Gov. Perdue’s First Year The economy, energy and rural North Carolina
Gov. Beverly Eaves Perdue, North Carolina’s 73rd governor and our first female governor, completed her first year in office in January. Carolina Country offered her an opportunity to look back on that year and to look forward to what’s next.
Michael Halminski
Gov. Perdue visited Hatteras Island last fall to talk about renewable energy projects.
It has been a challenging year for our state. What has been the biggest challenge for you? How would you describe your performance your first year in office?
Q
North Carolina has struggled to recover from the global recession along with every other state in the nation. As the unemployment rate reached record levels and our state budget shortfall grew, it became clear that guiding our state through the toughest economic times in recent memory would be my biggest challenge.
A
14 FEBRUARY 2010 Carolina Country
It is painful to see how the recession hurts families on an individual level. Thousands lost their jobs, money got tight, people stopped spending, and some families couldn’t pay their mortgage. Jobs had to be my number one priority, and I’ve spent a significant amount of my first year in office working to position North Carolina for job growth, retraining and redevelopment. I started the JobsNOW initiative to aggressively create jobs and train our work force. The economic recovery dollars helped create thousands of
jobs and spur workers to get trained or retrain for new careers in fields that are hiring. Nearly every day, I’m on the phone or meeting with business leaders from around the world, convincing them to bring jobs to North Carolina —and we’ve had a lot of success. I’m proud of the work we’ve done and I’m confident that we are laying the foundation for a strong and sustainable economic future. The economy didn’t just do a number on the pocketbooks of families in North Carolina—it has strained the