Sen. Bob Rucho is pleased after getting unanimous Senate and House votes approving his bill to protect car owners against abuses by some tow-truck companies.

“I think the industry is very solid,” Rucho, a Matthews Republican, said today. “But in reality the rogue guys are out there, and they ruin it for everybody. Hopefully we reined them in a little bit.”

The House voted 112-to-0 Tuesday night to approve Rucho’s bill, which applies to 17 mostly urban counties and cities including Wake and Orange counties and Durham.

Where unauthorized cars are towed away from private parking lots, it would: ... [MORE]

Sharply increased spending in the state Ferry Division will eat up an extra $11.3 million from the state Highway Fund, according to a new state budget moving toward approval in the legislature today - and the state Department of Transportation will have to cut road maintenance spending by $4.4 million.

The 2010-2011 budget proposed by House and Senate conferees also will:

* Set aside just $46 million to inaugurate the N.C. Mobility Fund proposed by Gov. Bev Perdue, who had sought nearly $100 million. The fund is supposed to pay for big statewide transportation projects, but it will take several years to produce enough money for its first priority, a $150 million widening project on Interstate 85 north of the Yadkin River bridge at Salisbury. ... [MORE]

It wasn't in the Senate's proposed budget, but Senate leaders probably will agree on some version of Gov. Bev Perdue's N.C. Mobility Fund when they work out a budget deal with the House, Senate leader Marc Basnight says.

Perdue wanted $94.6 million, mostly from DMV fee hikes, to inaugurate her proposed new fund for major statewide transportation needs. The Senate budget made no mention of the Mobility Fund (Basnight says Senate leaders had planned instead to make it the subject of separate legislation).

The House budget would set aside $70 million to start the Mobility Fund, with $39 million in unspent turnpike funds and a $31 million slice of the yearly transfer from the Highway Trust Fund to the General Fund.

"There will be a change in that," Basnight said in an interview today. "They [the House] did something that was surprising. The Mid-Currituck bridge, one of the original toll projects, they took the money from that and moved it somewhere. That will not be acceptable at all."

However much money the legislature sets aside for the Mobility Fund, and wherever that money comes from, it still seems to be agreed that the first use of it will be to widen Interstate 85 for about six miles just north of the Yadkin River bridge near Salisbury.

After that, we'll see.
 

The 2011 budget approved by the House this morning provides $70 million to start up the N.C. Mobility Fund that Gov. Bev Perdue wants for some big statewide transportation projects that, with one exception, have not been named.

This will be one of the areas for negotiation with the Senate, which did not include the Mobility Fund in its budget proposal.

It isn't new money, as Perdue had proposed (she wanted $74.6 million in DMV fee hikes). It's all diverted from the Highway Trust Fund via two routes: ... [MORE]

Ferry riders pay tolls that cover less than 6 percent of operating costs for the State Ferry Division. House budget writers want to see that figure rise to 100 percent.

“In an era of declining revenues, we need to take a look at this – given what we know about their operating costs,” said Rep. Grier Martin of Raleigh, co-chairman of the House Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee.

Martin’s subcommittee this week endorsed a Senate proposal to increase the Ferry Division’s operating budget by $11.3 million next year, to a total of $43.5 million. Jim Westmoreland, a Department of Transportation deputy secretary, said the money was needed to meet increased costs while maintaining current service levels.

Along with its budget recommendations, the subcommittee proposed a measure that would have DOT develop a fee schedule “for all ferry routes in an amount necessary to cover the operating costs.” ... [MORE]

These transportation bills were filed Tuesday in the General Assembly:

- HB 1963 (Brubaker) SPEAK, READ, & WRITE ENGLISH/DRIVER LICENSE (has DMV give driver license exam in English only, requires that applicant "be able to proficiently speak or read and write the English language." No definition of "proficiently.")

- HB 1970 (Holloway) ALLOW DOT TO USE RECYCLED ASPHALT

- HB 1975 (Holliman) EXEMPT DOT EQUITY FUNDS/GARVEE BONDS (federal bonds used for Yadkin River I-85 bridge project would not be subject to equity formula)

- HB 2002 (Gibson) DISAPPROVE HEAVY-DUTY VEHICLE IDLING RULE

- HB 2026 (Cole) ESTABLISH MOBILITY FUND (some details on how the money would be raised (lots of DMV fee hikes, a chunk of the money transferred now from Highway Trust Fund to General Fund, and a change that would effectively hike the Highway Use Tax paid on car sales) and spent (interstate maintenance, city streets, congestion mitigation, mobility enhancement and, first and foremost, widening I-85 near the Yadkin River bridge).

Co-sponsor Rep. Nelson Cole is among legislators who expressed doubts about Perdue's call for fee and tax hikes, after the Senate ignored her Mobility Fund proposal entirely. Here's an explanation of the proposal from Perdue's DOT.

- SB 1377 (Preston) SCHOOL BUS RAILROAD CROSSING EXCEPTION

These transportation bills have been filed this week in the General Assembly:

- SB 1207 (Boseman) GAP FUNDING FOR CAPE FEAR SKYWAY BRIDGE (Contrary to the $40 million sought in her similar SB 1129, it appears intended to reserve $49 million a year in funding to close gap between costs and toll revenues for a $1 billion Wilmington turnpike project. An apparent typo makes the dollar intent unclear. By comparison: The $1 billion Triangle Expressway has gap funding of $24M/yr.)

- SB 1214 (Jenkins) HIGHWAY PATROL MOTOR CARRIER FINES AND FEES

- HB 1800 (Crawford) AMEND POWERS OF DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION (defining DOT’s authority to enter into debt agreements)

- HB 1873 (Moore) ADOPTION OF STATE ROADS FOR MAINTENANCE (Changing from 1975 to 1985 a date that affected requirements for private subdivision roads converted state-maintained roads)

These transportation bills were filed Thursday in the General Assembly:

- HB 1729 (Cole) MOTOR VEHICLES LAW CHANGES (eliminates the $1 fee for renewing car registrations by mail, outlaws license plate covers that make plates illegible, makes other changes)

- HB 1734 (Cole) DOT POWERS AND DUTIES CHANGES

- SB 1136 (Rucho) REGULATE TOWING FROM PRIVATE LOTS (requires a big sign with the name and phone number of a towing firm that removes unauthorized cars from private lots, prohibits tow-truckers from taking the cars more than 15 miles away, prohibits exorbitant towing and storage fees)

- SB 1159 (Goss) DOT POWERS AND DUTIES CHANGES

These transportation bills were filed on first day of the 2010 legislative session:

- HB 1685 (Cole) TURNPIKE AUTHORITY TOLL ENFORCEMENT CHANGES

- HB 1686 (Cole) BICYCLE SAFETY CHANGES (require cyclists to travel no more than two abreast on the highway, and to go single file when a faster car wants to pass them)

- SB 1129 (Boseman) GAP FUNDING FOR CAPE FEAR SKYWAY BRIDGE (set aside $40 million a year to cover gap between cost and expected toll collections on this Turnpike Authority project)

- SB 1131 (Goss) TURNPIKE AUTHORITY TOLL ENFORCEMENT CHANGES

- SB 1132 (Goss) MOTOR VEHICLES LAW CHANGES