NC mom gears up for 'David and Goliath' bond fight

by Matt Caulder, Capitol Connection, January 21, 2016.

The North Carolina mother who leads the organized opposition against the $2 billion bond referendum being touted by Gov. Pat McCrory and other state leaders says that she is ready for the “David and Goliath” battle looming ahead of the March 15 vote.

Nicole Revels, who is spearheading the group NC Against the Bond, said Thursday she is gathering information about the bond to share it with whoever she can reach across the state, despite being up against a $3.5 million fundraising goal by pro-bond campaign.

At its kick-off meeting, the pro-Connect NC camp had raised $750,000.

NC Against the Bond is a committee registered with the State Board of Elections opposed to the bond; Revels filed the paperwork for the committee.

Currently NC Against the Bond has reported $113.17 in contributions, with $16.69 of that going to purchase its domain, http://www.againstthebond.com.

“This is a David and Goliath fight,” Revels said. “I’m just compiling information and attempting to share that with the voters.”

Revels said that from her discussions with legislators that some of them who voted to put the bond on the ballot in the March primary are not even sure what is in it, so she questions how the voters can have the information they need to make an informed decision.

Revels said that the projects alone were not important enough to fund through the conventional budget process, but apparently now they are important enough to lump into a bond referendum.

“I just don’t feel like we should be taking on debt,” she said. “If the projects are truly worthwhile, they should be handled during the budget process. And they did look at some during the budget process and they weren’t important to (the legislators) then.”

The bond was originally billed as a transportation bond but the final product does not include any transportation projects.

Instead, 49 percent of the funds will go to the University of North Carolina system, while 17 percent will go to the state’s community college system.

The other largest chunk of the bond, at 16 percent, is directed to grants for local parks and water/sewer bonds.

Fighting for the next generation

 Revels said she doesn’t think it is right to saddle her children with this debt.

“I’m a mom, I think that we need to seriously consider what we are asking the next generation to pay for,” she said.

Revels also said that she feels the bond has been a big “bait and switch,” with the original bond package going for transportation, but all of the transportation projects have since been removed.

“It was originally proposed as a transportation bond,” she said. “I think it was in order to gain acceptance under that guise. A lot of places across the state are feeling that need.”

Other road funding looms?

After the transportation projects were pulled from the bond, Gov. Pat McCrory placed those improvement projects in a 25-year vision for transportation for the state, but is reportedly open to bonding to pay for those projects too, after this bond passes.

Talk continues of funding the kind of road projects the governor had sought in the original version of the bond proposal before the General Assembly trimmed it down.

McCrory’s 25-year vision for the transportation systems includes projects for beach nourishment, replacing aging bridges, expanding ports and improving highways.

The legislature removed the transportation projects from the governor’s bond proposal by ending the transfer of funds from the state Highway Fund into other parts of the budget to pay for the projects instead.

Now, however, lawmakers might be open to taking another run at a bond for the projects.

In a House Strategic Transportation Planning and Long Term Funding Solutions Committee meeting earlier this month, Susan Pillium, director of customer service with the NC Turnpike Authority at the Department of Transportation, said McCrory was open to a number of methods to pay for the projects – including bonding and public-private partnerships.

“[McCrory] is open to ideas around bonding, around ideas about private partnerships, around ideas,” she said. “He is open to conversations in general about how to provide funding.”

Committee chairman Rep. John Torbett (R-Gaston) made mention of McCrory’s original bond request, noting that the transportation projects were included at the onset of the negotiations.

“I believe some of that was actually prevalent in the initial release of the Connect NC or the first reiteration had transportation money incorporated in it,” he said. “It’s a strong vision, the vision is a good vision.”

Torbett said it was just up to the legislature to make the funding happen.

http://nccapitolconnection.com/2016/01/21/nc-mom-gears-up-for-david-and-goliath-bond-fight/