Perdue pays back school building fund

Gov. Beverly Perdue paid back one of the state funds she used to keep the state's checking account flush during the last fiscal year.

The state was facing a $3.2 billion shortfall last year. From month to month, the cash situation was dicey, to put a fine point on it. To ensure the state could pay its bills, Perdue transferred hundreds of millions from four state funds in February as well as ordering agencies to curb spending.

"When the national recession created a shortfall of billions of dollars, I had to turn over every stone to pay North Carolina’s bills — to pay teachers, to keep schools and other core services running," Perdue said in a statement.

Perdue authorized transferring up to $100 million from the Public School Building Capital Fund, the pool of money used to distribute school construction money raised by the state lottery. Perdue took only $37.6 million from that fund because she wanted to spare education, a spokesman said.

Perdue said Friday that she was using money left over from the last fiscal year to replace what was taken from that fund.

Perdue also took $50 million from the Public School Textbook Fund. That money was repaid by the current state budget.

Transfers from two other funds, the Education Lottery Reserve Fund ($50 million) and the Clean Water Management Trust Fund ($100 million) have not been paid back.