Bev Perdue, Governor of North Carolina

The recession has left North Carolina with a deep and unprecedented budget shortfall.

In this crisis I see an opportunity to streamline programs and refashion state government into a more nimble organization focused on serving you, the taxpayers. I also believe that as your governor, I have a responsibility to protect the investments in education, jobs and public safety that help make North Carolina great.

I’ve already done some of the work for you. Investments in our economy are paying off and tough choices I made early on have reduced the size of our deficit from $3.7 billion to $2.7 billion.

There are plenty of ways to get our deficit to zero. But don't take my word for it. We've prepared a little challenge to give you a chance to write North Carolina’s budget.

Help Charlie, our lovable Plott Hound, find the right mix of choices to get our deficit to zero. There are no wrong answers, so have fun and give it your best shot. These numbers are based on real data and the proposals here were among the very same difficult choices I had to consider in preparing my budget.

Bev Perdue

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Charlie Help North Carolina's very own Budget Watchdog balance the budget.

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Share your results with your friends. Have them try out the Balance the Budget Challenge. You can also visit Gov. Perdue's website.

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Congratulations, you and Charlie successfully balanced the budget.

Bev Perdue, Governor of North Carolina

Thanks for playing our Balance the Budget Challenge. As you have seen by now, every choice -- every cut -- has real, sometimes painful consequences.

Crunching the numbers and eliminating the deficit is only half the challenge. In North Carolina over just the last two years.

  • Our population has grown by 400,000 people
  • Our community colleges have enrolled 52,000 new students
  • Our university enrollment has grown by 12,000
  • And our public schools educate 5,000 more children

There are real people – real families – behind these numbers. In the real world, building a budget is about more than just making hard decisions about where to cut and what jobs to lose.

It’s about real, significant, and sustainable change. My focus is on protecting our legacy of investing in education, promoting job growth and resetting state government for our future.

You Balanced the Budget

Jobs Cut:

How your proposed budget impacts North Carolina

Whoops, you're still in the red.

Bev Perdue, Governor of North Carolina

Thanks for playing our Balance the Budget Challenge. As you have seen by now, every choice -- every cut -- has real, sometimes painful consequences.

Balancing a budget is hard and I understand why you might be tempted to give up. As your governor, I don't have that option.

Crunching the numbers and eliminating the deficit is only half the challenge. In North Carolina over just the last two years.

  • Our population has grown by 400,000 people
  • Our community colleges have enrolled 52,000 new students
  • Our university enrollment has grown by 12,000
  • And our public schools educate 5,000 more children

There are real people – real families – behind these numbers. In the real world, building a budget is about more than just making hard decisions about where to cut and what jobs to lose.

It’s about real, significant, and sustainable change. My focus is on protecting our legacy of investing in education, promoting job growth and resetting state government for our future.

Education

Social Services

Public Safety

General Government

JobsNOW

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Money