Senate Democrat Spending Requests Approach $2 Billion

At a press conference today, Senate Republican Leader Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) and House Republican Leader Paul Stam (R-Wake) released the results of a review of Senate spending earmarks filed during the Legislative Short Session which began on May 13. Spending earmarks generally call for spending state tax funds for the benefit of a particular area or constituency or a particular interest group. The deadline for filing spending bills was 4:00 p.m. on May 28, 2008. Making adjustments to the second year of the two year budget adopted during the previous year's Legislative Long Session is a primary purpose of the Legislative Short Session.

Representative Stam said, "Euphemisms like ‘special projects,’ usually inserted by the budget co-chairs at the last minute, all too often cost the taxpayers money that would never pass if there were an up or down vote after an opportunity for reflection, scrutiny and debate."

In the survey, bills were attributed to the primary bill sponsor, and total spending requests for each Senate member were calculated. A comparison of Senate Republican and Democrat earmarks reveals substantial differences in the number and total of spending bills filed. Earmarks with a Democrat as primary sponsor amounted to $1,959,208,950.00, while spending requests with a Republican primary sponsor were $80,728,796.00. Thirty-seven Senators (29 Democrats and 8 Republicans) filed spending requests; thirteen Senators (2 Democrats and 11 Republicans) filed no appropriations bills.

These new spending proposals, if adopted, would be in addition to the $20,694,246,538 already slated for spending in the second year of the budget biennium and do not include expansion spending expected to occur without the introduction of a specific bill, such as the anticipated $90,000,000.00 for funding ABC bonus payments in the public schools. One of the more interesting earmarks is a request for funding a mobile barbershop pilot program.

“Uncontrolled spending is the primary reason North Carolina’s tax rates are highest in the southeast,” said Senator Berger. “Many of the spending earmarks filed in the Senate will find their way into the final adopted state budget; that additional spending drives the need for additional tax revenue. North Carolina currently is in the bottom half of states (40^th) in the State Business Tax Climate Index released by the nonpartisan Tax Foundation. Earmark appropriations requests are a key element in state spending growth. Republicans have long argued that any increases in state spending should be limited by some objective measure such as population together with an appropriate adjustment for inflation.

“State budgeting should begin by funding the primary functions of state government, including education, public safety and transportation. Instead, what we now see all too often is a process that is seemingly earmark driven. The earmark driven process has provided taxpayers with many of the wasteful spending examples of the past, including the infamous Teapot Museum. With one in three of North Carolina's public school students dropping out, severe problems in the funding of needs in our criminal justice system and a crumbling roads system, North Carolina simply cannot afford to continue state budgeting in this manner.”

The Senate Earmark Study follows this Release

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