Gov. Perdue should not dip into education funds

TO THE EDITOR:

The (Raleigh) News & Observer has reported that Gov. Bev Perdue is considering diverting money from the North Carolina Education Lottery into the General Fund to help cover the state budget shortfall for the next fiscal year.

Bev Perdue cast the deciding vote in the General Assembly to pass the education lottery when she was still lieutenant governor in 2005. Should the governor proceed with this plan she is stealing money from the children of North Carolina.

The profits made by the lottery are intended for public education purposes. Lawmakers were promised while debating the merits of the lottery that the funds were intended for public education only.

Now Gov. Perdue is going back on her word and attempting to commandeer money from children.

Gov. Perdue also recently took a plane trip to a destination that would only have taken two and a half hours by car as reported by the Red Clay Citizen.

That is the equivalent of driving from Chapel Hill to Charlotte. Taking the jet was obviously a more expensive option than driving. What is worse this trip happened only two days after the governor requested that state agencies prepare for a 9 percent budget cut.

It seems to me that Gov. Perdue is a hypocrite — asking others to save money while she spends excessively. It is this type of government that we Tar Heels should not stand for.


Jason Sutton
Sophomore
Political Science