The North Carolina Court of Appeals ruled that former Gov. Mike Easley unlawfully pulled money from the state’s Highway Trust Fund to help balance the budget. Current Gov. Beverly Perdue could face a similar fate. She took money from other funds last spring to help pay for state bills.
Both were attempting to calm a tsunami of economic woes. Easley launched his $80 million raid after the dot-com bust and the terrorist attack of 9-11, while Perdue was eyeing the beginning of a deep and dark recession.
The men behind the Easley takedown were former North Carolina transportation secretary Jim Harrington and former state Sen. W.D. Goldston. Both helped create the Highway Trust Fund in the 1980s.
After getting stalled in the courts for several years, a judge dismissed the case last year, ruling that Easley is constitutionally required to balance the state budget. The Court of Appeals, however, said Easley needed legislative approval to transfer the highway money over to the General Fund.
“There’s a lot of reasons politicians like to shift money, and hopefully this will stop that practice to some degree,” Barry Jenkins, manager of highway and heavy construction for Carolinas AGC, told WRAL 5.
Perdue was surprised by the Easley verdict, but does expect it will be appealed. Bob Orr, a former state Supreme Court justice who is now the director of the North Carolina Institute for Constitutional Law, told WRAL 5 that Perdue faces a potential lawsuit because of what she did in 2008.
