From the N.C. Institute for Constitutional Law:
NCICL challenges $10 million gift from State to Johnson and Wales
September 16, 2009 – Raleigh, NC. – Attorneys with the North Carolina Institute for Constitutional Law filed a lawsuit today on behalf of two taxpayers from the Charlotte Metro area. The lawsuit, filed in Wake County Superior Court as lawsuits against the State generally are, challenges the constitutionality of the State of North Carolina?s appropriations to Johnson and Wales University, a private cooking and hospitality school in Charlotte. The State has already appropriated several million dollars to the cooking school to fulfill individual promises made by various officials. The lawsuit seeks the stop any future payments and to have the millions already given to Johnson and Wales returned to the State treasury.
The lawsuit alleges that the State?s handouts to give the culinary school began as a ?personal commitment? from former NC House Speaker Jim Black to give the school $10 million from the State, according to media reports of a letter from Black to Johnson and Wales dated May 23, 2002. Since Black?s resignation and conviction on federal corruption charges, the State has continued to fulfill his pledge by making appropriations to the school as recently as last year.
The constitution prohibits conferring special benefits except in exchange for public service and permits the government to spend public money only to achieve a public purpose. Unlike corporate incentives, the give-aways to Johnson and Wales are not tied to the creation of new jobs or minimum capital investment requirements. The State has no contract with the cooking school. ?This is simply a gift from Jim Black to the school,? said Bob Orr, executive director of NCICL, ?unfortunately it is one the taxpayers are footing the bill for. This is the kind of abuse of the public?s money that the constitution forbids.?
