The John W. Pope Civitas Institute has conducted a poll to determine whether voters agree with ěgovernment officials and some economistsî that the economic recession has officially ended.
Only 18 percent agree that the recession is officially over, while 81 percent disagree, according to the Pope Civitas poll.
What signs would tell North Carolinians that the recession is over? Here are three:
More of our family members and friends would have jobs ó from the recent college grad trying to start a career to the 50-plus-year-old middle manager who wasnít ready to end his.
Politicians and state employees would not be fretting about multibillion-dollar state budget shortfalls.
And surveys wouldnít continue asking if people believe the recession is over.
Economists are the ones who define ěrecessionî ó officially. Mike Walden with the N.C. State Cooperative Extension Service explained three months ago how economists like him reach this conclusions.
ěWe define a recession as occurring when broad measures of the economy, so average measures of the economy, are going down ó meaning the economy is shrinking or getting worse,î Walden said. ěHowever, once those broad measures start to move upward ó even if it is a snailís pace ó then we say the recession is over. And actually Ö if you look back last summer ó June, specifically, of 2009 ó we started to see at that point these broad measures like production factory output and even later in the fall jobs start to go up. …
ěBut once again ó once again ó let me emphasize this does not mean everything is fine. It simply means on average things are not getting worse. They are getting better. The problem right now is they are getting better at a very, very slow pace.î
All eyes are on Washington, D.C., and Raleigh to see how new Republican majorities will simultaneously accelerate the recovery, curb government spending, cut taxes and erase the word ěrecessionî from everyday use.
Weíd like to see that. Really. So as lawmakers pursue those goals, they should adopt 10 options put forward by the N.C. Coalition for Lobbying and Government Reform to keep the process open:
1. No more secret meetings on the budget.
2. Make the budget public three days before any vote is taken.
3. Post the budget online as it is being printed.
4. No more bills without content or ěblankî bills.
5. No more budgetary amendments ó i.e., special provisions ó allowed in budget bill.
6. No more ěsubstantive materialsî allowed in technical corrections bill.
7. Give 24-hour public notice before the content of the bill is changed in committee ó i.e., committee substitute.
8. Record and post online all legislative committee and subcommittee votes.
9. No more committee meetings allowed on the chamber floor.
10. Improve audio in committee rooms in Legislative Building.
The more transparent the process, the more voters will trust and understand it.