North Carolina’s new budget allots another $1.5 million for Johnson & Wales University, but gubernatorial candidates Bev Perdue, a Democrat, and Pat McCrory, a Republican, aren’t eager to stake out a position on whether the state should keep funding the private culinary school in future budgets.
Phone calls and emails from Carolina Journal to the Perdue and McCrory campaigns seeking comment on the issue were not returned. Neither candidate has publicly stated support or opposition to continuing state incentives for the school.
Johnson & Wales University has now received $7.5 million in taxpayer dollars since state aid was first promised in 2002. The school decided to consolidate two of its campuses in Virginia and South Carolina into one $82 million facility in downtown Charlotte after former House Speaker Jim Black and Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight, both Democrats, pledged millions in state money to the project.
In a letter dated May 23, 2002, to Johnson & Wales president Jack Yena, Black laid out the specifics of his pledge. “You have my personal commitment of support for a $10 million investment over the next five years by the State of North Carolina for this project,” wrote Black, who is now serving a five-year sentence in federal prison on a bribery conviction.
Gov. Mike Easley also offered written support, although he did not promise specific help from the state coffers.
Beginning in 2003, lawmakers earmarked $1 million in state funds for the school each year through 2006. In 2007 and 2008, legislators increased the amount budgeted to $2 million and $1.5 million, respectively. The total amount allocated is still $2.5 million short of the pledge made originally by Black and Basnight.
Some lawmakers are upset that the state continues spending taxpayer dollars on the school, which employs 84 full-time faculty members and hosts nearly 2,600 students, including 963 from North Carolina.
“Why we should have any obligation to fulfill the oral agreements of Jim Black six years later just mystifies me,” said House Minority Leader Paul Stam, R-Wake.
Other legislators have tried to fast track the funding process. In May, Sen. Charlie Dannelly and Rep. Drew Saunders, both Democrats from Mecklenburg County, introduced bills in the House and Senate that would have appropriated $4 million to the One North Carolina Fund to complete the $10 million pledge to the school. Neither bill was brought up in committee.
Dr. Andrew Taylor, a political science professor at North Carolina State University, said Perdue and McCrory want to avoid commenting on state funding for the school largely because of the project’s ties to Black.
“It’s not an issue of whether this is a good idea or a bad idea anymore, because the whole thing is tainted by Black’s connection,” Taylor said. “Anything that has his fingerprints on it is going to be a problem.”
Although both candidates have been silent on funding the school, the City of Charlotte Web site says McCrory “led the effort” to recruit Johnson & Wales, among other companies and organizations, to the area. McCrory also referenced Charlotte’s recruitment of the culinary school at a forum on nonprofits in March, according to The Charlotte Observer.
“It took cooperation between the private and public sectors, and a lot of speed to beat out our competition,” McCrory said.
David N. Bass is an associate editor of Carolina Journal.