The projected state budget gap has been revised downward for the second time in less than a week. Gov. Beverly Perdue, during her State of the State address Monday, said it was now at $2.4 billion. Just a week ago, state officials said they were looking at filling a $3.7 billion gap for the upcoming fiscal year. And on Wednesday, Perdue said that she was “over-the-top happy” to announce that gap had closed to $2.7 billion. Mark Johnson, a spokesman for Perdue, said there were two factors involved in lowering the budget gap figure. First, the stock market is performing better, meaning the General Assembly won’t be required to appropriate as much money to the state employee pension plan. In addition, the governor will propose a change in the way funds are allocated to schools. The latter could result in a cost shift to county governments. Enrollment growth money will now only pay for classroom instruction, Johnson said. Student services and funds for libraries were previously included in the calculation for average daily membership costs, Johnson said.(Barry Smith, M2M POLITICS, 2/14/11).
