Right priorities

Governor Easley's emphasis on education in his budget reflects a noble North Carolina aim to help people realize their dreams

Moving to the last two years of his time as governor, Mike Easley can reflect on budget nightmares and budget dreams. The revenue and spending plan he unveiled Thursday looks to be a positive step toward improving education opportunities for the state's young people.

It offers a variety of good ideas for education. They include a $50 million scholarship program (two years of college for needy students who work a little and maintain good grades); greater investment in the More at Four day-care initiative that would give 28,000 at-risk 4-year-olds a leg up before they start school; and more money for Learn and Earn, which offers both in-person and online courses so high school students can get some advance college credit.

There are raises for community college and public school teachers, and for state employees and retired state employees.

Several North Carolina governors have made education a priority, with Easley's predecessor, Jim Hunt, daring to set the bar pretty high. This is because education is the key to everything that can make the state better for every citizen -- giving more people a chance for better jobs, giving businesses a better-trained workforce, giving the state a better chance to recruit clean, high-tech industry and recuperate from a devastating loss of manufacturing jobs in the last decade. It is the right priority. This is a good budget.

It's true the governor wants to hold on for a while to two "temporary" taxes, one a bump of a quarter of a percentage point on the state sales tax and the other a similar increase on the top income tax level, that were set to expire. The taxes were put into effect during the financial crisis (that budget nightmare) of 2001, and were reduced last year. If they can be eliminated eventually, that's fine. But for now, keeping them makes sense, given needs in education and health care and other areas critical to the public welfare. The fact is that improvements in such programs could help more people than a couple of very modest tax cuts.

Also, the governor would offer tax relief by canceling state income taxes for the state's poorest people, and by cutting them in half for another group of low-income residents. Small businesses would get some breaks as well, to write off more of their expenses. This just makes sense, and there's obviously not much money involved, relative to a $20.1 billion budget.

As this budget meanders through the General Assembly (and let's hope that journey ends by early summer), House and Senate members will make their own suggestions, and that's fine.

Perhaps they will want higher raises for state employees, or maybe more investment in public health such as mental health services. To the degree they can work with the governor to refine things and maintain a focus on addressing the needs of working families, the process will be productive.

North Carolina law does require a balanced budget, and thus the ultimate result isn't going to be "all things for all people." But the objective is to help as many people as possible while being financially responsible and raising revenue in the most equitable manner. From the overall looks of the governor's budget, he has done his part.