Beverly Perdue claims that, "The state should make an ironclad promise to our kids and their families. If they make good grades and work hard in their communities and stay in school and graduate high school, then tuition money is not gonna be a road block to getting a college education or the skills they need to compete.” [NC School Boards Association Debate, 11-6-07]

 

 

Beverly Perdue supported tuition increases every term she served in the state Senate, including when she chaired the Higher Education Committee and when she served as Senate Appropriations Chair.  In 1993, Perdue led the charge for a 29% tuition increase at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University. Perdue supported a 5 percent increase in tuition for in-state students at all 16 state universities and sponsored a 24 percent tuition increase at UNC-CH and NCSU. She defended her budget provision in the media, saying, “' The students have openly admitted that it’s beer and party money,’ said Perdue, a Democrat from New Bern." 

Beverly Perdue's website says, "she was instrumental in developing Smart Start, a national model for school readiness and early childhood development."

Her television commercial, "Love and Faith," claims that in the General Assembly, she was "leading the fight for Smart Start."

  

In 1995, Beverly Perdue's hometown newspaper, the New Bern Sun Journal, reported that: "Jones County’s Smart Start program could be in jeopardy. Perdue said she has never been a strong supporter of the early childhood health and education program that Hunt championed in his first year in office. Smart Start cost $20 million to install 23 pilot programs in its first year, and is expected to grow to $500 million by 2000, she said. 'I don’t think North Carolina can support that bureaucracy,' she said." [New Bern Sun Journal, 1-24-95]

A press release from February 5, 2007 said: "Lt. Governor Perdue believes that until these questions are clarified in the courts that there should be a moratorium on executions."

In 1995, the Charlotte Observer reported on a bill that would have ended use of the gas chamber: "Another death penalty backer, Sen. Beverly Perdue , D-Craven, suggested that doing away with the gas chamber would lessen capital punishment's deterrent value. `I think we should make it painful and torturous,' she said."

Beverly Perdue signed a petition from the National Organization for Women saying, "We,. . . as taxpayers, affirm our support of the State Abortion Fund for indigent women"

Explaining her past support for parental consent laws, NARAL's Melissa Reed told the News & Observer on April 18th, 2007, that "Perdue told her she supported parental-notification bills as a compromise, to keep more restrictive laws from passing."

In 1999, Perdue co-sponsored Senate Bill 90 which would “ensure that insurers that provide health insurance coverage for prescription drugs or outpatient services provide coverage for prescribed contraceptive drugs and devices or outpatient contraceptive services.”

On the 1996 National Political Awareness Test (NPAT), Perdue said “Abortions should be legally available when the procedure is completed within the first trimester of pregnancy.”

  

As the chief budget writer for the Senate in the 1995 legislative session, Perdue cut state funding of abortions for poor women by 96% – from $1.2 million to $50,000. The Charlotte Observer wrote, "she lets politics, not principle, govern her performance." In 1999, she authored a budget provision extending the abortion fund restrictions through 2001.

Beverly Perdue sponsored parental consent laws in 1987, 1989, and voted for one that became law in 1995. As late as April 18th, 2007, her spokesman told the Insider "she continues to support parental consent."

In 1995, Perdue voted in favor of Rep. Robin Hayes’ abstinence-education law that restricted school instructors’ ability to communicate to students where they may obtain contraceptives.

On the 1996 National Political Awareness Test (NPAT), Perdue said, “Abortions should be legal only when the pregnancy resulted from incest, rape, or when the life of the woman is endangered.”

Arguing in favor of her BRAC budget reform proposal, Beverly Perdue issued a press release saying, “'This will change the way decisions are made in Raleigh,' said Perdue.  'It will have a major impact on the budget, eliminating unnecessary spending and enabling us to focus on what’s important and what works.'”

 As the Senate's chief budget writer in1996, Beverly Perdue secretly slipped in a special budget provision creating a $21.3 million slush fund for pork-barrel spending. The Charlotte Observer called it "corrupt" and the Chapel-Hill Herald said it was "a slap in the face to taxpayers." The next year, she created another $12 million slush fund that the News & Observer called "inexcuable."
In 1997, Beverly Perdue voted in favor of Sen. Ellie Kinnaird's amendment to S1, requiring that candidates list their donors' employer information on campaign finance reports. Beverly Perdue's campaign neglected to the list the occupation and employer of more than 300 donors as required by law, including her own colleague in the state Senate. The News & Observer wrote, "This is simply inexcusable."
In an interview with News 14 reporter Tim Boylan the day of her gubernatorial campaign kickoff, Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue discussed transportation funding in North Carolina.  She said, "The first thing I'd do is stop the transfer from the Highway Trust Fund to the General Fund, I think that's a really critical first solution."   

Beverly Perdue sponsored the 1989 legislation (H 399) which mandated that Highway Trust Fund money be transferred to the General Fund each year.  Specifically, the legislation reads, "in each fiscal year the State Treasurer shall transfer the sum of one hundred seventy million dollars of the taxes deposited in the [Highway] Trust Fund to the General Fund."

Department of Public Instruction
In 2007, Beverly Perdue wrote in a "Perdue News Update" from the Office of the Lt. Governor, “I also envision a more ambitious role for an ‘EduStat’ approach that would allow the Department of Public Instruction to better track the course of each child’s education from pre-kindergarten through college and beyond."   In 1995, Perdue sponsored a bill to slash the Department of Public Instruction in half.  The News & Observer reported, “Not even the Basic Education Program -- a cornerstone school improvement during much of the past decade -- appears likely to escape the board's reformation."

On December 19th, Beverly Perdue sent a letter regarding PCS Phosphate’s pending application for a mining permit near the Pamlico River.  It stated, “I have not supported the application anytime in the past and still have questions about its compliance with state environmental laws.”  The News & Observer said the proposal would strip-mine “in one of the state’s most environmentally fragile areas.”

Beverly Perdue, on June 1, 2000, voted to pass H1326, a bill to designate “the state sales tax from dry-cleaning and laundry services to the dry-cleaning solvent cleanup fund” and increase “the state sales tax on dry-cleaning solvents,” according to the Herald-Sun.

On December 8th, Beverly Perdue signed a letter in which she stated: “I support PCS Phospates preferred mine alternative.”  William H. Schlesinger, Dean of the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences at Duke University said, “This is the largest proposed destruction of wetlands in our state's history."

Beverly Perdue, in 1997, was the only state senator to vote against the Dry-Cleaning Solvent Cleanup Act, which created a trust fund to “to pay the costs of assessing and remediating solvent contamination.” According to the Triangle Business Journal, the purpose of the act was to "reduce the amount of solvent contamination in the soil and groundwater throughout North Carolina.”

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This website has been paid for and authorized by the Richard Moore Committee. All of the above information is either factually accurate, or Beverly Perdue or her campaign has claimed that the information is factually accurate.