"North Carolina Budget Is NOT Balanced"

"North Carolina Budget Is NOT Balanced"

"What if you went to the grocery store,
charged the groceries to your account and ate the food.

Then you don’t pay your account until next year.

Does this mean you didn’t eat the food and can ignore your grocery bill?

Yes, if you are a North Carolina legislator.

Next year state employees will earn their compensation,
including a portion of their pension benefits.

The state will charge some of these payroll cost to the pension plan.

Because the state will not pay this deferred compensation until years later,
the legislators believe these payroll cost have not been incurred.

These costs were not included in the “balanced” budget passed by the legislature...

Truthful accounting recognizes employees earn a portion of their pension benefits
every year they work.

Accurate accounting provides that these real and certain expenses
be included in the budget calculation when earned, not when paid.

Just because the state uses a deferred compensation scheme
to avoid paying all of this year’s payroll cost,
doesn’t mean that these costs can be ignored.

If these costs are not included in the budget calculation,
then the state’s budget is NOT BALANCED."

North Carolina Budget Watch