Leaf alone
Saturday, March 31st, 2007
By Chris Fitzsimon
This is no time to kill the Golden LEAF Foundation, the group formed to use half of North Carolina’s settlement with tobacco companies to help the economies of areas hard hit by the decline of tobacco production. The foundation seems be targeted for abolition by some politicians, specifically in legislation introduced by Edgecombe County Democratic Sen. Clark Jenkins.
Jenkins would have the foundation money, $600 million, go into a trust fund to benefit "tobacco-dependent communities," and it would be distributed by the N.C. Rural Economic Development Center, a private, not-for-profit group that works in rural areas of the state.
Interestingly, the head of that group, Billy Ray Hall, says his organization isn’t looking to get the tobacco money and had worked well with Golden LEAF. Hall said he had no plans to support Jenkins’ bill. (more…)
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