Solving the funding puzzle for state road needs
Published February 6, 2015
Editorial by Burlington Times-News, February 5, 2015.
The state gas tax that pays for many of the state’s roughly 80,000 miles of state-maintained roads is no longer keeping up, and if lawmakers don’t find other sources of money, our crowded roads and substandard bridges will continue to decline.
North Carolina has struggled for years to come up with a funding formula that will keep up with a growing list of road and other transportation needs. It’s now come to the point that the state begin to make headway on finding funds for billions of dollars of transportation needs.
The state’s business leaders know this and their voice in Raleigh, the N.C. Chamber, commissioned a study by N.C. State University researchers to suggest a range of options to raise money to build roads and expand and maintain air, rail, sea and mass transit systems. The result was a list of 16 recommendations, ranked based on how much they could raise, equity and long-term revenue stability, among other factors. Chamber President Lew Ebert did not endorse any specific recommendation to raise money for transportation needs.
North Carolina is a growing state and the state of our transportation system is key to attracting and keeping new businesses. If our network of roads, rail, airports, ports and mass transit are inadequate, economic growth will be limited.
But a combination of the state’s growth and greater mileage per gallon of gasoline have had an impact on funds available to pay for highway construction and maintenance; so the he main options recommended to address the need is to raise money through a combination of higher user fees and taxes.
The N.C. State researchers listed a variety of sources that included tolls, taxes and user fees. Three rose to the top: fees on heavy commercial vehicles, increasing the highway-use tax (now 3 percent of a vehicle’s selling price, paid upon issuing the title) and the more controversial taxing of drivers based on the number of miles driven annually.
The gas tax, currently 37.5 percent but expected to fall by a few pennies on the dollar later this year, is unpopular because it keeps North Carolina gas prices higher than surrounding states.
Researchers did not recommend killing the gas tax but said the aforementioned options and others could work in conjunction with that tax to provide a steady revenue stream for the transportation fund.
The chamber president’s hesitation to indicate a preference is a reflection of the age-old problem state officials face in trying to govern: Nobody wants to pay more, but somebody has to pay — because every North Carolina resident has a stake in maintaining a sound, modern transportation system, that “somebody” is us.
It’s just a matter of how.
February 6, 2015 at 6:37 pm
Gary Arrington says:
How about asking the DOT to be more cost-efficient?
