news-record.com

A new Bev Perdue stepped into the governor's shoes Thursday, rejecting legislators' tax plans and telling them to do a better job -- now.

"The clock is ticking," said the suddenly tough-talking Perdue, delivering a message across Jones Street through the capital press corps.

Time definitely is passing. It's 25 days since the General Assembly should have adopted a budget for the state's fiscal year, which began July 1. After weeks of near-stalemate, Senate and House negotiators broke their deadlock with apparent agreement on a revenue package that included an across-the-board, 2 percent income-tax surcharge.

Perdue said she was "stunned, quite frankly. ...

"Who in the world thinks, in these trying, challenging times for families, that you can raise income tax for working families and middle-class families?"

Legislative leaders of her own Democratic Party thought so -- until she corrected them. They promptly withdrew their plan and began looking for alternatives.

Good for the governor, whose newfound assertiveness can only bump up her sagging poll numbers. Middle-class families don't need to be hit with a 2 percent income-tax surcharge, and they should give her credit for defying powerful lawmakers.

Perdue's position is politically shrewd, presenting her as a champion for working families and for public education, for which she demands greater funding, while she pounds the legislature as threats to her priorities.

"Do the job you were elected to do and produce us a budget that protects the public schools and doesn't raise taxes on the middle class," she warned legislators.

She's weaker on some of the details. She's proposed a sales-tax increase, which would take money out of middle-class families' budgets, as well as higher levies on cigarettes and alcoholic beverages, which people at all income levels pay if they choose to purchase those items. She also could have stepped in sooner to head off the misguided legislative tax initiative -- although squelching it quietly would have denied her the chance to make a dramatic public statement.

Still, the new Perdue is welcome. Legislators failed to finish their work on time and deserved to be prodded. Someone has to hold them accountable. Who better than a plucky governor?