Culinary School Gets State Dollars

RALEIGH — Approval of the state budget June 30 also marked the beginning of the fulfillment of a $10 million promise made by NC House Speaker Jim Black to a culinary arts school that planned to establish a campus in Charlotte. The budget appropriates $1 million in 2003-04 and an additional $1 million in 2004-05 from the One North Carolina Fund to Johnson & Wales University. Black wrote in a letter May 23, 2002 to University President Jack Yena: “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.”