The Wake County school system stands to get less than half of the $500,000 it was supposed to receive from disgraced former House Speaker Jim Black for turning over land in Matthews to pay the fine for his state corruption conviction.

Black was allowed in 2009 to turn over 9.5 acres near Charlotte to the school system to settle half of the $1 million fine he was assessed in his state corruption case. On Tuesday, the school board will vote on selling the land to the Town of Matthews for $295,427.

If approved, the school system would get $241,127 with the State Board of Elections receiving $54,300.

UPDATE

In a comment to that post, Terry Stoops, director of education studies for the Locke Foundation, says Judge Donald Stephens owes Margiotta an apology for calling him "idiotic" for having criticized the deal in 2009.

In a case of good budget news, the Wake County school system will get $3 million in fine money as part of the settlement in a tax fraud case.

As noted in today's online article by Anne Blythe, two South Carolina cigarette distributors agreed to pay $6.5 million in restitution and fines to settle a protracted and complicated tax fraud case. This includes $3 million in court fines, which routinely go to schools.

The case was prosecuted in Raleigh so the money goes to Wake schools.

The Jim Black land deal isn't turning into a financial windfall for the Wake County school system.

As noted in an article Wednesday in the Carolina Journal, the school system still hasn't sold the two parcels in Mecklenburg County that Black turned over in July 2009 to satisfy half of the $1 million fine that the former state House speaker received as part of his corruption conviction.

The land swap generated a lot of controversy as some people, including Wake school board member Ron Margiotta, charged that Black got a sweetheart deal by not having to pay the full fine in cash or providing more valuable pieces of land to Wake.

The Wake County Republican Party is jumping into the Jim Black land controversy by defending school board member Ron Margiotta's criticism of the deal and calling for an independent investigator to review the case.

In a press release sent late this afternoon, Wake GOP Chairman Claude E. Pope Jr. says that Wake Judge Donald Stephens' complaints about Margiotta were "extremely inappropriate." Pope fires some really harsh shots, saying the deal was a case of "the party in power cutting deals for its own fallen leader."

The Wake GOP has been really active in school affairs this election year. It has promised to back candidates who support neighborhood schools and complained about year-round school being open on Memorial Day.

Wake Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens chastised school board member Ron Margiotta today for his complaints about the handling of the fine in the Jim Black case and warned that the criticism could cost the school district money in the future.

Stephens was livid about the comments that Margiotta made in today's article about allowing Black to pay half of his $1 million fine by deeding land near Charlotte instead of providing cash to the school system.

According to today's online article by Rob Christensen, Stephens interrupted Black's sentencing to call in a school board attorney to his courtroom to be chewed out. The judge called the remarks "idiotic" and noted that he had not been obligated to levy any fine against Black.