Top of the morning

Here’s some news that we don’t need to hear just before the weekend. It turns out the provision snuck into the state budget by Senate leaders in 2005 that allows out-of-state athletes to pay in-state tuition at UNC campuses is worse than we thought.

Rep. Pricey Harrison reports in her latest newsletter that the provison also puts taxpayers on the hook for redshirt athletes who stay in college an extra year because they still have athletic eligibility left.

The House voted last session to end what amounts a windfall for athletic booster clubs, but the Senate never considered it.

The budget the House passed recently includes a repeal of the provision, but Senate budget negotiators have so far refused to accept it.

Rep. Harrison’s newsletter sums up the problem.

We are laying off thousands of teachers and making cuts to vital services, but we are subsidizing football players and golfers and  tennis players to the tune of $10 million a year… This is an outrage.

Happy Friday.