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ABC Final Report

The Joint Study Committee on Alcoholic Beverage Control heard significant testimony and had extensive discussion all aspects of the current State and local structure of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) in North Carolina, and makes the following recommendations.

Click here for the full report

Study: Rush-hour rail could ease commuter crunch (News and Observer)

RALEIGH A new report predicts a healthy demand by Triangle workers and students for commuter trains that could run every 40 minutes during the morning and afternoon rush hour.

The study, released today, says that by 2022 the state-owned N.C. Railroad could serve at least 11,000 riders a day (3 million a year) in commuter trains on its 140-mi. line between Greensboro and Goldsboro.

The forecast projects that the heaviest demand for rush-hour rail – and the most likely place to start – is for trains that would make 11 stops from Durham and Research Triangle Park through Raleigh to Clayton and Wilson’s Mills. The second-highest demand centers on five stops between Greensboro and Burlington.

No decisions have been made about whether to launch commuter rail service on all or any of the tracks between Greensboro and Goldsboro.

Commuter trains use regular diesel locomotives to carry suburban residents to jobs and universities in urban areas. The study predicts that rush-hour service on the NCRR line would rank 16th in ridership among the nation’s 23 commuter rail systems.

John L. Atkins III of Durham, N.C. Railroad’s board chairman, said the study shows that rush-hour trains could help the Triangle handle its continuing growth in workers and residents.

“We see great potential in commuter rail service,” Atkins said in a prepared statement. “The study projections tell us that communities have the opportunity to increase mobility options for citizens all along the corridor, which contains about 18 colleges and universities. And if people opt for commuter rail, that frees capacity for businesses to use our roads and reduces congestion, which benefits air quality.”

N.C. Railroad carries 60 freight trains and eight passenger trains on its 317-mi. track between Morehead City and Charlotte. A 2008 NCRR study said it would cost between $2.3 million and $9.3 million a mile to add commuter train service between Greensboro and Goldsboro.

The new study supports current proposals by Triangle leaders to consider commuter trains as a quick-start phase for the region’s long-range plan to boost transit service with more buses and eventually electric-powered light rail trains.

Unlike light-rail – and unlike a similar regional rail plan that was scuttled a few years ago after it lost federal support – commuter trains would not make frequent stops or provide day-and-night service. But the rush-hour trains could be launched at much less expense and several years sooner, because they would use existing tracks.

The new study also comes as Raleigh and regional officials are considering a proposal to replace the city’s cramped Amtrak station and merge it with a regional transit hub that also would serve buses, commuter trains and the planned increase in intercity Amtrak trains.

The study found relatively weak demand for commuter trains between Burlington and Durham, including a proposed spur-line from Hillsborough to Chapel Hill – partly because many students, university workers and other commuters in that area have free transit or other good transit options already.

Leaders in Wake, Durham and Orange counties are working out details of a transit plan to be submitted to county commissioners in the coming year. A proposed referendum, which could be held in the fall of 2011, would ask voters in the three counties to consider boosting the local sales tax by one-half cent per dollar – or 5 cents on every $10 purchase – to help pay for improved transit service.

N.C. Railroad officials said successful commuter trains would depend on a good local transit service to take commuters from the proposed rail stops to their jobs and schools.
Published Tue, May 11, 2010 12:00 AM
Modified Tue, May 11, 2010 12:03 PM
[email protected] or 919-829-4527

STATEMENT FROM TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY GENE CONTI REGARDING TOLLING ON I-95 IN VIRGINIA

The N.C. Department of Transportation looks forward to working with Virginia in exploring options for improving the I-95 corridor.

Both North Carolina and Virginia were part of the Corridors of the Future Program, which brought together five states in the Southeast to cooperatively examine how to upgrade, modernize and improve the corridor from Virginia to Florida – with a sensitivity to the benefits and impacts on each of the partner states.

North Carolina last year began a two-year study to evaluate the needs of the 182-mile corridor from Virginia to South Carolina, define and prioritize necessary improvements, and identify ways to fund those improvements. Tolling is among the options under consideration. The study considers tolling at both borders and points between, and will take into consideration through-state traffic, as well as local-only usage.

The study will include revenue-sharing options among the states along the corridor. The study already has involved extensive consultation with local officials in communities along I-95, and there is plenty of opportunity for citizen input into the planning. The study is expected to be completed by the fall of 2011. North Carolina also has made considerable progress on the environmental, financing and operational planning for the project.

For more information about the North Carolina I-95 study, visit www.driving95.com.

***NCDOT***

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

NC lawmakers return; closing budget hole is focus (AP)

North Carolina legislative leaders are trying to prevent the economic recession from prolonging the General Assembly’s so-called “short” session.

Lawmakers return formally to work Wednesday for another round of tough spending choices as state tax revenues have failed to keep up with costs for the new fiscal year starting July 1.

While the budget gap — Democrats calculate it between $800 million and $1 billion — is nowhere close to last year’s fiscal chasm, spending reductions in education and health programs and at dozens of state offices will occur. Since additional broad tax increases appear off the table, requests by Gov. Beverly Perdue and others to expand programs or restore previous cuts will get close scrutiny, too.

“This is the beginning of some very difficult choices we’re going to have to make over the next several weeks,” said Sen. Tony Foriest, D-Alamance, an education budget subcommittee co-chairman. “This is not going to be easy.”

Lawmakers have been meeting for the past month to try to minimize House and Senate differences to adjust the second year of the spending plan they approved last summer. Perdue also helped out by rolling out her $19.2 billion budget adjustment proposal three weeks early.

It’s all part of a familiar refrain by chamber leaders during even-numbered years — finish the budget by July 1 and go home.

But the Legislature hasn’t completed a spending plan on time since 2003. Changes to the state’s ethics and campaign finance laws also have to be worked through before adjournment, along with some way to deal with an influx of sweepstakes games that local judges have ruled escape the state’s video poker ban. Reforms to the state’s Alcoholic Beverage Control system also are on tap.

Democrats want to keep the election-year session focused on issues that play well with voters, like encouraging job growth and lessening the financial pain on public schools, the University of North Carolina and community college systems.

“Jobs will be our first priority in ways that we can retain them, expand them, attract them,” said House Speaker Joe Hackney, D-Orange. “Saving education in the budget in the extent we can at all three levels will be certainly a top priority as well.”

Republicans, who remain in the minority in both chambers but have the wind at their backs entering the campaign season, will argue again that Perdue and her fellow Democrats have raised taxes needlessly because the budget gap isn’t that large and they ignored less painful ways to cut spending.

Perdue’s $86 million proposal of tax breaks and incentives for business to create jobs is “pitiful” and won’t help employment, said House Minority Leader Paul Stam, R-Wake. “They’ve done this billion-dollar tax increase and now they’re going to give back 5 percent and say that they’re creating jobs.”

Education advocates also plan to fight additional spending cuts for local school districts proposed by Perdue above the $305 million already in place for the fall, arguing thousands of additional education jobs could be eliminated above the 5,000 teacher and staff positions removed this year.

The district spending cuts may shrink if Perdue is willing to give up spending on experience-based pay raises for teachers and her effort to pay back state employees and teachers the 0.5 percent salary reductions she required of them last year to close a budget shortfall.

She also wants her college- and career-ready initiative funded that would spend $39 million on hand-held computers in elementary school classrooms so teachers can better monitor student achievement. Health care advocates are pleased that lawmakers agree for now with Perdue to restore $40 million in funds to local mental health agencies after steep cuts last year reduced services.

“We need to stabilize,” said Dave Richard, executive director of the Arc of North Carolina, which advocates for the mentally disabled. “Keep the funding as level as we can and let us get through these cuts and manage that before we do a lot of other massive changes.”

Momentum has increased for three campaign finance and ethics bills approved by the House last year and awaiting Senate action as headlines focused upon federal and state investigations of activities surrounding former Gov. Mike Easley and his associates and illegal campaign contributions by a Wilmington businessman.

The legislation would delay more state officials from lobbying government until well after they leave state employment; ban state contractors from giving to elected officials who approve contracts that benefit the vendor; and require board appointees to report campaign donations and fundraising for elected officials who appointed them. Perdue unveiled her own ideas last month.

“For both political parties to retain their credibility, they need to end the perception that they’re not honest,” said Jane Pinsky with the bipartisan North Carolina Coalition for Lobbying and Government Reform.

Legislative leaders also must decide what to do about:

— legislation approved by the House that would make it more difficult for cities and towns to annex neighboring lands against the wishes of property owners.

— a Senate bill requiring commercial dog breeders to register with the state and meet operational standards.

— a Senate ban on building wind turbines on mountain ridges and requiring wind farms to get a state permit.

— a House bill that would change negligence cases so that a plaintiff would get an award proportionate to the defendant’s percentage of fault.

By GARY D. ROBERTSON

Va. seeks tolls on I-95 near N.C. border (Richmond Times Dispatch)

Tolls, once a familiar sight in the Richmond area, would be instituted on the North Carolina line if a proposal by Gov. Bob McDonnell is granted.

The McDonnell administration has asked federal transportation officials for permission to place tolls on traffic on Interstate 95 near the North Carolina border and projected it could raise as much as $60 million a year to improve the highway.

Adding a fee of up to $4 per car on one of the country’s most heavily traveled arteries could reap $30 million to $60 million a year, according to the administration. The money would have to be spent on improvements along the corridor, but it would free up dollars for other projects in the state.

In a letter to the Federal Highway Administration requesting the approval, Secretary of Transportation Sean T. Connaughton says I-95 is the most traveled interstate in Virginia and that improvements would have a “significant safety impact.”

He estimates that more than 38,000 cars and trucks per day will cross the state line on I-95 this year. Under Virginia’s proposal, northbound and southbound drivers would pay the toll.

Because I-95 is so heavily traveled, tolls could be a lucrative addition to the state’s transportation coffers.

“Such user fees will help the commonwealth generate the revenue necessary to make much-needed infrastructure and safety improvements in the I-95 corridor to better serve the traveling public and increase economic productivity,” Gov. Bob McDonnell said in a release.

Federal law restricts the ability of states to put tolls on I-95, but Virginia previously was granted approval to require tolls on Interstate 81 under a pilot program, and the administration now is asking to switch that authority to I-95.

The Virginia Department of Transportation has had $4.6 billion in budget cuts in the past two years, according to the administration, which has identified more than $600 million in safety and infrastructure improvements needed on I-95 between North Carolina and Fredericksburg.

The state is responsible to maintain the highway within its borders. Though the federal government gives the state money to operate and maintain the highway, Virginia officials say that funding doesn’t meet the cost.

Even if the state gets the green light from federal transportation officials and adds the tolls, it needs to work out logistics, such as enforcement for drivers from other states who don’t pay.

“It would be very problematic trying to toll the interstate,” said Ray D. Pethtel, who served for eight years as Virginia’s transportation commissioner.

If the state installs traditional tolling booths, it risks clogging traffic. If it uses open-road tolling, such as equipment that takes a picture of a license plate and then bills the driver for the toll, it faces enforcement problems.

“You’re going to need to have other states willing to collect or enforce the toll unless you stop them and have cash only,” he said.

“Especially on 95, you’re going to have traffic from Maine to Florida. And if you’re billing a car from Maine, will they pay? And if they don’t pay, can you force or can you get Maine to agree to collect the toll and send it to you?”

Connaughton’s letter to the highway administration indicates the state would prefer to install electronic monitoring but may need some traditional toll stations.

He said estimated construction costs are $4.3 million, with annual operating, administrative and collection costs totaling $4.3 million to $5 million.

During his gubernatorial campaign, McDonnell included tolls on I-95 as one of a dozen mechanisms to fund his transportation plan.

Revenues from I-95 tolls first would be directed toward safety upgrades and then improvements to the pavement conditions and infrastructure. Then, the state could begin making changes to increase capacity.

McDonnell sent a letter April 30 to U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood asking for the option. A federal highway authority spokeswoman said LaHood will respond to McDonnell’s letter directly.

If approved, Virginia would be the only state south of Maryland currently to have tolls on I-95.

By Olympia Meola
Published: May 11, 2010

Budget, jobs top state’s agenda (News and Record)

RALEIGH — In addition to budget tables and tax reports, lawmakers this summer may be reaching for a thesaurus to find new ways to say “bleak.”

The General Assembly returns to Raleigh on Wednesday with two majors goals: rebalancing the state budget and sparking job creation.

Although lawmakers mention other pending bits of legislation, those two goals are top of mind for legislative leadership in both chambers.

“I think we’re going to be spending a lot of time trying to look at the budget and making sure that the fallout of it all won’t devastate these different entities,” said Rep. Alma Adams, a Greensboro Democrat and one of the lead budget writers in the House.

Leaders in the House and Senate say there is little chance the General Assembly would vote to raise sales or income taxes this year. With the exception of a few fee increases, that leaves budget cutting as the only way to compensate for still-sluggish tax revenues.

Gov. Bev Perdue’s budget, which serves as a starting point for lawmakers, contains cuts to virtually every state agency, including public schools, community colleges and universities.

“The university folks are talking about these cuts having an impact on academic programs and the classroom,” Adams said. “There is not fat in these budgets anymore.”

That’s especially stark, considering education programs are among those legislative leaders and the governor say they are most likely to protect.

Lawmakers are also troubled by three other lurking issues:
• Stimulus money and a temporary tax increase that will help keep the state in the black next year both expire July 1. Any budget adjustment needs to anticipate what could be further spending cuts in 2011.
• Although Perdue’s budget proposal cuts about $1 billion, it is higher than the amount of money the state spent during the past 12 months. Even with what amounts to a slight boost in spending, department leaders across state government say they’ll have to slash services to comply with the cuts.
• Demands on government services such as Medicaid and subsidized child care are growing as a result of the same recession that has decimated tax revenue.

Aside from the budget, House and Senate leaders name few other measures as “must-do” items.

“We are really hoping to have a session this time that looks to small businesses,” Rep. Hugh Holliman told 20 constituents at Davidson Community College earlier this week.

Holliman backs a package of small business tax credits and other help for native North Carolina businesses proposed by Perdue.

Asked whether he thought the funding would be available to pay for such a measure, Holliman said, “Yes. It’s about jobs, and jobs is the number-one issue.”

House and Senate lawmakers say a package of campaign finance ethics reforms is likely to pass this summer. Those changes would be aimed at addressing a spate of recent stories surrounding former Gov. Mike Easley as well as a fundraiser who illegally bundled contributions for Perdue and Basnight.

“There is some opportunity to have some consensus there,” said Sen. Phil Berger, an Eden Republican and his party’s leader in the Senate.

Also, lawmakers say they will address the resurgent video poker industry. Although the legislature has twice voted to outlaw the games, a new brand of gambling known as video sweepstakes has proliferated throughout the state.

Republicans are in the minority in the House and Senate, but plan to push some measures despite likely opposition from Democrats.

For example, Berger said Republicans would push a bill that would allow North Carolinians to exempt themselves from certain parts of the federal health care reform bill. Perdue and other Democrats have shown little enthusiasm for bucking the measure, which was a key priority of Democrats in Washington.

Berger added he would also like to draft changes to the rules governing how quickly tax refunds need to be issued. In the past two years, residents have found themselves waiting for state refunds well after the federal refund came.

His measure, which is still being written, would shorten the length of time the state has to issue a refund before interest and penalties would be due to taxpayers.

Basnight said lawmakers could look at such an idea, but that it would not be in the top tier of priorities.

“Our real interest is the creation of jobs and the economy,” Basnight said.

Other measures likely to get some notice this coming session include:
• Transportation funding: The city of Greensboro is asking lawmakers for the authority to buy rights of way for state road projects. This would let the city loan DOT money to help speed along portions of the western Urban Loop.
“We’ve been told in no uncertain terms … that projects will be viewed more favorably where the local municipality has assisted,” said Councilman Robbie Perkins.
• Susie’s Law: Sen. Don Vaughan of Greensboro plans to introduce a bill that would increase the seriousness of punishments available in animal cruelty cases. The measure comes in the wake of a widely publicized Greensboro case involving a dog that was set on fire.
• Alcohol: Lawmakers say they expect to pass a set of reforms aimed at ensuring some standard ethics and accounting procedures at ABC boards across the state.
• Sheriffs: Sen. Stan Bingham says he will continue pushing a measure that would disqualify felons from becoming sheriff. This bill is aimed at several cases across the state, including one in Davidson County, where candidates with serious convictions on their records ran for the office.

Contact Mark Binker at (919) 832-5549 or [email protected]
Sunday, May 9, 2010
(Updated 7:39 am)
By Mark Binker
Staff Writer

NCDOT: Stimulus-funded construction payroll jumps 131% (Triangle Business Journal)

Transportation payroll funded by federal stimulus funds more than doubled in March, according to data compiled by the North Carolina Department of Transportation.

A total of $3.7 million in federal stimulus money was paid out to 4,740 workers in March. Those workers clocked 215,914 hours.

The payroll jumped 131 percent compared to February, when 2,887 workers earned $1.6 million for 119,843 hours of work.

The increases in March stopped a fourth-month decline in transportation stimulus payroll. NCDOT’s construction work typically slows down in the winter due to weather conditions before picking back up again in the spring.

Since stimulus jobs started in April of last year, $28.9 million in transportation construction payroll has been doled out to workers in North Carolina.

Friday, May 7, 2010
by Chris Baysden

N.C. cities, cable still at odds on broadband entry (AP)

Wilson, N.C. — Big telecoms in North Carolina keep fretting about towns like Wilson and Salisbury getting into the broadband business.

Ever since a 2005 appeals court ruling upheld the right of towns and cities to offer high-speed Internet to their residents, large cable and phone companies have been urging the General Assembly to throw obstacles in the way. Local governments, they argue, don’t have to pay taxes and can subsidize their rates to undercut the corporate competition.

“We just want the playing field level between the two of us,” said Jack Stanley, a regional lobbyist for Time Warner Cable.

Those efforts, however, have failed as mayors and local governments argue the big companies won’t offer the kind of super-fast Internet at reasonable prices they say attracts high-tech industries.

“We’re trying very hard by providing broadband to bring new local businesses to our community, to bring jobs,” said Salisbury Mayor Susan Kluttz, whose city has borrowed to build a $30 million fiber-optic network it will begin testing in a few months.

Heading into this week’s start of the legislative session, the telecommunications industry backed a proposal that would force cities to get voter approval to borrow money to build or repair their systems.

While a majority on the Legislature’s Revenue Laws Study Committee recommended the idea last week to the full General Assembly, it’s still a long shot to pass as some lawmakers agree companies fail to provide the best service and avoid communities that don’t generate enough profit.

“Leaving this solely to the telecoms and the cable companies has not gotten us the best result we could get, and we should promote other models, including the municipal model,” said Rep. Bill Faison, D-Orange, who is leading a separate House committee examining the topic.

Still others argue lawmakers have brought this fight on themselves because they’ve never conformed state law to the 2005 court ruling to fill in details on how towns and cities should build these systems.

State law allows municipalities to enter into “public enterprise” for services such as electric power, cable television and trash, areas where private companies historically weren’t willing to invest.

A 2005 Court of Appeals ruling involving then-BellSouth Corp. and the city of Laurinburg, which leased its fiber-optic network to outside customers, determined high-speed Internet fell under the definition of cable television. Only a few municipalities have entered into the broadband network business since then. Wilson has made the most dynamic effort.

Wilson city officials borrowed $28 million, without a referendum by voters, to lay the fiber-optic lines and build other infrastructure to create Greenlight, which offers cable, phone and Internet service.

Greenlight has drawn nearly 5,000 household customers since it began offering the service in 2008. According to its website, it has the fastest residential Internet speed in North Carolina: 100 megabits per second, compared to 15 megabits offered to Time Warner residential customers in Wilson.

If successful, Wilson’s effort could lure more cities and towns to enter the business, eating into the markets of cable and Internet companies.

In 2007, a House committee agreed to require governments to hold public hearings before offering cable and Internet services and keep them from pricing the services below cost. But the bill went nowhere. A similar bill introduced last year ended up as a study proposal for Faison’s committee.

Sen. David Hoyle, D-Gaston, recently proposed a moratorium on local governments getting into the business while the issue is studied further. Hoyle backed down after opposition from the North Carolina League of Municipalities and several companies including Google, Intel and Alcatel-Lucent. But he replaced the proposal with a requirement that any debt incurred for building a broadband network must be approved in a referendum.

“What’s wrong with the people being allowed the right to vote on debt that they’re going to be responsible for repaying?” Hoyle asked.

Kelli Kukura, a lobbyist for the league, said cable television groups have spent hundreds of thousands defeating referenda on similar broadband projects in other states, with ad blitzes on their own cable TV systems.

Marcus Trathen, representing the North Carolina Cable Telecommunications Association, called the referendum idea “an appropriate stopgap measure that I think restores some rationality to the process.”

More efforts at a compromise are likely on the horizon. High-speed Internet service could mean the difference between economic prosperity and malaise for small towns in North Carolina.

“In the 21st century, broadband is what electrification and water and sewer were in other centuries,” said Rep. Jennifer Weiss, D-Wake.

By GARY D. ROBERTSON, The Associated Press

(Voters Pass) Sales Tax Hikes (The Insider)

Sales Tax Hikes (The Insider)

Voters in Duplin, New Hanover and Onslow counties approved referendums to impose local-option quarter-cent sales tax hikes on Tuesday. The ballot measures had previously failed in Duplin and Onslow counties. David Thompson, executive director of the N.C. Association of County Commissioners, said the voter-approved initiatives will help those counties avoid property tax increases. “These results show that citizens understand the dire situation many county budgets are in,” Thompson said in a written statement. “With county sales tax revenues declining and property values decreasing, many counties are facing tough choices about whether to cut services and employees or raise property taxes.” The measure narrowly passed in New Hanover County, but 70 percent of voters in Onslow County backed the increase.(THE INSIDER, 5/06/10).

ABC Recommendations (AP)

The Joint Study Committee on Alcoholic Beverage Control has recommended that the General Assembly give the state ABC Commission authority to set performance standards and training requirements for local ABC boards. However, the panel declined to recommend more drastic reforms to the state’s liquor system. The watered down legislation recommended by the panel would also require local stores to follow the same rules local governments do in carrying out their annual budgets. “Right now you can have a drawer full of cash at an ABC store and you just pay the bills and anything else you want to buy,” said ABC Commission Chairman Jon Williams, adding that the changes are the “kind of transparent cash management” the public expects to see.

Committee members took out language that would have allowed the state commission to merge local boards to ensure a troubled store becomes profitable. Instead, the state panel could only make recommendations to the local board. A cap on local ABC employee salaries was weakened. The panel also deleted wording that would have subjected the state’s nearly 170 local boards to the state government ethics law, meaning hundreds of members of boards would have to fill out annual economic disclosure statements that could identify potential conflicts of interests. Now they’d only have to comply with ethics rules that their county commissions or town councils approve, which may or may not be stringent. “We gutted it,” said Sen. Dan Clodfelter, D-Mecklenburg, the sole committee member voting against the final recommended legislation. “They took out the ethical standards.” The committee’s proposal will go to the Legislature for consideration when it reconvenes next week. The proposal was amended several times by the committee comprised of lawmakers, local government officials and ABC leaders and almost certainly would change more if the House or Senate vote on it. Gov. Beverly Perdue, who would be asked to sign any bill into law, also would have something to say about the proposal.

Earlier Wednesday, Perdue’s Budget Reform and Accountability Commission recommended to the governor that local ABC board members to comply with the state government ethics law, limit compensation of store operators and give the state commission more power to close underperforming stores. Williams told Perdue’s commission the changes it sought would respond to some “very embarrassing problems to everyone who works in the system.” ABC reform accelerated following news reports about a liquor company employee treating Mecklenburg County ABC board employees and leaders to an extravagant dinner and how New Hanover County’s father-and-son store administrators got paid more than $400,000 combined.(Gary D. Robertson, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, 5/05/10).