Holiday spending cash – or the lack of it – is on the minds of many people this time of year. There is a group of North Carolina state employees whose job is to make sure budgets are balanced and audits are perfect. More than 300 of these fiscal agents gathered in Raleigh this week and were asked how they were planning on spending their holiday cash this season.
Scott Ralls: "Scott Ralls, I’m President of the North Carolina Community College System. I guess this will be the fourth, the fourth holiday or the third holiday since the recession set in. So, I have a feeling for both my family but for families across North Carolina, the challenges are still there."
Jill Tasaico: "Jill Tasaico with N-C State University. I would say in the past five years I have increased my charitable giving spending in taking my daughter to get a name off a tree and giving gifts to other kids. She’s in college now, so most of my money on her is spent on the tuition, so."
LaToya McCandies:" My name is LaToya McCandies and I’m from Guilford Technical Community College. Well, I’m not really a big spender for the holidays anyway. So things won’t change too much to me as far as cutting back."
Brittany Spragins: " I’ve cut back a lot. We’ve set a budget, my husband and I set a budget every year and we stick to it. This year we had a few unexpected occurrences come up in October and November so we’ve had to cut back. We set a $150 budget for the two of us. So we really, really cut back."
David McCoy: "David McCoy and I’m the State Controller. Well I’m spending my money on my two daughters, they are my two sweeties, my M and M’s, Meredith and Melissa. Meredith is involved in the Teach for American project up in Nashville, Tennessee, teaching at-risk children in an inner-city school. She’ll be coming home for Christmas and I want to make sure she understands how much I appreciate her service. Melissa is an NC State grad, this last year, and she’s working with the little bitty tiny critters – the one-year-old, two-year-old, three-year-olds. And we’re so very pleased that she has chosen that as an area she wants to spend her energy and so we’re going to take care of her too, to make sure she has what she needs to feel good about what she is doing and enjoy the holiday season."
