(The items in this edition of Monday numbers come from “Diminished Expectations and the Resulting Drag on North Carolina’s Economy: A Summary of the Fiscal Year 2015-17 Budget” published by the N.C. Budget & Tax Center, October 2015)

23.10 billion—amount in dollars of the pre-recession state budget in 2008, adjusted for inflation

21.73 billion—amount in dollars of the state budget for 2015 passed this year by the General Assembly

21.92 billion— amount in dollars of the state budget for 2016 passed this year by the General Assembly

841.8 million—amount in dollars of the cost of the tax changes in the next two years in the budget passed by the General Assembly

5.9—percentage decline of investment in state services from 2008 to 2016 when adjusted for inflation

5.2—percentage of state personal income represented by level of spending in the 2015-2016 state budget approved by the General Assembly

6.1—average percentage of state personal income represented by the level of spending in the annual state budget for the last 45 years

7—number of consecutive years the percentage of state personal income represented by level of spending in the budget has fallen with the passage of this year’s spending plan

7,200—number of at-risk four-year-olds on waiting list for NC Pre-K program

6,400—number of slots in NC PreK lost since 2009

500—amount in dollars of decrease in per pupil spending in K-12 education since 2009 when adjusted for inflation

81—percentage increase in community college tuition since 2009

1,815—amount in dollars of the annual tax cut in the budget for the wealthiest one percent of taxpayers, with average incomes of $1,000,000

44—amount in dollars of the annual tax cut in the budget for the middle 20 percent of taxpayers, with incomes of $34,000 to $57,000

7—amount in dollars of the tax increase for the bottom 20 percent of taxpayers, with incomes of less than $20,000