When he was Charlotte’s mayor, Pat McCrory helped implement a 25-year plan that set priorities for transit investment to guide the city’s growth.  Now the governor-elect says North Carolina needs a 25-year transportation and infrastructure plan “to send a clear signal to the business community of the state’s future investment in roads, railroads, bridges, ports, airports and other infrastructure.” (See John Frank's story for more on McCrory's promises and priorities.)

People in and out of government in Raleigh have been thinking along similar lines over the past couple of years.

“We’ve done a lot of work, and we’re happy to share that with the new governor,” said Gene Conti, who has served as outgoing Gov. Bev Perdue’s transportation secretary since 2009.  “And what he does with that is up to him. There’s a lot of stuff out there, and we’re certainly sharing it with his transition team.”

A business-government logistics task force, chaired by Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton, spent two years meeting in communities across North Carolina to assess the state’s long-term economic, mobility and infrastructure needs, and it reported its findings (PDF) in June. Recommendations included further looks at developing inland ports and investing in improvements to the Morehead City and Wilmington ports.

The state Board of Transportation updated its long-range look this year with a 2040 Statewide Transportation Plan, based on a survey of expected needs and priorities from residents and local governments.  The plan predicts that the state will need ... [MORE].

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.

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]

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:

The Road Worrier today (see column with lots of comments) reports that Americans paid more on average for gas in 2011 than ever before, and that prices are climbing sharply.

And asks the rhetorical question: Where's the outrage?

I put it that way because I have interviewed lots of motorists about gas prices ever since gas prices became an issue – since well before March 15, 2005, when the Triangle average price for regular clicked above $2 for the first time.  There was plenty of shock and dismay then, and again when the price passed $3 on Sept. 3, 2005 (and again, since you ask, when we hit $4 on June 17, 2008).  Lately, though, folks seem more resigned to high gas prices.

Sure enough, lots of readers responded to express outrage. ... [MORE]

Next week we'll see the price of gasoline climb as the state adds 3.9 cents to the tax on each gallon and the federal government removes a 4.5 cent tax break on the ethanol blended into each gallon of gas. (See today's story with plenty of reader comments.)

But gas prices aren't waiting for the New Year. They're rising this week.

Tom Kloza, an oil analyst who blogs for the Oil Price Information Service, tells me we may have seen prices bottom out during the week before Christmas.  Most Americans avoided having to pay as much as $4 a gallon this year, but Kloza reckons we could break that unhappy barrier before next summer. 

In email yesterday Kloza said:

January could be a little fitful but I suspect that prices will rally between Presidents’ Day and Cinco de Mayo.  A typical rally would push prices well above $4 gal, and even a half-hearted rally gets us nearly to that point.

The average Triangle price for self-service regular hit its peak for 2011 in mid-May, at $3.872 a gallon.  It has dropped in recent months and fell below $3.23 last week.  Since then the price has climbed a bit, to $3.258 today.  Several Raleigh stations were pricing regular as low as $3.17 this afternoon.

Pump prices are falling, but North Carolina's gas tax will rise by 3.9 cents on January 1 to an all-time high of 38.9 cents a gallon, the N.C. Department of Revenue said.

Only four states have higher gas taxes. Fortunately, if recent price trends continue, drivers can expect the North Carolina tax rate to fall again next July.

The Republican-controlled General Assembly cut other taxes and curbed state spending this year. But legislators also increased state spending for roads and bridges -- and they could not agree on whether to limit the state gas tax, which pays for more than half the total transportation budget.

The House voted overwhelmingly in November to cap the tax at its current level, 35 cents. But the Senate adjourned without taking up the bill, so the law allowing a tax increase Jan. 1 was left unchanged. ... [MORE]

A possible cap on the state gas tax is among the agenda items for this week's drive-by session of the General Assembly. This could be a tough decision.

If the Republicans who control the legislature agree to stop the tax from rising higher in January (in keeping with their lower-tax leanings), they will effectively cut this year's budget for road and bridge repair (one of their few higher-spending priorities).

[11/29/11 update: House caps it, Senate ignores it. See today's story.]

North Carolina's motor fuels tax rose in July to its current record-high 35 cents per gallon -- leaving only eight states with a higher gas tax, according to the American Petroleum Institute. The tax rate is set by a formula that will change the tax on Jan. 1 based on average wholesale fuel prices from April through September.

Gas prices have fallen recently, but they were higher during that six-month period. So if the legislature does nothing, the tax will rise in January to 38.9 or 39 cents ... [MORE].

Crude oil prices have fallen 30 percent since May, the Associated Press says, to around $82 a barrel as of yesterday.

Retail gasoline prices haven't plummeted yet. But they've started to fall a bit.

Meanwhile, it's pretty clear that North Carolina wholesalers and retailers have finally started passing along to consumers the full burden of the 2.5-cent gas tax increase that took effect July 1. ... [MORE]