From the Under the Dome blog:
Here’s a wonky fact-check to mull this weekend.
In the [North Carolina] state budget debate this session, Democrats and interest groups tossed out massive numbers -- 14,500, 18,000, 30,000 -- to quantify the jobs Republicans were cutting in the 2012 spending plan.
But the near-final number is actually much less: about 6,455.
The legislative fiscal research division tabulated that figure this week at the request of Rep. Bill Faison, who wants to put state workers back to work with a penny sales tax hike. (For his part, Faison received the numbers moments before his presser started but continued to suggest layoffs reached 14,500.)
This is how the actual layoffs break down:
-- 438 in state agencies and departments
-- 567 in community colleges
-- 2,418 in public schools
-- 3,032 in the UNC system.
The only number that gets close to the original projections from the budget debate is the number of positions eliminated (vacant and filled): 13,403.
Again the breakdown: 1,762 at state agencies and departments; 814 at community colleges; 6,308 at public schools; and 4,519 in the UNC system.
The economics department at ASU has one of those vacant jobs that was not filled. We were recruiting for two last year due to retirement and attrition and were allowed to hire only one. We're down to 16 faculty, from 17. I would count that sort of vacant job loss. There are others in the system that were unfilled. I wouldn't necessarily count those.
