Posted on 03/04/2009 8:25:16 AM PST by AT7Saluki
During her campaign for governor, Beverly Perdue often said she wanted take extra steps to ensure profits from the North Carolina Education Lottery were spent solely on education.
She was worried lawmakers might tap the ready source of cash for something else. And less than two months in office, faced with a brutal economy that's sapping the state of revenue, both lottery critics and allies say she's become the prime example of her own fears.
Perdue said last week she would use $87.6 million in lottery profits to ensure there's money available in the state's day-to-day operating accounts to pay the bills through mid-April. Lawmakers who voted for the lottery law say they're frustrated by the decision, even though they know she made it to face the state's worst fiscal emergency in a generation.
"The commitment that I told the people was that this was an education lottery and it would never be used for (something else)", said Rep. Bruce Goforth, D-Buncombe. "I didn't know that we'd have the circumstance that we have now."
The lottery money was part of the $300 million Perdue shifted from four dedicated accounts to help close a $2.2 billion gap in the state budget caused by dwindling sales and income tax receipts. Her decision didn't surprise those who have long said requiring the lottery to benefit education was merely a statutory facade.
(Excerpt) Read more at starnewsonline.com ...
That didn’t take long. Easley rammed this one home, and now the siphoning begins!
Seems Perdue is following his lead at taking money from one bucket to pay for pet projects, which is one reason our roads have turned to crap the past 8 years.
Well shoot Bubba, you'll just have to buy a 4x4!
/
Why do we continue to elect this kind of crap? I wish Richard Moore(d) would have beaten her in the primary. He is a D and a D would have won anyway. But he is 100 x’s better than this asshat that was elected.
I hope that this is not a surprise - she does, after all, have a -D after her name.
But that lottery money was ‘for the chidren’, LOL
You will notice that cutting spending never entered the picture.
They pulled money out of the highway fund so that she may replace it with the stimulus funds for highways, bridges, etc. Just a nice slight of hand move and we lose in the end. We being actual taxpayers.
Actually, it’s a years old law providing for an annual, automatic transfer of $172M from the highway to the general fund.
LOL! Does it really matter which money pit they throw it down? And people are just giving them the money, that’s what really flummoxes me.
Can anyone tell me how much of the NC gas tax $ have been spent on things other than roads/bridges?
Bev Perdue was elected with money from Chuck Schumer’s bunch. She will be a nightmare for The Old North State, my adopted home.
I guess children aren’t that important after all.
that is exactly how Democrats get elected, and NC is full of Democrats who don’t know the difference between honest government and Chicago-style government.
This woman seems to be dumber than a brick.
It is absolutely amazing that the people of NC sunk low enough to elect her.
She need’s a moniker like Tax Hike Mike had. Maybe Tax Rev Bev.
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