WILMINGTON, N.C. — North Carolina State Representative Carolyn Justice says the governor's decision to take lottery funds has left some school districts in distress.
The $50 million in the Education Lottery Reserve Fund was supposed to pay for school construction costs, some for this school year.
The Pender County Republican says that's going to hurt local school districts.
"If those counties already issued bonds planning on that money to pay their debt, they're in trouble right now. And this hasn't even become solidified yet — just the first overtures here are not looking good for us locally."
Justice says Governor Beverly Purdue's withdrawal was one of many unfavorable options for trying to balance the state budget.
She's also upset about the possibility of closing the Wilmington Residential Facility for Women where inmates work in the community and help fund the prison.
State Senator R.C. Soles Jr. disagrees, and supports the removal of the lottery education funds from the school construction projects.
The Columbus County Democrat says Governor Perdue's withdrawal was a cautionary move that will help keep the state budget balanced.
"I think Governor Perdue very reluctantly, but prudently, decided to move the lottery money over to help balance the budget with the understanding that if we can find it somewhere else, that that will not be used or, perhaps, replaced later on."
Soles says North Carolina has a constitutional mandate requiring a balanced budget. Critics of the move say it will hurt local school districts.
If anyone beieves the money will be put back in, I have a bridge for sell. This is the very same thing the politicians in Washington have done with the surplus Social Security and Transportation funds, which should have been placed in a trust fund. Those two surplus funds every year are somewhere around 100 billion dollars.
Never trust politicians, lawyers, doctors, dentists. The only person I would trust is my trashman that comes every Monday. They take our money and don't listen to us. We put them in office, pay them big salaries, give them top notch bennies and they stab us in the back. I don't know what we as Americans can do other than vote for a Trashman to put in office. BUT the trouble with that, once they are in office and that power thing hits their brains we are back were we started. Catch 22.
Hum, the 'trashcollectors for politician' may be a very good idea you've stumbled onto. These trashcollectors definitely know how to deal with garbage, without negotiating with it ... it simply goes in the hopper and then on to the next garbage bag. DAILY FOCUS IS KEY HERE. These folks definitely are reliable to work at least 8 hours a day for the companies they work for, and are already used to great benefits, good income, and competition for position. The only potential problem I see is that if these 'trashcollectors-turned-politicians' are given so much paperwork to read each day (a few current state and national representatives and senators actually read it and ask questions about it for full understand it BEFORE they vote) that they may become confused and lose focus on ONLY ONE ITEM per month to tackle rule.
Also, these 'trashcollectors-turned-politicians' may get so overwhelmed by ALL the paperwork that we may soon start hearing complaints from folks that they've been spotted dropping huge, unread amounts of paper into BIG RECYCLING BINS; out of old habit in the mid morning hours. Hopefully, if we elect some of these trashcollectors during our field study, they will have to prove that they are natural born citizens within the U.S.A. before we elect/hire them.