Wake County Commissioner Tony Gurley went toe to toe with school board member Jim Martin in a lengthy discussion after the end of today's joint meeting.
Gurley had complained during the meeting about the school system using county funding to build up its fund balance. Gurley has been a longtime critic of the school system having a fund balance, saying that they should leave it up to the commissioners to cover emergencies.
What irked Gurley is that school administrators project they can replenish the fund balance by $20 million to bring it up to $25 million for the 2013-14 fiscal budget.
"You want county taxpayers to cover your deficit," Gurley said to Martin as the television cameras recorded the heated confrontation.
Gurley said they might want to cut county funding by $25 million as opposed to the $8.8 million increase requested by Superintendent Tony Tata in his budget proposal.
"He's running for political office," Martin said in an interview after the exchange. "I'm trying to do the best I can for the school system."
Gurley is running for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor.
Comments
Good grief
Thu, 03/29/2012 - 18:52 — Bob_SconceI'm not a big Jim Martin fan, but he's right on here.
Mr Gurley: Yes. Jim Martin wants county taxpayers to pay for the needs of the county schools. Apparantly, this is a foreign concept to you. Let me spell it out:
(1) Your future is in the hands of today's children -- they'll be the ones designing the medicines keeping you alive when your sorry butt is in a nursing home someplace; they'll be the ones designing the cars your kids and grandkids drive in; they'll be the ones figuring out how to ensure that the food you eat doesn't kill you.
(2) To do those things, those kids need educations.
(3) Educations cost money.
Unfortunately, you and your skin-flint colleagues aren't interested in properly funding the school system. Instead of figuring out how to get more more into our schools, you want to do idiotic things like debate whether the UN is involved in the Sustainability Report and endorse amendments about gay marriage. Last year, you gave county employees RAISES while not increasing school funding by a dime.
I'm actually considering voting for you this year. Why? Because you can do less damage in the Lieutenant Governor's office than you can on the County Commission. Don't let the door hit you in the butt on your way out.
And...
Fri, 03/30/2012 - 08:10 — Bob_SconceTony: I'm a Republican and I vote.
please
Fri, 03/30/2012 - 07:34 — EBDarcyPlease email this to the BOC members and submit it to the N&O as a letter to the editor. We need to make people aware of the situation.
Right on, Bob
Fri, 03/30/2012 - 07:25 — clarksherePlease send this straight to Gurley. Didn't Gurley's kids go to private school?
Martin maybe right but his
Thu, 03/29/2012 - 19:18 — starsonoursMartin maybe right but his methods will probably be counter productive. Martin aka Mr. Personality enjoys hearing himself speak more than he likes winning people over to his side.
I thought JT did not attend
Thu, 03/29/2012 - 22:14 — Solon77Mr. Personality enjoys hearing himself speak more than he likes winning people over to his side.
For the last 2 year I head this behavior described as "passion".
And Martin's can be
Thu, 03/29/2012 - 22:43 — starsonoursAnd Martin's can be described as "arrogance"
All those that complain...
Thu, 03/29/2012 - 15:23 — clarkshere....about Jim Martin - thank goodness we have him standing up for our schools when it comes to funding. The County Commissioners aren't.
Yes, his farce is almost supernatural isn't it
Thu, 03/29/2012 - 17:35 — FSandYOUThank goodness we have Gurley to give him a dose of his own medicine.
*Just saw the footage from today's meeting with the CC's and not one mention of a conflict between good ole Jim and Mr. Gurley.
Maybe NBC had on a different pair of glasses.