MONEY FROM WASHINGTON

Recently released figures on North Carolina's share of federal formula
grants show what's important to North Carolina officials - and what isn't.

Former governor Jim Hunt put a lot of money, time and political effort into
child-care programs, so it's no surprise that the state ranks first among
the states in child-care and development fund grants, spending $8.65 a
person. The fund helps low-income families pay for child care. The money
keeps many families from needing more assistance. If the parents can work,
they can bring home paychecks. The program's value is obvious.

On the other hand, North Carolina ranks dead last in block grants for
substance-abuse prevention and treatment and 45th in capitalization grants
for clean water. The grants from the Environmental Protection Agency
provide long-term financing to build wastewater-treatment plants.

Because federal formula grants come only to local and state agencies that
apply for them, and states decide which grants to apply for, the results
demonstrate an admirable concern for child care for the state's needy families.

The state's showing in grants for drug treatment and clean water ought to
cause state officials to re-examine its grant-application criteria. Is
North Carolina spending enough on those problems already, or will they come
back to bite the state later, becoming hugely expensive to solve the longer
we wait to address them seriously?

Making drug-abuse treatment and prevention a low priority for federal funds
may mean that people who might otherwise kick the drug habit will continue
and increase their drug use instead. Some will commit increasingly serious
crimes to get the drugs. An ounce of prevention is expensive at a time when
the state is struggling with a large deficit. Nonetheless, it is a much
better investment than pounds of prison "cures" that seldom cure.

Similar thinking could be applied to clean water, although the state's
Clean Water Management Trust fund, established in 1996, provides
considerable money to clean water programs. Wastewater-treatment plants are
expensive, and federal funds would help.

Political science professor Thad Beyle has noted that some North
Carolinians are proud of the state's low rankings in some grant categories,
believing that it's better to be less dependent on Washington money. But no
one is more efficient at collecting tax money than the Internal Revenue
Service, federal grants are there for the asking, and the problems are real
and urgent. Some state is going to get the money. Why not North Carolina?