NORTH CAROLINA–Rob Christensen of the Raleigh News and Observer recalls that the last time North Carolina faced a budget crisis the likes of which it’s seeing this year was during the height of the Great Depression, and had what he calls one of the state’s “best governors” in charge.
O. Max Gardner cut state salaries by one-third at that time to avoid widespread layoffs. “New conditions demand new remedies” he said at the time.
Christensen goes on to suggest that Gov. Bev Perdue should do the same. Here’s an excerpt:
The state could be looking at laying off 21,000 public employees next year, the N.C. Budget & Tax Center, a private liberal group, concluded after analyzing the budget cuts that Perdue has asked her departments to prepare.
That is about 7.4 percent of the state’s work force.
One idea being floated by one of the state’s wise men, John Sanders, former director of the Institute of Government in Chapel Hill, is that Perdue and the legislature follow Gardner and cut salaries rather than institute massive layoffs.
Though temporarily cutting salaries would be very painful, it would spread the pain equitably.
WCU professor Roger Hartley responded to this story with a short opinion piece you can read here. If you’d like to comment on this topic, please do so there.
