The Best of Both Budgets | Eastern NC Now

    Publisher's note: The author of this post is Sarah Curry, who is the Director of Fiscal Policy Studies for the John Locke Foundation.

"Reverse logrolling" would help legislators produce a sound spending plan

    "Logrolling" is a budgeting technique whereby each chamber negotiates with the other for inclusion of specific line items in the final spending plan. This study reverses that practice by accepting the lower of the two chambers' previously approved figures for each department or agency, as well as the higher of the two chambers' previously approved fund transfers. This is referred to as "reverse logrolling."

    Reverse logrolling applied to the current state budget would result in a General Fund budget of $20.6 billion. This would create a $667 million surplus, excluding any teacher pay raise.

    Reverse logrolling before the incorporation of a teacher pay increase would allow legislators more flexibility when discussing spending priorities. It would also allow enough to be set aside in savings and reserves to avoid any unforeseen shortfalls in the next fiscal year.

    The Senate proposed an average 11 percent teacher pay increase, while the House proposed an average 5 percent teacher pay increase. Both plans require a significant increase in spending, which is easily accomplished with the use of reverse logroll savings from other areas of the budget.

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