"We must be willing to make smart and targeted investments to attract new and better jobs,'' Gov. Easley said. "But we must close revenue loopholes that defy good business practice and fly in the face of fundamental fairness.
-Budget crunch right to reconsider loopholes; 2/22/01 Asheville Citizen Times

"I tried to go down the list and find every dollar I could that did not directly affect people, such as capital improvements, buildings, automobiles," Easley said in an interview Wednesday. "The second round of cuts got harder, but more than hurting people in terms of losing jobs, what the second round did was create a great deal of anxiety. We're just hoping that we don't need that money." "It's an anxiety on the part of the citizenry as to whether the economic slowdown is going to stop progress, and that is the point I was trying to make, the one point I wanted to address in the State of the State, and that is, we're going to go forward," Easley said. "And with this next budget I hope I can relieve these anxieties to some degree."
-State finds shortcuts in spending; 3/1/01 Raleigh News and Observer

"We made a commitment to move North Carolina forward in education, despite tough economic times," Easley said in a statement. "We simply cannot, and will not, let a budget shortfall become an education shortfall."
-Easley nips loopholes to fit budget; 4/21/01 Raleigh News and Observer

"We either are going to come out of (the economic shortfall) in the top or we are going to come out of it as a third-rate state, and much of it is going to be determined by this legislative session and the road that we take," Easley said during a speech to community college leaders and students. "We are going to have 100,000 students graduating high school next year, and they can't wait a year or two or three years for better economic times in order to prepare themselves for the work force. They have got to be into the community college or university systems next year, and we have to prepare for them."
-Easley wants budget balanced without trims in education; 5/16/01 Charlotte Observer

"Our public education system provides a well-educated work force, the best product we can offer for long-term economic growth," Easley told chancellors in a letter sent out Thursday. "Protecting the classroom has been, and will continue to be, my strongest imperative."
-Easley won't abide big education cuts; 5/16/02 Charlotte Observer

"I'm not going to let this state get in a position of blowing the budget after so many people worked so hard and made so many sacrifices over the last two years to get us in a position of a balanced budget," Easley told reporters at a news conference. "It gives us some safety nets, it build in some discipline so you can deal with unexpected things," Easley said. "Ice storms, floods, hurricanes, droughts. They happen and we have to be prepared to deal with them. Pretending otherwise is just foolish. "It instills discipline in the good times," he said.
-After two years of shortfalls, Easley wants restraint; 2/25/03 Associated Press