NC Education Lottery money NOT making it to Moore County schools?

There’s been a lot of belly-aching about schools reportedly getting short-changed.  The North Carolina education lottery came into being in 2005 as a method for providing much needed funding for public schools.  Moore County’s board of commissioners is under the impression that the county is not being given its share of the lottery proceeds, and wants the General Assembly to rectify the situation: 

REQUEST:

Request the Board of Commissioners to approve the attached Resolution requesting the General

Assembly to give Moore County its statutory share of lottery funds of 40% to be used for its intended

purpose for Moore County schools capital needs.

BACKGROUND:

Counties in North Carolina are statutorily responsible for providing public school facilities and are doing

so by spending more than $1 billion annually in support thereof. Additionally, counties spend almost $2.5

billion annually to support public school operating expenses traditionally borne by the State. In 2005 the

North Carolina Education Lottery was established to aid counties each year in meeting these needs by

designating 40 % of the lottery net revenue to counties.

In reliance of that annual pledge of lottery funds, Moore County has incurred outstanding debt principal

and interest totaling $66,846,003.00 for school capital outlay projects as of December 2014. Moore

County faces critical budgetary constraints as it attempts to balance the payment of school debt service

and funding school capital needs. […]

FINANCIAL IMPACT STATEMENT:

The financial impact to Moore County for FY13/14 was -$703,000. Moore County currently receives a

22% allocation of the lottery funds which equaled $860,000 in FY13/14. If Moore County would have

received the entire 40% allocation, then the County would have received $1,563,000. Thus, for FY13/14,

the County was negatively impacted by not receiving the additional $703,000.

RECOMMENDATION SUMMARY:

Motion to approve the attached Resolution requesting the North Carolina General Assembly to allocate to

Moore County its statutory share of lottery funds of 40% to be used for Moore County schools capital

needs and that copies of this Resolution are forwarded to the Local Legislation Delegation to the North

Carolina General Assembly and the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners.[…] 

This matter is to be taken up at the April 7 commissioners’ meeting.  Looking at all of this, one has to ask: Where did the money go?  Is the lottery performing below initial estimates?  If so, say so. If not, commitments made when the lottery was passed need to be honored.