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.

Maybe Gene Conti won't have to scrounge for quarters under the sofa cushions, after all, to pay for those highway contracts.

After the Federal Highway Administration said it would rescind pledges to give the states $8.7 billion in road and bridge money in September -- including $249 million for North Carolina -- NCDOT Secretary Conti and some of his counterparts in other states said this would make it hard to honor some of their contracts and to continue with plans for more road work.

The U.S. House voted Wednesday to give FHWA $7 billion to fill most of that hole, according to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. The Senate will consider this next week.

That would buy time, but it won't change the fact that Congress has hard work ahead to decide how to pay for road, transit and other transportation needs.

Meanwhile, the federal fund for road-building is running on empty, so Washington is reneging on some big-dollar promises.  This will cost North Carolina $249 million.

The Federal Highway Trust Fund, fueled mostly with a gas and diesel tax that has not been increased since 1992, is low on dough. Inflation has eaten up the value of each tax penny we pay at the pump, and we've cut back our driving so much that the government collects less of that money than it did in the past.

So the Federal Highway Administration plans to rescind its promise of funds the states had expected to receive on Sept. 30 -- a total rescission of $8.7 billion nationwide, according to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.  This comes on top of $16.5 billion in previoius rescissions over the past few years.

Unless Congress comes up with the money and cancels the rescission, the FHWA move will cost North Carolina $249.2 million in road and bridge money it had expected to receive this fall.

NCDOT is rolling out the orange-and-white barrels this summer and fall to work on 36 interstate highway projects across the state, funded mostly with federal stimulus grants and federal GARVEE bonds.

Last week NCDOT sold $242.5 million in GARVEE bonds – a financing tool that allows the state to borrow against future federal funding, saving money by paying less in interest than would be added to project costs later by delays and inflation.

Much of that money, along with a share of North Carolina’s $735 million in bridge and highway stimulus funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, is being spent for maintenance, repaving, widening or other improvements on interstate highways.

In the Triangle these projects include new pavement for parts of I-540, I-440 and I-40. GARVEE bonds will pay for the widening of I-40 in West Raleigh and, if I remember correctly, an upgrade for the clogged I-540 @ I-40 interchange.

Whatever happens with the state budget, Rep. Becky Carney of Charlotte still expects the Senate to take up major transit legislation before the General Assembly quits for the year. [Crossposted from Crosstown Traffic.]

Carney is the lead house sponsor of House Bill 148, authorizing counties to levy a local sales tax to pay for transit improvements.

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.

“We feel reassured that the bill will be heard in the Senate,” Carney said today. “We were told today that the Senate would take it up next week.” ...

Whatever happens with the state budget, Rep. Becky Carney of Charlotte still expects the Senate to take up major transit legislation before the General Assembly quits for the year.

Carney is the lead house sponsor of House Bill 148, authorizing counties to levy a local sales tax to pay for transit improvements.

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.

“We feel reassured that the bill will be heard in the Senate,” Carney said today. “We were told today that the Senate would take it up next week.” ...

This week Virginia closed 18 of its 42 highway rest areas, to save money. Suddenly, there are fewer places for drivers to take a bathroom break.

A map and list at the Virginia DOT website show that you can still expect an unlocked toilet at the welcome centers just north of the border. After that, I-85 (but not I-95) is rest-less all the way to Richmond. [MORE ... ] .