It's Day 1 of the 2012 legislative session, and already we have action on ferries, car inspections, toll roads and other transportation stuff.

* Inspections will still be required for all cars. The House-Senate Joint Transportation Oversight Committee today had no interest in discussing, evaluating or modifying a proposal to end the required safety and emissions inspections for vehicles from the three newest model years. It simply killed the bill in a 7-5 vote (see today's story with reader comments).

Meanwhile, without dissent or discussion, the oversight committee approved other legislative proposals:

* Updating top DOT job titles. This measure would retire the venerable title of state highway admnistrator, and give a new title to the person holding that job (currently, Terry Gibson): chief engineer.  DOT explains: We're way more than highways now. We're also bikes, trains, ferries, etc., etc.

DOT used to have somebody else called chief engineer as the top honcho for  something else called operations. After a department reorganization intended to reduce layers of management, the old chief engineer was moved under the wing of the old highway adminstrator.  Jon Nance, formerly chief engineer, now is addressed as ... deputy chief engineer. ... [MORE]

In her new proposed budget, Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue generally agrees with transportation proposals aired by House Republicans last week to put a cap on the state gas tax and to postpone new and increased ferry tolls for a year.

Ferries:  Perdue angered legislators in February when she refused to start collecting new tolls on two toll-free ferry routes, and higher rates on three tolled routes, as ordered in the state budget last year.  She cited economic hardship in ferry-dependent coastal communities.  Republicans sharply criticized Perdue but shied away from fighting her on this.  Both budget drafts, theirs and now hers, would put off the new tolls until July 2013.

But there's a difference here: What to do about the additional $2.5 million in toll collections that had been expected in the budget? ... [MORE]

View NC 12 & NC Ferry Routes in a larger map

The NCDOT Ferry Division says it will add two more runs this weekend to the Swan Quarter - Ocracoke ferry route, to make up for some of the delays caused by shoaling that has disrupted the busy Hatteras - Ocracoke ferry across Hatteras Inlet (see 5/8/12 story with reader comments).

On Saturday and Sunday, along with regular departures from Swan Quarter at 10 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., new departures will be added at 7 a.m. and 1 p.m.  In addition to the regular departures from Ocracoke at 7 a.m. and 12:45 p.m., new departures will be added at 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is expected Saturday to start a two-week dredging operation to clear sand out of the Hatteras Inlet channel.

Big news rolling out today (Tuesday) in the House Transportations Appropriations Subcommittee. [5/2/2012 update: see full story online.]

House leaders have released draft legislation (attached below) to:

Cap the gas tax at 37.5 cents, roughly the rate to which it is expected to fall in July based on the legislative formula that floats the tax with changes in wholesale fuel prices. Legislators could not agree last year on a proposal, passed by the House and ignored by the Senate, to cap the tax at its 2011 rate of 35 cents. So it rose in January to its current 38.9 cents.

Postpone new ferry tolls until July 2013.  That's even longer than the one-year moratorium announced by Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue in February, and denounced by Republican leaders in both chambers.  House Republicans are sympathetic to the calls from coastal communities to delay the tax, but Senate Republicans have not yet agreed to this.

Eliminate required safety and emissions inspections for new cars, and cars from the three most recent model years.  Legislators and Perdue said they were open to the idea after a series of stories in The News & Observer and Charlotte Observer raised questions about whether the inspections are reliable, effective and necessary.

The legislation is expected to be considered when the General Assembly convenes May 16.

Documents:

GOP legislative leaders were relentless last year in their determination to have passengers pay a bigger share of operating costs for the state ferry system. But since February, when Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue announced a moratorium on collecting new and increased tolls, Republicans have not been in any hurry to take action that would implement the tolls -- which were supposed to start April 1 -- quickly (see today's story with reader comments). [Update: Legislators back repeal of ferry tolls.] 

The tolls were ordered in state budget legislation for five of the state's seven ferry routes, including two commuter ferries that have always operated without tolls.  Republican legislators in coastal counties have heard more protest about the tolls than they expected, from voters who will decide whether to re-elect them this year.

Today the legislature's joint transportation oversight committee is scheduled to consider a proposal to postpone the new tolls for two years, giving coastal residents more time to recover from the effects of the recession and Hurricane Irene.  Several Republicans expressed sympathy for the idea in a recent meeting before committee leaders cut off debate.

Republicans say it is up to Perdue to heed the advice of Democratic Attorney General Roy Cooper, who says she had no authority to block collection of the tolls.

But if Perdue declines to back down, Republicans face these options: ... [MORE]

Chris Mackey, press secretary for Gov. Bev Perdue, released this response to the opinion by Attorney General Roy Cooper's office that she exceeded her authority in imposing a moratorium on new and increased ferry tolls:

“The Governor believes her executive order is both legal and right. The Governor issued her order because she doesn’t think it is right to collect ferry taxes from working families in eastern North Carolina.

“If the Republican leaders of the General Assembly are determined to collect the ferry tax, they can do it when they return to Raleigh in ten days. The Governor’s executive order clearly states that the General Assembly can vote to end the moratorium at any time.”

In a five-paragraph letter to a House Republican leader, the state attorney general's office offered its opinion Friday that the legislature's order for new and increased ferry tolls is still in effect, despite Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue's attempt to stop it.

"We believe that an Executive Order which directly conflicts with a law enacted by the General Assembly raises substantial concerns under our Constitution," Grayson G. Kelley, chief deputy attorney general, concluded in a letter to Rep. Phillip Frye. "It is therefore our opinion that a direct conflict between a law enacted by the General Assembly and an Executive Order issued by the Governor must be resolved through implementation of the law."

The full text of Kelley's letter, dated Thursday and delivered Friday to Frye's office, is below. Check here for details on Perdue's attempt to block the ferry tolls, and here for the texts of two related documents: Perdue's Feb. 29 order and a March 8 memo on the legal issues from Gerry Cohen, one of the legislature's lawyers.

Documents:

Gov. Bev Perdue argued forcefully for her right to block new state ferry tolls, but the law is against her, a top legislative staff lawyer said today.

"While the facts may be compelling one way or the other for the citizens involved, the legal issues here are black-and-white," Gerry Cohen, who heads the legislature's bill-drafting staff, told the House Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee. "It is my opinion that the governor's order has no force or effect." (See online story with reader comments, and a longer story with reader comments in Friday print edition, and an AP story over constitutional issues raised by Perdue's action.)

See below for the full texts of Perdue's executive order, which put a one-year moratorium on the tolls, and Cohen's memo to legislators.

Documents:

State Department of Transportation officials are setting new or higher rates for tolls and commuter passes on five ferry routes, as ordered by the legislature – but they are obeying the governor’s ban on collecting the new tolls.

“We’re in a box now because the law says one thing, but the governor told us not to do it,” said Gene Conti, the transportation secretary.

Proposed rates unveiled today would introduce new charges for pedestrians and for vehicle passengers, who ride free now on ferries where tolls are collected on vehicles and their drivers.

DOT ferry officials figure they will be told eventually to start collecting these new tolls – but nobody knows when that will be. ... [MORE]

Republican legislators are unhappy about Gov. Bev Perdue's decision to block new and increased ferry tolls, and they are looking into the legality of her move.

In a budget they passed over the Democratic governor's veto, Republicans ordered new tolls on two river ferries now used, toll-free, by commuters, and rate increases on three other ferry routes that have tolls now. Perdue declared that DOT has legal discretion to determine whether tolls will be increased, and she announced a one-year moratorium on any toll change.

"Right now we're trying to find out if the governor's decision is legal, to take action on a budget that has been approved," Rep. Phillip Frye, an Avery County Republican, said Thursday. Frye is co-chair of the House Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee, which will hear from DOT ferry officials at a meeting next Thursday. "It's a line item in our transportation budget for money going toward the ferries." ... [MORE]