New plan surfaces for I-85 bridge (Salisbury Post)
In her proposed budget for the next fiscal year, Gov. Bev Perdue provides a new way to fund the widening of Interstate 85 around the Yadkin River Bridge.
Perdue’s proposed $19.1 billion budget allocates $94.6 million for the creation of a new transportation fund.
The recurring N.C. Mobility Fund would be used “for multi-modal transportation projects of statewide significance that are linked to statewide economic goals.”
The 2008 General Assembly decided to reduce the annual distribution of money from the Highway Trust Fund to the General Fund. Perdue wants to use $22 million from next year’s reduction to help establish the N.C. Mobility Fund.
About $17 million for the fund would come from a 25 percent increase in the fee for getting copies of drivers license records.
Automobile and light truck registration fees also would increase by 25 percent, producing an additional $48.9 million in revenue.
Hikes in fees for trucks used in interstate commerce and miscellaneous registration fees would raise $3.1 million and $3.6 million respectively.
According to Greer Beaty, DOT communications director, the first project paid for with the fund would be the widening of a 6.8-mile section of I-85 on both sides of the Yadkin River Bridge.
Replacement of the bridge itself will be paid for with $10 million from a federal TIGER grant, $20 million in DOT Division 9 Transportation Improvement Program funding, and about $150 million in GARVEE bonds.
Beaty said that the Yadkin River Bridge project brought the issue of transportation funding to the forefront. Currently, the state distributes road project money to each DOT district through an equity formula. If the formula had been used to pay for the entire I-85 corridor improvement project, it would have taken up the whole district’s funding for about a decade.
“When you have large projects of state, regional or national significance that are very expensive, the current equity formula really doesn’t have a tool to fund those projects without taking a lot of resources away from other communities that need them,” Beaty said.
Interstate 85 is crucial statewide and locally for business and economic development, Beaty said. Road projects of similar significance across the state also would be paid for through the new fund.
“It will give us a tool to really look at projects that address critical congestion or bottleneck areas,” Beaty said. “The N.C. Mobility Fund is really a way to look at projects like this and have a solution moving forward.”
At least one local legislator, however, doesn’t like the idea.
N.C. Sen. Andrew Brock, a Republican who represents Rowan and Davie counties, said he was thankful for any money put toward the I-85 corridor improvement project.
“Our transportation district is severely limited because of the equity formula — or, as I call it, the inequity formula,” Brock said. “We’re blessed to have the interstate system, but it hinders us because we don’t receive funding the way we should because of it.”
Brock said he didn’t like the idea of simply creating another funding source for these kinds of projects, though.
“We would be better served not by creating another slush fund for the governor to hand out money,” he said, “but by creating a more equitable system to send out state money.”
By Karissa Minn
Friday, April 23, 2010
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