So much for all the talk about the integrity of the budget process. The Insider reports in its Friday edition that the final budget agreement includes a special provision pushed by Governor Mike Easley that allows car racing teams to receive a sales tax rebate for car parts bought in North Carolina.

Not only was the provision never debated, it was not in the House or Senate version of the budget, meaning that under legislative rules, it could not be considered by budget negotiators. 

Putting aside the merits of adding another loophole to the hopelessly flawed state sales tax system, it’s disturbing that House and Senate leaders were touting the openness of the budget process on the one hand, then secretly slipping in a tax break for NASCAR on the other. 

As always, it makes you wonder what else will be discovered in the budget bill that was described as free of these kinds of shenanigans.  

It also can be interpreted as a disturbing statement about priorities. House leaders insisted that the final budget not include a Senate provision that would raise the state minimum wage by a dollar, saying that the Senate should make that policy change by passing the separate bill the House approved to raise the wage.

In case you’re keeping score, that means special provisions in the budget to help low-wage workers are bad, but special provisions to help the motorsports industry are good.

One of the most important votes of the session for reform advocates may come Monday night on the House floor as members are expected to vote on an amendment to the lobbying reform bill that would ban lobbyists from raising money from legislators.

Now that former State Supreme Court Justice Bob Orr has weighed in with an opinion that the fundraising ban is not unconstitutional, the decision for House members is clear.

Do they want to end the special access lobbyists purchase by raising money for them or would they rather continue a system where their campaigns are dependent for money on the same people who want special consideration for legislation before the General Assembly?

The House approved a bill Thursday that would set up the Joint Legislative Lottery Oversight Committee to study ways to make sure that the money raised by the lottery is paying for new education spending and not merely supplanting money already spent on schools.
It is an understandable sentiment. Most states that dedicate lottery proceeds to education have seen the lottery revenue simply take the place of spending on schools, a shell game that benefits no one.
Governor Mike Easley added a twist on the money shuffle, claiming that directing lottery proceeds to early childhood programs that were already funded was not supplanting money spent on the programs, it was merely repayment of an upfront loan from the lottery that didn’t exist at the time the programs were created. Got that?

If the Senate agrees with the House and the Committee is set up, it ought to have one meeting. Members will soon realize that if you spend lottery proceeds to fund ongoing programs like reducing class size or More-at-Four, there is no way to guarantee that the lottery is not simply replacing money ready spent. 

Even a constitutional amendment won’t do that, because you can’t know how much funding the program would have received without the lottery.

That’s not the only problem. The lottery’s revenue is unpredictable. It is not only disingenuous to claim that lottery proceeds provide new money for a program, it is also dangerous.  What happens to the program when lottery revenues decline?

The solution is simple. Allocate all lottery proceeds to building schools. You build as many schools as the money on hand allows you to build. The counties desperately need help with school construction and the public needs reassurance that lottery money is not being shuffled around.

We shouldn’t need a lot of oversight committee meetings to figure that out.