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Winter 2010 Newsletter

Read about the Metro Mayors Public Safety Forum, the Urban Transportation Summit, and our new member mayors in the Winter 2010 Newsletter.

Prospect for new Yadkin River bridge looks promising (Davidson County Dispatch)

North Carolina’s transportation heavyweights gathered Thursday at Davidson County Community College to talk about highways, infrastructure and more.

Members of the state’s Logistics Task Force heard from a representative of FedEx who outlined the company’s new state-of-the-art facility at Piedmont Triad International Airport and listened as plans for urban bypasses around Greensboro and Winston-Salem were detailed.

But the most enthusiastically discussed portion of the meeting pertained to the long-anticipated replacement of the Interstate 85 bridge spanning the Yadkin River. Pat Ivey, an engineer with the N.C. Department of Transportation’s District 9, which includes Davidson and Rowan counties, said work on the bridge should start before the year is out.

“Probably later this fall you’ll see construction beginning for that project,” he told the crowd gathered in DCCC’s Conference Center.

Ivey said that while the state received only $10 million of a requested $300 million from federal stimulus funds for the project, it was decided the project was important enough to ascertain funding elsewhere. “We had a Plan B,” he said.

That fallback plan, Ivey said, was to fund the bridge replacement through federal GARVEE bonds, which are essentially low-interest federal loans. Ivey said $150 million of the approximately $350 million project is being provided by GARVEE bonds. Another $20 million has been allocated for the work through Division 9 funding.

Ivey said the work is so close to getting kicked into gear that state transportation officials were set to open bids for the work later Thursday. He said securing environmental permits and clearing assorted other governmental hurdles will take a few months, but said he was confident the work is finally about to commence.

Ivey noted the $180 million appropriated for the project will pay for an eight-lane bridge over the Yadkin, as well as a new bridge for U.S. Highway 29/70, which crosses the river at the same site. The work will complete the project from the Long Ferry Road exchange in Rowan County north to the interstate’s intersection with N.C. Highway 150 in Davidson County.

But the funding doesn’t include another six miles of the work, from N.C. Highway 150 north to the Exit 88 exchange near the Davidson County Airport.

“We’re continuing to look for funding,” Ivey said. “Hopefully, it’ll become available soon.”

It may become available sooner than most people realize, said Gene Conti, the state’s secretary of transportation, who addressed the crowd after Ivey spoke.

Conti admitted that securing funding for the second half of the project was “a little more challenging,” but said the cash may be secured through Gov. Bev Perdue’s proposed budget, which was released Wednesday. Conti said the budget includes a “mobility fund” whereby legislators can vote to transfer cash from other funds, including the state’s general fund, to pay for the Yadkin River project.

“We need the General Assembly’s support, obviously, to support this,” Conti said of the transfer of funds.

But he said he fully supports such transfers, and said he believes legislators will agree.

“The first cash flow, in our minds, should go toward funding the Yadkin project,” Conti said. “We want to emphasize projects that will give the maximum return for the people.”

Conti’s words were so enthusiastically received that those attending Thursday’s meeting applauded him.

He said it wasn’t just highway work that will be a part of the project. Conti said about $4 million of the project will go for work to the railroad tracks near the Yadkin. He said the railroad bridge won’t be replaced, but the tracks leading to it will be straightened, in the process increasing the speed limit for trains from 40 mph to 60 mph in the area.

By almost anyone’s assessment the Interstate 85 bridge is a hazardous one that should have been replaced years ago. The 880-foot bridge was built in 1955. It has no shoulders to pull over, narrow lanes and was designed to carry a much smaller capacity than it does now. An estimated 60,000 to 70,000 vehicles cross the bridge daily on what Conti called a “critical artery between Richmond and Atlanta.”

Replacement of the bridge was planned for 2004 before efforts of historical preservationists — the bridge is near the site where a Civil War battle was fought — delayed the project. Transportation officials said the cost has doubled since then. They said that had the work been allowed to proceed as was initially planned, the new bridges would by now be completed.

The aim of the Logistics Task Force (headed by Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton, who also attended Thursday’s meeting) is to ensure the state has the necessary transportation foundation to remain competitive in the global economy. Task force members heard Thursday from transportation experts in the 12-county Piedmont Triad region. After leaving DCCC, they drove to Piedmont Triad International Airport for a tour of the FedEx hub that opened there last year.

Don Kirkman, president of the 12-county Piedmont Triad Partnership, was one of the first to speak at Thursday’s meeting. He told attendees the region is just beginning to recover from the recession, but said the Piedmont is geared for big things.

“We’d like to think we could accommodate virtually any economic development except that which requires deep water,” Kirkman said, his comment greeted by a round of chuckles.

David Congdon, president of Old Dominion Freight Line in Thomasville, reminded task force members that different regions of the state shouldn’t consider themselves in competition with one another.

“What is good for the Piedmont Triad region is good for all of North Carolina,” he said. “What is good for the Charlotte region is good for all of North Carolina. We will all benefit.”

Steve Huffman can be reached at 249-3981, ext. 217, or [email protected].
BY STEVE HUFFMAN
The Dispatch

Published: Thursday, April 22, 2010 at 4:53 p.m.

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
[email protected]

House, Senate pass transportation bill (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

Breaking a legislative traffic jam that has endured for more than three years, the Georgia General Assembly on Wednesday voted to allow referendums throughout the state on transportation funding.

Taking to the well for the first time this session, Speaker David Ralston in a rousing speech led the Georgia House to pass the bill, HB 277, by a vote of 141-29. The Senate passed it 43-8 shortly afterward.

The bill would divide the state into 12 regions. A “roundtable” of local elected officials in each region, working with an appointee of the governor, would draw up a list of projects for the region. The region could then submit the list to its voters for their approval in a referendum, along with a 1 percent sales tax to fund them. No county could opt out of a region’s tax, but a roundtable could decline to hold a referendum in the region.

If the bill becomes law, it also will probably ease the draconian cuts MARTA was facing, though it was unclear Wednesday night by exactly how much. It lifts, for three years, a restriction on how the transit agency can use its revenues from sales taxes, freeing up several million dollars for operations.

The strong margins of support in both houses delighted supporters.

“I feel exhausted. I feel ecstatic. I feel so thankful for the people who worked so hard,” said Sam Williams, president of the Metro Atlanta Chamber, one of the bill’s key backers. That includes Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, Williams said, who was instrumental in helping deliver the House. “We were afraid we were going to lose the House this afternoon,” Williams said.

Reed was at the Capitol on Wednesday, and after passage, he said it was not yet law and there was still work to be done to get a good referendum passed. But he said it would be a massive boost for the Atlanta region’s transportation. Projects have yet to be chosen, but would Atlanta get the Beltline? “No question,” he said.

The bill now goes to the desk of Gov. Sonny Perdue, who first proposed the legislation earlier this year, giving it critical momentum. Transportation Planning Director Todd Long, who reports to Perdue, said the governor supports Wednesday’s bill. A spokesman for Perdue, Bert Brantley, said Perdue would have to review the final language, but he supported the concept and had worked closely on the compromise.

Sen. Jeff Mullis (R-Chickamauga), who worked on the issue for years, said it wasn’t perfect, but could be refined.

Indeed, not all was perfect with the bill. If a region approves its tax, it still won’t get money for about the next three years. But the money will be significant: The Atlanta region’s tax could raise about $750 million to $790 million per year. It would sunset after 10 years, and go up for a vote again.

In his speech, Ralston, brandishing his MARTA Breeze card, hit back at criticism that the bill does not do enough for MARTA or mass transit. The new tax could not be spent on operations for the current MARTA system, or on raises for MARTA employees. But it could be spent on operations for new MARTA projects.

“I have heard this talk about two Georgias to the point that I’m sick of it,” Ralston said. “We are one state. And you know what, the members of that committee accepted that challenge” to spread the benefits of the bill.

DuBose Porter, the House minority leader, said that “this is basically a Band-Aid for MARTA, if that.”

House Transportation Committee Chairman Jay Roberts then took to the well and replied, “Are you telling me that you want to keep the wound open?”

A critical moment apparently came when Perdue backed down on the issue of whether a region could opt out of the tax. The final compromise: Yes, it can, but the region will lose out on some new state benefits, including a bit more money for small local road projects. And it wouldn’t be able to try again for a vote for two years.

In a show of cooperation, Lt. Gov Casey Cagle, who heads the Senate, and Ralston praised Perdue in a joint statement and said they made transportation a priority and looked forward to the referendum.

Staff writer Ernie Suggs contributed to this article.
By Ariel Hart

Nearly $50 billion in highway funds available to states (The Hill)

Nearly $50 billion in federal funds is available to states for the spring and summer construction season through a new law, the Transportation Department announced Wednesday.

The Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act (HIRE) extends funding authority for surface transportation programs through the end of 2010, providing an additional $40.1 billion to the Highway Trust Fund, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced today.

“These funds will help make it easier for states to put people back to work and begin long-term projects,” LaHood said.

The law also restores $8.7 billion to states that was rescinded under the 2005 federal surface transportation law that has been extended while Congress works on a new six-year bill.
By Vicki Needham – 04/21/10 11:14 AM ET

ABC Reform

If there’s consensus on reforming state liquor sales, it wasn’t apparent during the latest meeting of legislative study committee charged with evaluating the system. Committee members examined a series of proposals intended to ensure store profitability, provide the state ABC Commission with more authority over local boards, and create ethics and pay standards for local ABC officials. Several proposals met resistance. “You’ve told every town in my district you can no longer do this,” said Rep. Pryor Gibson, D-Anson. Gibson was criticizing a proposal that would limit ABC package stores to towns with at least 5,000 registered voters and mixed drink elections to towns with at least 500 registered voters. His criticism didn’t stop there. He and Sen. Dan Blue, D-Wake, also questioned the cost of some of the proposals, including one that would fund Alcohol Law Enforcement operations with 2 percent of the receipts taken in by local ABC boards.

Rep. Edgar Starnes, R-Caldwell, wasn’t happy with the push for profitability. “I don’t want our focus to be on profitability. It should be on control,” Starnes said. The complaints came even though the draft legislation drops a provision that would have given the state ABC Commission power to force mergers of local ABC boards. The commission would be able to adopt performance standards for local boards and require training of local board members and employees. Compensation of board members and local ABC general managers would also be limited, with general managers’ pay tied to that of local clerks of Superior Court. The draft bill would also require local ABC officials to follow the state ethics law and prohibit nepotism in local hiring practices. The study committee is expected to finalize its recommendations on May 5.(THE INSIDER, 4/23/10).

Editorial: Bridging gap on transportation needs (Salisbury Post)

Gov. Beverly Perdue’s proposed state budget answers one question of particular interest to Rowan and Davidson County residents: How does the state plan to pay for replacement of the I-85 Yadkin River Bridge?

Previously, after the state learned it would get only $10 million in federal stimulus funds to help with the estimated $300 million cost of replacing the bridge, the governor and state transportation officials said the critically important project would move ahead. A major chunk of the cost was to come by borrowing against future federal appropriations. However necessary that might be, it’s far from an ideal solution. The state’s Debt Affordability Advisory Committee reported earlier this year that the combined debt capacity of the N.C. High Fund and Highway Trust Fund was already “more than utilized” until fiscal year 2013. (While federal borrowing wouldn’t count against the state’s debt capacity, that doesn’t negate the prospect of the state digging itself into an ever-deeper debt hole without establishing a self-sustaining road revenue mechanism.)

However, Perdue’s proposal for creation of an N.C. Mobility Fund offers a more transparent — and potentially, more fiscally responsible — means to build a new Yadkin Bridge and finance other major transportation needs. Initially, the $95 million in start-up revenue would come through two sources, a modest increase of $7 in the DMV registration fees and the gradual phaseout of about $72 million in annual transfers from the Highway Trust Fund to the general fund. The transfers are simply a budget shell game and part of the reason North Carolina’s former “good roads state” reputation is on the road to ruin.

It isn’t clear yet how Perdue’s Mobility Fund would fit in with proposed revisions in the “equity formula” used to distribute most N.C. road-building money. If the Mobility Fund is truly treated as a sovereign transportation fund — inaccessible by law for other uses — and it targets major projects of statewide relevance, that could help relieve funding pressures elsewhere. That might help make the formula more equitable for rural areas that fear their needs are neglected in favor of metro projects.

We’ll wait to see how the Legislature views the Mobility Fund and the proposed revenue mechanisms. On first examination, it looks like a feasible and fair way to replace the Yadkin River Bridge and fund other urgent transportation needs. It sounds promising — but then, so did the Highway Trust Fund when it was created as a supposedly inviolable source of funds for transportation needs. We’ve seen how that worked out. Let’s hope that, lesson learned, Perdue’s Mobility Fund not only will facilitate replacement of the I-85 Yadkin Bridge but also help lead us back to a “good roads” future.

Thursday, April 22, 2010 12:00 AM

City bucks Senate proposal (on collective bargaining) (Richmond County Daily Journal)

City bucks Senate proposal (Richmond County Daily Journal)

The City of Rockingham has voiced “strong opposition” to a Senate bill it believes would mandate that municipalities engage in collective bargaining with public safety employee unions, including firefighters.

The city recently settled a Fair Labor Standards Act lawsuit with 10 members of its fire department after they signed on to an AFL-CIO labor union called the International Association of Fire Fighters.

The bill was discussed at last week’s meeting of the Rockingham City Council, where the council unanimously approved letters to be sent to U.S. Rep. Larry Kissell and U.S. Senators Richard Burr and Kay Hagan.

In the letter, signed by Rockingham Mayor Gene McLaurin, the city said the bill “is being rushed through the Senate, deliberately bypassing the normal committee process.”

“Our position and the position of the other 544 cities and towns of the N.C. League of Municipalities is that the federal government should not undermine municipal autonomy with respect to making fundamental employment decisions by mandating specific working conditions, including collective bargaining.”

North Carolina law prohibits collective bargaining between local governments and employee labor unions, but the federal law would supersede state statute.

Professional Fire Fighters and Paramedics of North Carolina President David Anders said his organization supports local government employees being able to engage in collective bargaining, and said its purpose isn’t to “build a wall between local government employees and management.”

“Hopefully, city officials will soon understand that firefighters and collective bargaining are about building bridges and relationships,” Anders wrote in a letter in support of the bill. “The legislation that is now before Congress will require that employers discuss work place issues with their public safety employees. As far as I can see, this legislation will not require employers to do anything they are ultimately opposed to and will allow a written contract once an agreement is reached.”

Rockingham City Manager Monty Crump doesn’t see it that way, and also doesn’t believe the lawsuit filed against the city by its fire fighters has anything to do with it.

“It takes away from local government the power to manage,” Crump said. “We’re a right to work state, and this federal law would preempt that and override state law and require collecting bargaining.”

He said the bill would totally change the way cities do business.

“The people have entrusted the city council to set salaries and a tax rate, but when you get into collective bargaining and union contracts you’re talking about a huge increase in cost for the taxpayers,” Crump continued. “If you look at the top five or 10 states that are in debt, the worst you’ll see, they all have public service unions. I don’t think that’s a coincidence.”

Staff Writer Philip D. Brown can be reached at (910) 997-3111 ext. 32, or by e-mail at [email protected].

Gang-prevention program working on slim budget (Fayetteville Observer)

Next year, sheriff’s deputies will likely have textbooks and little else to teach skills to local students that will enable them to steer clear of gangs, alcohol and drugs.

Federal funding for the popular Gang Resistance Education and Training program – known as GREAT – was cut so severely that only about a dozen grants were provided to local communities, said Ron Doyle, the national program manager.

Hundreds of those grants paid for officers to travel to required training, summer camps, T-shirts and other giveaways last year, Doyle said.

“That’s all the money that is left is for – to keep the base infrastructure in place,” Doyle said.

Since 2006, the GREAT budget shrank from $25 million to $10 million. Officials expect the budget will be chopped in half during the next budget cycle – leaving local departments to pick up the slack.

About 500 agencies nationwide – including the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office – take part in the program, Doyle said. A few communities have stopped offering the classes because of budget constraints, Doyle said.

“Obviously, it hasn’t killed it yet,” Doyle said. “There are a lot of communities that are committed to this program.”

Cumberland County’s program started about 10years ago, said Lt. Johnathan Morgan and Sgt. Gary Dukes of the Sheriff’s Office. The men plan to continue the program and a weeklong summer camp for fourth- and fifth-graders. To get logo T-shirts, markers and other extras, deputies are going to reach out to local vendors and raise money, they said.

“This is one of the programs I can say the guys believe in,” Morgan said.

From fall 2007 through fall 2009, about 21,800 local elementary and middle school students took part in the training, the men said.

Six-week classes are taught to elementary students; middle-school students go through a 13-week program. Students learn about conflict resolution, decision making and consequences.

At the end of the class, students receive a certificate, a T-shirt and other items, Morgan and Dukes said. The trinkets help cement lessons learned in the classroom by teaching students that good behavior is rewarded, the men said.

“They light up,” Dukes said. “It’s like a high school student getting their diploma.”

Text and workbooks are provided free through the Institute for Intergovernmental Research – the training arm that is funded through the federal grant.

Mandatory training that each deputy must complete before entering a classroom is free, too. However, training sessions typically fill up fast. Dukes and Morgan said some deputies have been sent to Oregon and the regional training center in Florida.

Nine deputies are scheduled to attend a class in late June in Salemburg. The class has been full for more than a month, Morgan said.

“We’ve had enough requests where we could put a second one in North Carolina if we had the funds to do it, which we don’t,” said Doyle, the national program manager.

Gang affiliation
Over the past few years, the number of children affiliated with gangs has slowly grown, said William Lassiter, a spokesman for the N.C. Department of Juvenile Justice. Last year, about 9percent of the 20,000 children who entered the juvenile system were associated with a gang, Lassiter said.

About 24 percent of schoolchildren say there is a gang presence in their school, Lassiter said. Programs such as GREAT help stop the spread of gangs by highlighting the consequences associated with joining one or using alcohol or drugs – points that often are not shared by their peers, Lassiter said.

“There’s a whole other, ugly side of it kids don’t hear about,” Lassiter said.

Published: 06:40 AM, Thu Apr 22, 2010
Staff writer Sarah A. Reid can be reached at [email protected], or 486-3569.

NC Anti-port group says mega port analysis flawed (BusinessWeek)

WILMINGTON, N.C.

Opponents of a massive cargo terminal along North Carolina’s coast have filed a complaint challenging the conclusions of a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers study recommending that state and federal officials move forward with a feasibility study.

The nonprofit No Port/Southport claims the port inflated the economic benefits of a proposed international port according to a complaint filed Monday with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Inspector General.

The group says the corps’ analysis is based on the “capture” of container traffic from other Atlantic coast ports. Inclusion of captured economic benefits is prohibited by section 904 of the Water Resources Development Act of 1986, according to the complaint.

“Without consideration of captured benefits, the analysis would not find a surplus of benefits over costs,” writes retired Col. Albert Willis, a member of the No Port/Southport steering committee. Willis filed the complaint on behalf of No Port/Southport.

The group wants the corps to withdraw its report and remove the captured economic data from its analysis.

Penny Schmitt, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Wilmington district spokeswoman, said the reconnaissance study used existing information to determine in “broad brush” terms if the port would benefit the nation. Schmitt said if the report is approved, a feasibility study would address issues surrounding the port in more detail.

“To be authorized, the project will indeed have to meet stringent economic, environmental and engineering standards, including those set forth in section 904 of the Water Resources Development Act,” Schmitt said.

Karen Fox, a spokeswoman for the North Carolina State Ports Authority, would not comment on the draft report or the complaint, but said the Ports Authority was pleased the process is continuing.

“What is especially troubling is that the Wilmington District is using this badly flawed report to induce the State of North Carolina to provide a commitment to go forward with the project,” said Mike Rice, a No Port/Southport steering committee member.

The $96,000 reconnaissance study completed by the corps is only the first step in the port’s lengthy approval process.

Dee Freeman, secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, is reviewing the report and speaking with North Carolina governor Beverly Perdue to determine if the state will be the nonfederal sponsor of this feasibility study, said Jamie Kritzer, a spokesman for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

Kritzer said there is no timetable for the department or Perdue to make a decision. If North Carolina decides to sponsor the study, it will split costs with the federal government. The feasibility study will cost approximately $10 million.

Construction is slated to begin in 2017, and the port is projected to reach full capacity in 2030. It would likely be funded by state and federal funds, and private financing. The State Ports Authority expects the cargo terminal to challenge New Jersey, Virginia and South Carolina ports for business.

But No Port/Southport says the site, on the mouth of the Cape Fear River between Wilmington and Myrtle Beach, S.C., won’t be able to support the traffic. It says the port would see a truck every eight-seconds, 14 long trains daily and twice-a-day docks by a post-Panamax container ship — too large to fit in the Panama Canal, and bigger than the largest naval vessel in the world.