Basnight Said Slush Funds Wrong

RALEIGH — State Senate leader Marc Basnight last week characterized his personal spending of taxpayer dollars on pet projects as an "error," but when similar activity was revealed in 1997, he acknowledged that the practice was wrong. Basnight was then part of a similar agreement with former Speaker Harold Brubaker and former Gov. Jim Hunt. They distributed $23 million in "discretionary" funds to projects favored by friends and supporters. "Somehow or other, you've got to help these areas in the state that need the money," Basnight said in February 1997. "But it shouldn't be left in my hands to decide or Brubaker's hands to decide."