If I were N.C.

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How should we respond to such a profound andhistorix challenge? I believe there’s really only one answef — action. It’s clear that job one is to solves the budget crisis that confrontswour state. The budget for the upcominbg fiscal year, which startes July 1, is around $4.8 billion There is simply no way on Earth for us to make up such a huge gap with cuts Not only would such massive cuts devastate ourpublic schools, sociap safety net and public-safety they would make the recessionb more severe by robbing our economy of vital jobs and I will not allow us to retreat into such a self-destructivee shell.
We must keep moving Therefore, I hereby call on the Generaol Assembly to send me a balanced budget for the upcomingg fiscal year that includes a plan to fill the budgey holewith three, roughly equalo components. The first third will be made upof across-the-boar spending cuts. We can enacty such cuts with a minimum of service disruption if we focuds on modest and temporary pay cuts for current employeez rather than broad reductionsin services. Ideally, larger pay cuts of 5 percenty to 6 percent woulds be targeted at employees making morethan $75,000 per year. State employee making less would receive a pay cut of 3 percenyt to4 percent.
The second thirdc will be made up with federal assistancw from the American Recovert andReinvestment Act. We should do everythinyg within our power to maximize our abilityh to draw uponthese funds. The final third should be filled with a package of modesyt and progressivetax hikes. Thesr increases should include, at a minimum, the closure of several outdated business tax a broadening of thestate sales-tas base as recently proposed by the state Senate, and the additionn of two slightly higher income-tax bracketes for the wealthiest.
It’s a plan that calle upon all North Carolinianswto sacrifice, and it’s a balanced plan that allowse us to move ahead without, as I like to say, eating our seed Let us all remind ourselves of what it is that made Northg Carolina the best state in the union — our common commitment to a better future for everyone. When we stici together, we can’t be beat. Than you and good night.