Ray LaHood, the US transportation secretary, announced  approval today of more federal stimulus funds for transit improvements in the Triangle:

$4 million for Raleigh to help start building a bus operations and maintenance center for Capital Area Transit, and

$900,000 for Triangle Transit to buy a van and three 40-foot buses.

Raleigh and Triangle Transit were among the recipients of additional stimulus grants announced in July. 

The scary old I-85 bridge over the Yadkin River near Salisbury is woefully overdue for a $350 million replacement. Agreed. But who wants to pay for it?

North Carolina wants President Obama to pay for it.

I-85 is the main road between Richmond and Atlanta. Only a fraction of the 70,000 cars and trucks that ratle across the narrow bridge every day are local. But under the General Assembly's "equity" formula for distributing highway dollars, the Yadkin bridge is just another local project. ... [MORE]

Today the governor's signature turned legislation into state law: Triangle residents now have new options to pay for ambitious bus and rail transit improvements, with $86 million a year from sources including a half-cent sales tax hike.

The whole state is affected, but the biggest impact of the new legislation is in the Triangle (see Aug. 14 story with reader comments).

"We commend Governor Perdue for signing this bill into law," said Berry Jenkins, co-chair of NC Go, a statewide transportation advocacy group. "This isn't a tax, but the freedom for communities and citizens who consider public transportation a priority to hold a vote. If a community is not ready, voters won't approve. But they should have that option."

If county commissioners in Wake, Durham and Orange agree, and if voters give their approval in a referendum, the three counties would collect an estimated $73 million a year from a half-cent sales tax that would be dedicated to local transit. No vote is expected before late 2010 or 2011.

Other new transit revenue streams would come from increased vehicle registration fees and a special property tax hike only in Research Triangle Park. In addition, Triangle cities also have new transit revenue powers, from legislation authorizing hikes in local car registration fees.

Yes, say a lot of peeved southern Wake residents. They envy northern Wake's tax-paid, toll-free 540 Outer Loop.

They aren't looking forward to having the Triangle Expressway, North Carolina's first modern toll road, an extension of the Outer Loop, running through their part of the Triangle:

Why would the people utilizing the southern portion of 540 be required to pay tolls, when the people who have been utilizing the finished portion have not, and will not have to in the future? ... Wouldn't it be more efficient to add tolls now to the finished part and start collecting now instead of waiting until the new portion is finished? - Barb Hartsfield

Who can blame them? But they won't be alone for long. TriEx is our first toll road, but we have more toll roads on the way.

This week a bunch of national transportation policy wonks are debating interstates and tolls on the National Journal's transportation blog.

Federal law does allow tolls on existing, federal tax-financed freeways, but only in limited circumstances. . . . [MORE]

The legislature this year gave Wake, Durham and Orange counties, and their jointly owned Triangle Transit, new power to raise as much as $86 million a year to pay for local transit improvements (see today's story with reader comments).

All that was part of HB 148, one of the last bills to clear both chambers before the legislature left town this week.

But that's not all the money Triangle governments will have at their disposal in the next few years to start putting 300 new buses on the roads and start laying tracks for more than 50 miles of light-rail trains.

Raleigh won authorization (HB 394) to levy an additional $5 car registration fee for "transportation purposes," worth $1.6 million a year. Durham (SB 543) was authorized to add a $5 fee for "local public transportation" worth $780,000. And Chapel Hill was authorized in 2008 (SB 1748) to add an extra $10 car fee worth $371,000 for transit.

Nobody was crazy about resorting to toll-collection to build the Triangle Expressway, U.S. Rep. David Price said at Wednesday's ground-breaking ceremony (see story with dozens of reader comments).

But where else will we get the money to build new bridges and expressways?

The federal Highway Trust Fund, fueled mostly with a federal gas tax that has not been increased since 1992, is running on fumes. Congress recently approved an $8 billion bailout to make sure North Carolina and other states would get the federal road dollars promised for this fall.

“We have in the past relied on one source of revenue almost exclusively for our highway building, namely the gas tax revenue,” Price said. “It has funded highway construction, safety programs and a lot of other thngs for many, many years. …

“Now, that’s not even an option. Now the gas tax revenues simply aren’t going to do the job.”

You know the story. Our cars aren't guzzling so much gas these days, so we're paying fewer gas tax pennies per mile. ...

In a 37-9 vote, the Senate today gave tentative approval to a bill that would let Triangle voters add a half cent to the local sales tax to raise money for better public transit service.

The measure cleared the House in April and the Senate Finance Committee Tuesday. If it wins final approval in the Senate this week, the House will be asked to concur on a minor Senate amendment.

House Bill 148 would authorize county commissioners and local voters, in a referendum, to enact a local sales tax hike of one-half cent per dollar in five urban counties – Wake, Durham, Orange, Guilford, Forsyth – and a quarter-cent hike in Johnston and other rural counties that have public transit service.

The money would be dedicated to cover operating and capital costs of local public transit systems.
Triangle leaders say it would generate enough money to cover most of the cost of an ambitious plan to put a few hundred more buses on the roads and lay more than 50 miles of light-rail lines in Wake, Durham and Orange counties.

Sen. Neal Hunt, a Raleigh Republican, was the only Triangle senator who did not sign on to co-sponsor local-option transit sales tax legislation that will come to the Senate floor today. But when the votes are taken, Hunt will join other Wake, Durham and Orange senators to vote Yes.

The Triangle needs the money to build good bus and rail transit service, he says.

“We have major congestion on certain corridors right now,” Hunt said this morning. “I’m no expert, but I think the rail would do a great deal to relieve that congestion.

But he adds: Before local voters and commissioners actually consider hiking the local sales tax by a half penny, we need to make sure the money would be spent on a good transit plan. ...

A local-option sales tax to pay for transit improvements? Not this year, says Johnston County’s state senator.

Sen. David Rouzer, a first-term Republican, lives near McGee’s Crossroads in Johnston and also represents part of Wayne County. He says he’ll vote no today on House Bill 148, which would authorize local voters to decide whether to tax themselves for better bus and rail transit service.

“Not right now,” Rouzer said this morning. “Not with the economic recession that we have and the taxes that are already going to be put in place with this new budget. I just can’t vote for it right now. This idea of adding tax after tax … I just think it’s got to come to an end. We’re killing the taxpayer.”

The measure would not increase taxes directly. It would authorize county commissioners and local voters, in a referendum, to enact a local sales tax hike of one-half cent per dollar in five urban counties – Wake, Durham, Orange, Guilford, Forsyth – and a quarter-cent hike in Johnston and other rural counties. ...

The Senate Finance Committee today approved an amended version of House Bill 148, which would authorize Triangle  counties to pay for transit improvements with a half-cent local sales tax, a property tax hike in Research Triangle Park, and a hike in car registration fees.

Triangle leaders are pushing for the half-cent option to pay most of the cost for an ambitious plan to add hundreds of buses to the roads and lay more than 50 miles of light-rail tracks over the next 25 years.

The measure goes to the full Senate for a floor vote Wednesday.  If the bill passes second and third reading, it will return to the House -- which gave 75-40 approval in April -- for concurrence on a minor amendment added in the Senate Finance committee today.

The measure gives Wake, Durham, Orange, Guilford and Forsyth counties the option to hike the sales tax a half-cent per dollar -- if approved first by the county commissioners and then by voters in a referendum -- to help finance transit construction and operations.  It also gives rural counties the option of a quarter-cent transit tax.

It allows an increase in the Triangle of the $5 car registration fee that helps pay for transit -- raising it to $7 now and to $8 next year.  And the measure empowers Research Triangle Park landowners to increase their property taxes by 10 cents per $100 to help pay for transit.

Even if the General Assembly approves the transit tax local option this summer, Triangle transit backers are not expected to push for a local referendum vote this year. The expected state tax hike and the continuing recession would provide a chilly climate for proposals to increase local taxes too.

The bill's lead Senate sponsor is Sen. Richard Stevens, a Cary Republican, who spoke in favor of it at the Finance Committee today by telephone from his home, where is recuperating from a knee injury. Other speakers included Sen. Josh Stein, a Raleigh Democrat.