Gov. Pat McCrory’s deputy budget director, Art Pope, has one message for stakeholders in the state’s budget, including universities: Don’t expect the state’s economy to experience robust growth anytime soon.
Pope spoke Wednesday in Carroll Hall at a roundtable for journalists about the future of the state and its economy.
While he said state revenues will modestly increase at the beginning of the year as residents report more income before taxes rise — a result of the recent fiscal cliff deal — he also said revenues will likely level off thereafter.
“For the foreseeable future, North Carolina is in a very slow economic recovery, just as the rest of the nation,” Pope said. “The economic forecasts I have seen show that we really won’t hit rapid growth … until 2015 at the earliest.”
The sputtering economic recovery in the state will likely pose problems for the UNC system’s five-year strategic plan, which members of the system’s Board of Governors will vote on in February.
The plan aims to make North Carolina one of the top 10 most educated states by increasing its percentage of bachelor degree-holders to 32 percent by 2018 and 37 percent by 2025. But reaching those degree attainment goals will require more state money.
During the next five years, the plan proposes spending $199 million — or an average annual increase of 1.5 percent — on measures such as expanding summer school courses and providing incentives for schools to boost their retention and graduation rates.
Pope would not comment on if McCrory would support the proposed spending, only adding that more will be revealed when the governor’s budget proposal is released in March.
Another goal of the strategic plan is ensuring that graduates have the requisite skills needed by employers. North Carolina still features one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation at 9.2 percent.
