NC20 group takes on Eastern N.C. issues (New Bern Sun Journal)
March 31, 2010 11:15 PM
Sue Book
About 100 members of the NC20 Association, an Eastern North Carolina group organized a year ago to speak with one voice in Raleigh, were singing the same song at their annual meeting here Wednesday.
Those attending the nearly all-day gathering included business leaders and county commissioners from coastal area counties including Craven and Pamlico, and General Assembly members including Sen. Jean Preston, R-Carteret; Rep. Alice Underhill, D-Craven; and challengers to the seats they hold.
Sen. Marc Basnight, D-Dare, said that of all the issues NC20 hopes to address, transportation is the one it must face first.
A state DOT administrator told the Highway 17 Association meeting in New Bern on Tuesday that the equity formula for highway funding is still in place.
Basnight told the co-op of Eastern North Carolina leaders meeting in the same room here Wednesday that “people in Raleigh would like to change it right now. It’s a frightening prospect for me.”
Craven County Manager Harold Blizzard and Beaufort County Manager Paul Spruill submitted a transportation funding position paper to the group supporting continuation of the equity formula to allocate N.C. transportation money. It basically gives 50 percent to geographic regions by population count, 25 percent by proportionate share of unfinished highway networks, and 25 percent evenly to the state’s seven highway districts.
New Census figures and redistricting are expected to have negative impact on highway money for Eastern North Carolina and even before that impact is felt, a Joint Legislative Transportation Oversight Committee meets in Raleigh on April 6 with the equity formula as the first item on its agenda.
“Keep an eye on that,” Basnight said. He said he appointed a mountain senator, Sen. Steve Goss, D-Watauga, to lead debate on the topic in that committee, which is co-chaired by Rep. Nelson Cole, D-Rockingham.
Another issue up for discussion was homeowners insurance. Counties hit with insurance rate hikes a year ago while Piedmont and Western counties saw cuts, rallied again at the New Bern Riverfront Convention Center on Wednesday.
The N.C. Insurance Commission allowed increases averaging as much as 29.9 percent in some coastal counties while some inland counties saw 43 percent cuts.
Group vice president Willo Kelly said the data does not support the deed.
“Lobbyist got away with the misconception in legislature” that insurance company losses were higher in coastal counties, she said, when in fact, the losses incurred in the 82 inland counties not in a Beach Plan underwritten by the state were more than those in coastal areas.
The statistics showed that insurance companies paid out 6 cents on the dollar in Eastern North Carolina compared to 21 cents on the dollar farther west, she said.
Sen. Basnight championed the restructuring of the 40-year-old Beach Plan last August that kept coastal rates from going up as much as 125 percent in some places.
“I would like to see the whole state share in a plan like the Beach Plan,” he said, “and I think $1 billion is too large a cap. It should be 10 percent of total cost, then spread across all of North Carolina.”
Basnight spoke clearly but at a measured pace because of a nerve condition he said is affecting his speech and coordination, but not his thinking. A powerful state senate president pro tempore since 1993, he left little doubt of his position on issues, whether in step or not with the views of those attending.
Basnight said his new way of talking might help him in a filibuster, signaling he’s not backing down from his stance on issues or a campaign for a 14th term that offers his first opposition in two terms.
Sue Book can be reached at 252-635-5666 or [email protected].
