Tillis: stimulus caused problems

A reporter asked him that funding was helpful to the state at about the 10 minute mark on the audio of the call. 

"I think the stimulus money caused a number of structure problems for us. It is one of the reasons we had a $3 billion deficit...because the leadership that preceded me choose to use that non-recurring money just to pay our bills," Tillis said. "So we had a structural deficit going into last year solely because of the stimulus money and the irresponsible decisions made by our irresponsible legislature. One half of our $3 billion deficit was because that money was gone."

As a follow up to that question, I asked whether Tillis would have really rather not seen that money spent here. After all, it surely delayed and softened the budget problems that lawmakers are dealing with to this day.

"In many cases yes, we probably should have dealt with the problem at the time rather than kicking the can down the road," Tillis said. 

It's worth noting that this is not an entirely new train of thought for a Republican. There have been others who suggested using one-time money to offset recurring costs, such as salaries, is a bad idea. Still, not having stimulus funding would have hastened, and likely deepened, layoffs of state workers. 

Tillis did soften the edge on this comment a bit, saying that the money could have been spent differently, saying that the federal controls on how they were to be used were too restrictive.

"There are a number of instances where stimulus dollars created as much of a distraction and a false sense of security as any long-term benefit," Tillis said. For example, Tillis said the dollars might have been better put toward repaying money to the federal government North Carolina borrowed to pay unemployment insurance claims. 

"We could have used that money a lot more wisely and probably shouldn't have spent as much as we did," Tillis said. 

In other topics, Tillis had these thoughts to offer: