Lottery Money-Grab Update
It now appears that Mecklenburg County will have to plug at least a $4.1-million gap in its recently approved budget, courtesy of the state withholding lottery revenue from counties. The latest from a memo County Manager Harry Jones sent today to commissioners:
Obviously, one of the major questions is the impact of reduced State appropriation of lottery funds and the options for responding to this reduction. In terms of the impact, it appears that the net funding gap from reduced lottery funds will be approximately $4.1 million. The information provided to us from the NCACC indicates we will receive approximately $10.7 million in lottery proceeds. We have approximately $6.2 million in unallocated lottery funds being carried forward from FY2010 to FY2011, so our total available lottery funds for FY2011 would be $16.9 million. The FY2011 budget calls for $21 million in total lottery proceeds. This leaves a gap of $4.1 million. In the longer term, it also would create a larger lottery funding gap in FY2012 and beyond, if the General Assembly does not restore lottery funding levels in subsequent years.
Options to address this matter may include:
· Reducing the operations appropriation to CMS
· Redirecting funds from other County-funded services
· Using the $2 million in State contingency funding (along with other reductions or redirection of funds)
· A combination of any or all of the above
No telling how this all plays out, but any way it’s sliced doesn’t bode well for the county’s budget, already bleeding red ink from every page. We’ll be hashing out this latest development tonight, along with other topics, on The Pete Kaliner Show, 9 p.m., WBT 1110 AM. Tune in.
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