Costly road ahead
Published November 21, 2015
Editorial by Greensboro News-Record, November 21, 2015.
North Carolina voters will decide whether to approve $2 billion in bond projects less than four months from now, but Gov. Pat McCrory already is talking about $1 billion more.
First things first. It’s no sure thing that voters will say yes to the borrowing plan they’ll see on ballots March 15. The Republican presidential primary promises to be more competitive than the Democratic contest and could draw a strong turnout of conservative voters. Supporters of Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz may turn down proposals to build new facilities on state university campuses and expand state parks.
McCrory will need to campaign to win Republican support. And his Democratic rival, state Attorney General Roy Cooper, should urge voters in his party to approve the bonds. North Carolina’s future isn’t a partisan issue.
Yet, the governor is right about the next bond package — for transportation needs.
He originally proposed nearly $3 billion worth of bond projects that included improvements for highways, mass transit, rails and ports. He “failed” to get all he wanted from the legislature, he confessed in a recent speech to the North Carolina CEO Forum in Wake County.
McCrory has some failures as governor, but this one wasn’t his fault. He worked hard to promote his bond plan, and he won support for it from city and county leaders and business groups all across the state. It made sense to put the entire package on the ballot at one time, when interest rates are low. McCrory said the state could have paid off $3 billion in bonds without raising taxes, and his plan would have accelerated progress on needed infrastructure work. Better transportation networks, along with improved science and technology facilities on state university campuses, will drive economic growth in the decades ahead.
The legislature dropped the transportation projects from the bond package, instead adding money for a pay-as-you-go funding approach. That avoids debt but doesn’t go far enough toward pushing the state ahead.
The governor also said he was disappointed with the legislature’s decision to reduce funding for mass transit, which he contends will be more important as the state grows in population.
Of course it will. The legislature’s anti-mass transit bias, shown many times, reflects outdated thinking.
McCrory has found himself in another potential conflict on plans to add toll lanes to often-congested Interstate 77 in northern Mecklenburg County. Some Charlotte-area Republican legislators and local leaders have asked the governor to cancel the project. He not only declined, but the state Department of Transportation is moving ahead on a toll-lane project for an 18-mile stretch of Interstate 485 around Charlotte.
Toll roads aren’t popular, but money to pay for major highway improvements doesn’t grow on trees. User fees must be one financing option on a selective basis. It’s certainly not helpful for legislators who turned down bond funding to also oppose tolls, at least for projects in their own backyards.
On transportation issues, McCrory has shown vision and determination to move forward. He’s not getting enough support from the legislature. But anyone who thinks the state is adequately providing for its transportation needs can’t see beyond the next traffic jam.
