With apologies to George Lucas and Harrison Ford, a bill introduced in the NC Senate yesterday would give the governor complete authority to raid a fund designed to help local communities build and renovate schools.
S386 is misleadingly titled "Make Best Use of Corporate Tax Revenue" but what it really does is stop the state's contribution of a portion of corporate tax revenue to the Public School Building Capital Fund (PSBCF).
A couple of problems:
1. many counties rely on the PSBCF, and the revenue from it, to use for debt service on existing obligations. Pulling the funding does not stop the school district or county's obligation to pay the debt. So counties will be forced to raise property taxes to make up the difference.
2. I thought we were told over and over that construction projects, like building or renovating schools, creates jobs. Why then, in this economy, would the General Assembly and governor want to take money out of supposed job-creating brick and mortar projects and move it to general government obligations where it could be wasted or misspent?
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