RALEIGH - No one knows how the state will come up with at least $660 million to pay school districts to satisfy a looming judge's order. And that has educators and legislators worried.

Wake Superior Court Judge Howard Manning Jr. has warned that he will order the state to surrender $660 million, and possibly $90 million more, in civil fines that were withheld from school districts.

But the districts are worried that the state could comply by taking money out of existing education funding. Michael Crowell, the lawyer representing the N.C. School Boards Association, said Friday that the group is trying to negotiate a settlement.

"We don't want to be in a position where the state says, 'You want $650 million, you can have it, but we'll take it from somewhere else,' " Crowell said.

The school districts have time to work out a deal. Manning said at a court hearing on the case Friday that he doesn't intend to issue the formal order to pay the money for several months.

Manning also reiterated that he would ask the state to pay the money over several years.

"I won't put my name on anything that has a lump sum," Manning said. "It will come over time."

'Queasy stomach'

But even over a five-year period, that could mean having to come up with $130 million a year. Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand, a Fayetteville Democrat, said he had a "queasy stomach" when he first heard about Manning's intentions to award the money.

Rand said legislators are waiting to hear the recommendations of the state's attorneys. The legislature reconvenes in May.

State revenues are running slightly ahead of projections, but Sen. Martin Nesbitt, an Asheville Democrat, expects things to get worse. He said legislators will definitely have to consider taking some existing education funding to comply with any court order.

The Wake, Durham and Johnston school systems had joined three other districts and the N.C. School Boards Association in a lawsuit against the state in 1998. They contended that all civil fines and penalties paid to state agencies must be given to primary and secondary schools under the state constitution. Criminal fines already must be turned over to schools.

A 2005 state Supreme Court ruling greatly expanded the types of civil fines that had to be turned over. The high court sent the case to Wake Superior Court to determine how much the schools should get.

Amount undetermined

The exact amount each district would get hasn't been determined, but it would be based on the number of students they have. School districts would have to use the money to buy computers.

The state determined that it had collected $768 million in civil fines between Jan. 1, 1996, and July 1, 2005, that were not turned over to the schools. After taking out collection costs, the amount drops to about $750 million.

In December, Manning agreed that all districts are entitled to money withheld from when the General Assembly created a statewide civil fines and forfeitures fund on Sept. 1, 1997, to when the Supreme Court ruled in July 2005.

Manning hasn't indicated what should be done with the $91.5 million collected between Jan. 1, 1996, and Sept. 1, 1997.

At the hearing Friday, Crowell said that all $91.5 million should be shared among the state's 117 school districts.

Dale Talbert, a special deputy attorney general, told Manning the state should only have to pay a smaller amount to the six districts that are in the lawsuit.

"They want the rest of this money to disappear, to go puff, like Puff the Magic Dragon," Manning said.