A jackpot that's not

That rustling sound you hear coming from Raleigh is North Carolina lawmakers rubbing their hands together over seeming treasure at their feet. At a meeting last week of the House Democratic caucus, legislators were told that tax collections for recent months have run ahead of projections. That and money left over from last year's budget probably will adds up to about $1.3 billion in unexpected revenue that lawmakers will have at their disposal when they meet beginning next month in the short session to tweak the biennial budget.

It's real money, of course, but if it has the sparkle of a windfall, that's a mirage. Actually, it's money that has been squeezed out of budgets beginning in 2000. Or money never put in the budget, because the recession that struck in Governor Easley's first year in office resulted in deep deficits. The legislature reacted by cutting programs to the bone, and Easley raided every state fund that wasn't legally nailed shut.

Indeed, any surplus on June 30, the last day of the fiscal year, could mean pay raises that state employees have had to do without. And pay raises for teachers, whose pay was to have been increased to the national average by now but hasn't been. It's road maintenance money, and funds to hire more environmental and workplace safety inspectors, and funds that were to have been spent to fix the way mental health services are provided to North Carolinians. It's money that was drained from the state's rainy day fund.

Responsible budget writers seem to understand the need for sensible spending this year. But pressure by special-interest lobbyists will be great to resume funding of pet projects. And of course there will be calls for tax cuts, which would amount to squeezing blood out of a turnip.

Actually, this is revenue that will bring the state back fiscally only to where it ought to be (there were much smaller surpluses the last two years). The hope simply must be that legislators use the money responsibly.