Marc Basnight, the state Senate leader, wants to backtrack on the General Assembly’s pledge to phase out an unpopular transfer that takes $172 million each year from the state Highway Trust Fund and moves it to the General Fund, which pays for non-transportation needs.
If the legislature agrees with Basnight, the change will delay start-up plans for new turnpike projects worth $1.4 billion in Union and Currituck counties.
The General Assembly agreed in 2008 to start phasing out the yearly transfer of $172 million in transportation tax revenues from the Highway Trust Fund to the General Fund. Instead, legislators said, some of that money should be diverted each year to the N.C. Turnpike Authority.
The $172 million figure was reduced to $147 million a year starting this year. It was scheduled to be cut further to $113 million in fiscal year 2010, and to $99 million in 2011.
Mark Johnson of the McClatchy capital bureau reports that Basnight said today he did not see how the General Assembly could stick with its plan to reduce the transfer further in 2010.
“That would be difficult to make happen,” Basnight said. “To take money from the General Fund in reality is like taking money from education and the creation of jobs.”
But those planned turnpike projects would create a lot of jobs, too. Basnight is talking about delaying the start in 2010 of a yearly $39 million that would be leveraged to start construction on two projects worth $1.4 billion.
Starting this year, the Turnpike Authority is getting $25 million a year to cover a projected gap between project costs and toll collections for North Carolina’s first modern toll road, the $967 million, 18-mile Triangle Expressway in western Wake County and Research Triangle Park.
(The Wall Street meltdown has delayed the start of construction on TriEx, because the turnpike agency has been unable to borrow the money it needs to build and operate it. The agency will borrow the entire cost of construction and operation up front, then repay the loan with toll collections and the state's gap funding.)
David Joyner, director of the turnpike authority, says his agency still hopes to start work on TriEx this year and is on schedule in the spring of 2010 to start the next two toll roads: the $756 million, 21-mile Monroe Connector / Bypass in Union County, and the $659 million, 7-mile Mid-Currituck Bridge across Currituck Sound.
To keep that schedule, the agency is counting on the legislature’s promise of an additional $39 million per year in gap funding for the two toll roads, beginning with fiscal year 2009-2010.
If the legislature withholds that $39 million, Joyner says, the state won’t be able to start building the $1.4 billion toll roads in 2010.
(Starting in 2011, an additional $35 million a year is to be diverted from the transfer to pay gap funding for the $911 million Garden Parkway, 22 miles in Mecklenburg and Gaston counties.)
Bruce Siceloff reports on traffic and transportation. A News & Observer reporter, editor and blogger since 1976, he took over the
Comments
A Necessary Transportation Project
Thu, 02/05/2009 - 20:51 — BuildtheBridgeNOWI travel to the northern (Currituck) Outer Banks often to vacation, but the fact that I have to drive out of my way a considerable distance to reach my destination has never made sense to me. The cash cow of Currituck County is the Currituck Outer Banks, and unless something is done to alleviate arriving there without having to wait in traffic for hours to crawl along NC12, the number of visitors (and consequently the major tax base contributors to Currituck County) will find other places to go. I am sure that suits those who live there now, but it won't suit them when their taxes increase to make up the difference. Since the Currituck Outer Banks is in Currituck and not in Dare County, I have always found it incredible that Currituck Outer Banks proponents think that Dare County should solve THEIR problem by widening NC 12 through Southern Shores and Duck. Those beautiful towns would be destroyed by widening those roads unnecessarily, since a majority of the traffic traveling north on NC 12 are heading for Currituck. Let's let Currituck solve that problem in Currituck. Oh yes, the bridge will take care of that. Look for it in 2013. Thankfully private funding WILL make this happen.
Currituck Bridge
Mon, 01/26/2009 - 11:37 — hutchmarzFinally, maybe sanity will prevail! Basnight has maybe seen the light ... and the folly of pouring money into a new bridge when there are so many that are in dire need of repair & no funds to fix them. Can you say Bonner Bridge?
The people who want the Currituck Bridge are mainly developers, politicians & investors! Studies have shown that this bridge would NOT solve hurricane/emergency evacuation needs, and further, it would totally destroy one of the most unique areas left on the coast & in NC. The reason most people came here originally, and that visitors still come is that it is relatively remote & somewhat serene. Build the bridge, and it will be another Myrtle Beach/Ocean City,etc.
With some careful planning & engineering of existing roads & bridges, some of the changeover day traffic nightmares could be lessened if not alleviated. How about a reversible lane on the Wright bridge? Add a reversible/turn lane on Rt. 12 North? Current engineering by the geniuses at the turnpike authority will require people south of the new bridge, on the east/ocean side of Rt. 12 in Corolla to go north & turn around at one of two traffic lights in the area! How smart is that?
The area where the bridge is supposed to land can't handle the existing traffic, and there certainly aren't enough public parking & rest room facilities, and the county isn't interested in spending much if any of the occupancy taxes generated by the area IN the area! They're hoping NC DOT will pick up the tab to build the long needed & much talked about walking/bike path along Rt. 12! Is it going to take a tragic accident before something is done?
In the meantime, the county is spending another $300K of these taxes to generate more tourism! Go figure! Perhaps our legislators might want to amend the amount of tax the counties are allowed to collect on tourists/tourism AND how they spend it ... shouldn't some if not MOST of it be spent in the area where it's generated???
The 4 x4 off road area in Carova with the famous wild horses will be history within a couple of years if the bridge is built! It's scary to go up there even now at the height of the season. This is one of the primary attractions in the area & on the whole Outer Banks.
Please help us save the little slice of NC heaven that is Corolla & the Northern Beaches of OBX!
PS The same ones who want the bridge are the same ones who helped defeat Corolla's attempt to incorporate & save itself through self-governance! They wouldn't even let us VOTE on what we wanted to do! How unAmerican is that?