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Staffers for Democratic North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue “altered” letters in order to prematurely obtain government funding for road projects. According to the Charlotte Observer:
Gov. Bev Perdue’s staff drafted a pair of false letters last week in an effort to start the flow of money for two major toll road projects that transportation officials say won’t be ready for state funding until 2014, according to documents obtained by The (Raleigh) News & Observer.
The documents indicate that Perdue herself was involved in the issue, which concerns a budget debate over $63 million in start-up money for the Garden Parkway, a highway project near Charlotte, and a planned bridge to the northern Outer Banks known as the Mid-Currituck Bridge. …
“Funds are needed in this budget cycle” for the bridge and the parkway, according to a key line in both erroneous letters. That sentence had been inserted into letters [Department of Transportation COO Jim] Trogdon drafted with the intent to send the opposite message – that DOT didn’t need the money.
Two high-level Perdue staff members had added the new language, according to officials from DOT and Perdue’s office.
