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The state Department of Transportation Ferry Division says heavy shoaling in Hatteras Inlet has forced it to halt the hourly ferry runs between Hatteras and Ocracoke islands.

A fourth daily run will be added starting Saturday to the Pamlico Sound ferry route that links Ocracoke to Swan Quarter. On the Swan Quarter and the Ocracoke-Cedar Island routes, DOT will waive ferry tolls for Ocracoke residents and "vendors carrying necessary goods and commodities," the Ferry Division said.

Heavy loads of sand have made the inlet channel so shallow in recent weeks that ferry runs were suspended each day for a few hours around the low-tide mark (see 1/18/13 story). ... [MORE]

A budget corrections bill being heard this morning in the House Appropriations Committee includes a provision to postpone the ferry toll hikes originally scheduled, in the state budget bill adopted last week, to start in the fiscal year that begins July 1. (4pm update: The committee approved the changes. Now they go to the House floor, then the Senate.)

Instead, the increased rates for three routes now tolled and the new tolls for routes now toll-free would not begin until fiscal year 2014 (which starts in July 2013). The measure also would appropriate an extra $2.5 million for the DOT Ferry Division, to make up for the revenue that had been expected from the increased ferry tolls.

If the House and Senate approve this latest change in ferry toll rates and timing, it will move back to the original position favored by the House and Gov. Bev Perdue. They agreed this spring to postpone the tolls out of concern for economic hardship in ferry-dependent coastal communities. In the budget passed last week, the legislature had granted a one-year reprieve only for riders on the toll-free Cherry Branch ferry.

As its vehicle for budget corrections, the House used Senate Bill 187, a proposal to outlaw the red-light camera traffic enforcement programs in Raleigh, Cary, Knightdale and Willmington.  Red-light cameras are not mentioned in the revised bill moving through House Appropriations this morning, so the traffic programs will not face elimination.

Included in the budget agreement rolled out today are provisions that:

* Direct the Department of Transportation to start collecting new and increased ferry tolls that had been ordered in the budget a year ago, but with some changes:

 - The busy Hatteras – Ocracoke ferry across Hatteras Inlet and the Knotts Island ferry across Currituck Sound will remain toll-free, as legislators had agreed in 2011.  Senate leaders previously favored tolls on these routes, too. 

 - The House and Gov. Bev Perdue had proposed to delay the new tolls for a year, citing economic hardship in ferry-dependent coastal communities. The leaders of both chambers agreed in the new budget to give a one-year reprieve only for riders on one route: the Cherry Branch – Minnesott Beach ferry across the Neuse River, which serves Cherry Point commuters.

- Riders on the Pamlico River ferry in Beaufort County, which also serves commuters, will have to start paying tolls for the first time.

* Cut $63 million in funding for the planned Garden Parkway near Charlotte and Mid-Currituck Bridge toll projects on the northern Outer Banks, because DOT officials have said they will not be ready to spend the money in the coming year. 

* Drop a Senate proposal to charge a statewide fee of $45 for teens under age 18 who take driver education class.  Local school systems are still authorized to collect a fee of up to $45, to make up for a cut in state funding last year.

* Eliminate the state’s New Starts program that supplements federal money for urban rail transit projects. The remaining $25 million in the fund will be earmarked for Charlotte’s light-rail line, which has been the only New Starts beneficiary to date. Local officials in the Triangle and other communities with plans for light-rail now will have to compete with highway projects for state money.

* Cut the gas tax, now 38.9 cents per gallon, to a maximum 37.5 cents for the coming year.

* Cut $26 million from a state fund for paving dirt roads and improving other secondary roads.

Documents:

The Senate budget released Monday is good news for people who want more pavement for more dirt roads -- and bad news for Ocracoke residents, tourists, commuters and others who rely on the state ferry system.

The Senate rejects proposals by the House and Gov. Bev Perdue to postpone new and increased tolls on state ferry routes – and the Senate goes farther by refusing to exempt two ferries that both chambers had agreed last year to keep toll-free.

Perdue had issued an executive order refusing to collect the new tolls.  The Senate budget explicitly attacks her order as "an unconstitutional attempt to exercise authority" that Perdue does not have, and it orders the Department of Transportation to ignore it.

House leaders had agreed with Perdue that ferry-dependent communities deserve a reprieve while they recover from the effects of recessiona and Hurricane Irene.  The House budget proposed to give the ferry division an extra $2.5 million, to make up for the additional revenues that had been expected from the postponed ferry tolls.

The Senate budget directs the Department of Transportation to institute the higher rates and to collect tolls on all seven DOT ferry routes. That includes two that were exempted a year ago: the Currituck-Knotts Island ferry, used by public school buses, and the state’s busiest ferry route from Hatteras to Ocracoke, used heavily by tourists and Ocracoke residents.

The Senate proposes to kill urban New Starts and regional transit grant programs worth $28 million.  And the Senate would spend $22 million more than the House to put asphalt on unpaved roads.

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.”