Brunswick County Commissioners advocate for restoration of lottery funds for school construction

RALEIGH, N.C. — Brunswick County Commissioners Marty Cooke, Pat Sykes and Frank Williams advocated to restore and protect the county share of proceeds from the North Carolina Education Lottery at the N.C. Association of County Commissioners’ County Assembly Day in Raleigh Wednesday.

“Restoring the full share of lottery proceeds and the statutes that designate counties as a recipient of lottery funds is our top priority this season,” said N.C. Association of County Commissioners (NCACC) Executive Director David F. Thompson. “We appreciate the support of the hundreds of commissioners who came to County Assembly Day and helped heighten awareness of this issue in the General Assembly. The lottery is the only remaining state-funded support for public school construction.”

According to the NCACC, counties have lost more than $300 million in lottery funds over the past five years. The NCACC also says that the legislature has reduced the county lottery share each of the past four years (see chart). For the current fiscal year, the legislature appropriated $100 million – or slightly more than half of what counties would have received – to school construction. In 2013, the legislature eliminated the statute that directed 40 percent of net lottery funds to school construction.

“These are issues that not only affect us, but they affect the entire state,” said Commissioner Marty Cooke. “We want the lottery funds to come back because we lose almost $1 million a year, and this lottery does not provide the funding we were told it would. We want to see the commitments that were made by the General Assembly to come back to the counties as we were told initially they would.”

House Bill 1107, which was introduced on April 15, 2014, would restore lottery funds for school construction and gradually return the percentage of net lottery funds devoted to school construction to the 40 percent mark. The bill has been referred to the House Committee on Appropriations. According to the N.C. General Assembly website, Representative Frank Iler (R-Brunswick) has signed on as a co-sponsor of the bill.

* Chart provided by NCACC

In addition, Brunswick County’s delegation opposed unfunded mandates and also encouraged state leaders to be pro-active in communicating with county officials about legislation that impacts county governments.

“A significant portion of our county’s general fund budget already supports activities that are mandated by state or federal law,” said Commissioner Frank Williams.  “During our visit, we encouraged state leaders to avoid passing down any additional unfunded mandates to counties.  Additionally, we asked leaders to avoid ‘de facto unfunded mandates’ – legislation which would cut a county revenue stream without eliminating an unfunded state mandate.”

“We also provided legislators with a copy of a resolution passed by our board which asks state leaders to be proactive in communicating with county leaders regarding legislation that impacts counties,” Williams added.  “This type of up-front communication can help ensure that otherwise well-meaning legislation does not have the unintended consequence of adversely impacting county governments and the citizens we serve.”

The North Carolina Association of County Commissioners (NCACC) is the official voice of all 100 counties on issues being considered by the General Assembly, Congress and federal and state agencies. Founded in 1908, the Association provides expertise to counties in the areas of lobbying, fiscal and legal research, communications, intergovernmental relations, information technology, field visits and risk management services.  For more information, visit http://www.ncacc.org. NCACC outlined its top five legislative goals for the short session, which the Brunswick County Commissioners voted to support.