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RALEIGH — The Guilford Correctional Center in McLeansville is a place that most people would want to avoid, although for some inmates the 162-bed minimum-security prison is a destination of choice when they hope to finish their sentences close to home.

“I get those calls two or three times a day,” said James Lacewell, the prison’s superintendent. “A lot of them are elderly parents that are ill and can’t drive the three or four hours to where their guy is now.”

That prison, and the nearly 60 jobs that go with it, would close if legislators follow through on recommendations contained in Gov. Bev Perdue’s proposed $21 billion budget.

North Carolina’s tax collections have been hammered by the sour economy. Sales and income taxes are well below projections, and to close the gap Perdue has suggested a package that spends less and raises some fees and taxes.

House and Senate leaders will draft their own version of the budget before they and the governor reconcile their differences. Perdue’s budget carries weight for a number of reasons, not the least because she will be responsible for putting the new tax and spending plan to work July 1 and because she wields veto authority.

The Guilford Correctional Center is one of seven prison system centers Perdue has proposed closing. Like many of the proposed budget cuts, it would affect multiple groups of people.

Families would have to drive farther to see loved ones in jail, prisoners might have to give up work release jobs, and prison employees would have to transfer to other prisons or look for work elsewhere.

“It’s certainly an older facility but the inmates like to come to it,” said state Sen. Don Vaughan, a lawyer who does criminal defense work. “It has been very well run and is an asset for families in Greensboro that have folks that are incarcerated.”

Vaughan added, “these are horrible times” and the General Assembly may go along with the cut.

Perdue said she was not reducing the total number of prison beds in the system but would end up using more of the capacity at other jails, including double-bunking some inmates in cells that hold one prisoner now.

Still, closing the prisons was a hard choice, Perdue said, because it would take jobs out of certain communities.

“The only way we can balance the budget is to make some of these tough choices,” she said.

Elsewhere across Guilford County, colleges such as UNCG and A&T are still evaluating the cuts handed down by the governor. Though their total budgets increased, they may have less flexibility in how they spend salary money.

The High Point Furniture Market’s $866,250 set aside for promoting the twice-a-year show was left untouched, escaping a Commerce Department recommendation that it be cut.

Other local interests could be more affected by tax increases on alcohol and cigarettes Perdue has proposed. During a news conference Tuesday, Perdue justified “sin taxes” by saying that use of alcohol and cigarettes was optional and had health consequences that the state ended up paying for through its Medicaid program.

“Last time I looked, having a cold beer after you mowed your yard was not a sin,” said Mark Craig, president of R.H. Barringer Distributing in Greensboro.

Already, the state has the sixth-highest excise tax on alcohol. Perdue proposes adding a 5 percent surcharge.

Craig said the last time an excise tax on beer was raised in 1991, he ended up reducing his 235-person work force to 190 workers because of sagging sales.

“It took me 10 years to get back to 235 employees,” Craig said. Raising taxes on beer again would have the same effect, he said.

Perdue also proposes raising tobacco taxes the equivalent of $1 on a pack of cigarettes to $1.35. That’s on top of a federal tax increase that goes into effect April 1 that will raise the federal excise tax 62 cents to about $1 a pack.

“It’s a punitive tax on consumers of our product,” said Michael Shannon, a lobbyist for Greensboro-based Lorillard.

State Rep. Earl Jones said he opposed the tobacco tax increase because it singled out one industry and because it had the potential to hurt jobs in his district.

“I don’t really believe in sin taxes,” Jones said. “All of these products are legal whether you’re talking about tobacco or alcohol.”

Contact Mark Binker at (919) 832-5549 or mark.binker@news-record.com