, the state has authorized –but not yet issued – another $2.2 billion in debt (does not include interest payments).
    
• Per Capita State Debt is up 140% over fiscal year 2000⁸ level.
  
• Debt service in the annual General Fund has more than tripled since fiscal year 2000.⁹
  

North Carolina Owes $3.5 Billion to Federal Government - plus another $153 million in interest payments

• North Carolina has borrowed more than $2 billion¹⁰ from the Federal Government in order to cover statewide unemployment benefit payments. State borrowing is expected to grow to $3.5 billion by the end of this year.¹¹ Funds to repay the state's obligation will likely have to come from increased unemployment payroll taxes.
  
• While there is no re-payment plan yet in place for the principle, the state is expected to begin making interest payments in 2011 on the loan that could total $153 million.¹²
  

Escheats Fund Dwindling: $535 Million Liability by 2012

• The state's Escheats Fund consists of the unclaimed property of citizens, typically abandoned bank accounts, insurance policy proceeds or contents of safe deposit boxes.
  
• The state has traditionally used the interest earned on these funds to finance grants, loans and scholarships to needy college students.
  
• The legislative mandate of using only the interest earned was first violated in the 2008-09 budget when Gov. Easley approved $60 million from the Escheat Fund be directed to financing his new EARN college scholarship program.
  
• This past year, the state continued dipping into the actual fund, dropping the value of the fund from $535 million to $332 million, and is on pace to exhaust the rest of the funds by 2012.¹³
  
  • This would leave the state a liability of $535 million, as the money in that fund is the property of citizens who may claim it at any time.
    

$28 Billion Unfunded Liability for State Retiree Health Benefits

• North Carolina state employees – mostly teachers – are entitled to fully-paid health insurance coverage under the State Health Plan after they retire.
  
• The state pays for these benefits on a pay-as-you-go basis. There is virtually no money set aside to help pay for future obligations, making these future obligations "unfunded."
  
• The cost of providing these benefits for state retirees is projected to explode over the next several years.
  
• Unfunded retiree benefits calculated as of Dec. 31, 2008 were $28.3 billion – up from $23.9 billion in Dec. 31, 2005.¹⁴
  
  • To fully pre-fund liabilities, the state should be contributing $2.7 billion annually (calculated for FY 2009) – with most of that amount set aside into a trust fund to save for future liabilities.
    
  • If state lawmakers continue to ignore this liability, state retiree benefits may be in jeopardy as the costs to insure the growing number of eligible retirees will skyrocket and consume a larger share of the state budget.
    

Pension Fund to Require $650 Million in Additional Funds Over the Next Two Years

• North Carolina's Teachers and State Employees Retirement System (TSERS) is no longer fully funded.
  
• The current state budget is scheduled to appropriate $503 million to TSERS in fiscal year 2010-11
  
• To fully-fund the pension system, the state must appropriate $684 million in 2010-11, and $972 million the following year.
  
  • Doing so would require increasing appropriations by $650 million over the next two years. (The Governor did recommend a $20 million increase to the pension fund in her budget recommendations for 2010-11.)
    
• Current projections also show that budgetary outlays will need to exceed $1.1 billion by fiscal year 2013 to fully fund the pension system – a level more than three times the current fiscal year (2010) appropriation of $364 million.¹⁵
  

State Health Plan: Costs to Rise by $2 Billion in Next Four Years
North Carolina's State Health Plan – which covers state employees and retirees - faces many financial challenges in the next several years.

• Rising premiums are estimated to cost taxpayers an additional $1.8 to $1.9 billion from FY 2011 to FY 2015¹⁶ above current costs.
  
  • For fiscal year 2009, total expenses for the Plan came to $2.6 billion.
    

Federal Healthcare "Reform" to Cost Millions
Federal healthcare reform legislation recently signed by President Obama will burden North Carolina's state budget with hundreds of millions in additional expenses.

• The legislation expanded the eligibility threshold for Medicaid enrollment, a program partially funded by state governments.
  
  • Early estimates from the North Carolina Medical Society suggest that, beginning in 2017, North Carolina's cost to finance the newly-eligible Medicaid population will come to "at least" $245 million, and grow to $490 million by 2020.¹⁷
    
• The federal legislation will also impact the State Health Plan.
  
  • Many details of the federal healthcare reform bill are still uncertain, but State Health Plan Executive Director Jack Walker presented some of the federal bill's projected impact on North Carolina's State Health Plan.
    
    • Programming and administrative costs are projected to rise, by a currently "uncertain" amount.
      
    • The mandate requiring coverage be offered to dependents up to age 26 would add $11 million to $27 million per year in potential claims to the plan.
      
    • A tax on plan enrollment is slated to begin being assessed on July 1, 2012. The tax is scheduled to be $1 per member for fiscal year 2012-13 and rise to $2 per member annually for the following six years until the tax sunsets in 2019. The State Health Plan currently has 661,000 members, meaning this tax will cost the state several million dollars over a seven year span.
      

U.S. Fiscal Policies are Grecian Like

Breaking News from Moneynews.com

Bank of England Governor: U.S. Faces Same Danger as Greece

The United States is facing the same fiscal problems as Greece, says Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England.

“Bear in mind King is usually one of the most guarded policymakers in both British and central banking circles. Not yesterday,” the U.K. Telegraph reported.

“It isn’t often one has the opportunity to get such a blunt and straightforward insight into the thoughts of one of the world’s leading economic players. Most of this stuff usually stays behind closed doors, so it’s worth taking note of.”

King’s “frank” comments were definitely not “pleasing” to President Barack Obama and to European leaders, the Telegraph reports.

“He also believes that European Union must become a federalized fiscal union — in other words with central power to tax and spend — if it is to survive. Just two of the nuggets from one of the most extraordinary press conferences,” the Telegraph reported.

King is not the only leading opinion-maker worried about the parlous fiscal state of the United States.

Nouriel Roubini, appearing on Fox News, notes that the fiscal crisis started in 2007 with too much debt in the private sector.

Now, the United States and Europe have socialized the debt. Trillion dollar deficits are not sustainable, however.

“What has happened in Greece could happen in the U.S. We could have serious problems," says Roubini, the former Clinton White House economist, and professor at New York University.

"We have the debt of the federal government. Many state and local governments are bankrupt. There are unfunded liabilities for social security. There are unfunded liabilities for state pensions