N.C. Supreme Court to hear challenge to Smithfield payments

A legal challenge to the use of millions of dollars paid by Smithfield Foods Inc. to North Carolina is heading for the state Supreme Court. The seven-member panel agreed to hear appeals in a lawsuit questioning whether money the processor paid annually under a 2000 agreement with the state should have been applied to state education initiatives.The conservative public policy organization Civitas Institute won a challenge to the use of the funds in a state appellate court in September 2018. The Raleigh, N.C.-based organization argued that the state constitution could allow the $2 million Smithfield paid each year to go toward schools instead of being used to address environmental issues at hog farms across the state.