A worthy borrowing plan

[caption id="attachment_9995" align="alignleft" width="150"] photo by Civitas[/caption]

Editorial by Durham Herald-Sun, June 16, 2015.

If you spend much time driving North Carolina’s highways, you know many are in sad shape.  Pockmarked pavement, inadequate capacity, uncertain bridges and overpasses – many of our roads are showing their age and the effects of years of starved highway budgets unable to keep up either with vital maintenance or increasing demand.

Gov. Pat McCrory unveiled earlier this year an ambitious plan to borrow money to begin tackling the state’s vast backlog of highway projects, as well as to renovate or replace state government buildings likewise suffering from years of deferred maintenance and evolving needs.

He has urged the legislature to schedule a referendum this fall to approve issuing nearly $3 million in bonds. In recent weeks, he’s been stepping up his personal campaign to rally public support, an effort to pressure legislative leadership whose support of the idea appears to be tepid.

To be sure, some of that perceived tepidness may be nothing more than a tactic to chastise the governor for recent vetoes (which the legislature has often promptly overridden) or to hold the bond vote as a hostage in negotiating other issues that divide the governor and House and Senate leaders from his own party.

Regardless of political overtones, the governor has put his finger on a definite need, financing an upgrade of a highway system that is critical to the state’s continued economic growth. It is true we wish the state would marshal more resources for alternatives such as mass transit, but no matter what progress we make in those areas, our road network will remain important for years to come.

And again, McCrory, with his urban background as mayor of the state’s largest city, Charlotte, has been more attuned to transit alternatives than many in the legislature.

As released by the governor’s office, the bonds would benefit the Durham area. The biggest project here would be a new building for N. C. Central University’s School of Business.  Money also is earmarked for improving the National Guard facility in Durham and improving state parks at three nearby and popular lakes, Jordan, Falls and Kerr.

“ I call on my colleagues in the legislature to take action by giving North Carolinians the opportunity to decide on these important investments that will help grow our economy and improve our way of life for generations to come,” McCrory writes in a letter on the website for the bond proposal, called ConnectNC.

He is right, they should, and the voters should have a chance to vote on this package this year.

http://www.heraldsun.com/opinion/editorials/x1845463348/A-worthy-borrowing-plan