Lawmakers need to rethink their plans for state transportation policy
It’s quiz time. Imagine you are a visitor to North Carolina from another country and have been presented with the following facts about an issue of great importance that confronts the state – transportation:
#1 – The state’s population is mushrooming. Over the next couple of decades the state’s population will swell by as much as 50% to more than 12 million. What once was a poor, rural state will have been transformed into the seventh largest state in the country. The overwhelming majority of this growth will occur in a relative handful of urban areas.
#2 – Land is being gobbled up at an alarming rate. According to experts, North Carolinians are overrunning open space at a pace that’s greater than their already prodigious population growth. A chief contributor to this phenomenon is urban and suburban sprawl fed by highway and “loop” construction.
#3 – The state’s natural environment is suffering mightily. Not only is open space dwindling at an alarming rate, but the combination of drought, rapid development, and the increased use of automobiles and electricity from carbon-fueled power plants has placed an enormous strain on the state’s water and air resources.
#4 – The cost of road construction is soaring. Fueled by rapid worldwide demand for steel, concrete and other building materials, the price of road construction has gone up 43% from 2003 to 2007.
#5 – Existing highways and bridges are quickly becoming substandard. One of the state’s most critical highway links, the I-85 Yadkin River Bridge, is badly in need of repair and the economic and potential safety risks are enormous.
#6 – Automobile and truck fuels are now selling between $4 and $5 per gallon. ‘Nuff said.
# 7 – The state’s most visible experiment with a modern, urban/suburban public transit system is a wildly popular success. Check out this story in Thursday’s Charlotte Observer.
#8 – A tight budget year is leaving state lawmakers with little or no new money to address acute human needs like mental health, childcare, juvenile crime prevention and the like.
#9 – The state’s Department of Transportation (DOT) has been widely and frequently exposed in recent years as, at best, troubled and, at worst, corrupt and inefficient. Moreover, it currently devotes only 3% of its budget to public transportation.
That’s the backdrop. Got the picture?
Okay, now here’s your quiz: What should be the general policy of state lawmakers in their upcoming transportation budget?
a) Stop, reassess where things are headed, and figure out a way to shift a sizable percentage of transportation resources to thoughtfully designed public transportation programs that will help protect the environment and encourage new models of development that can accommodate explosive growth, OR
b) Pour fuel on the existing fire by proposing to shift millions of dollars away from general budget spending items like human services and education and toward the construction of new, multi-lane suburban toll roads/“sprawl-ways” and considering a $1.75 billion bond to speed up other new road construction projects.
Well, if you chose answer “a” you must really be from another country (or, at least, not be a member of the North Carolina legislature) because, right now, answer “b” is winning big-time over on Jones Street. And that’s in the House of Representatives – usually the more progressive of the two houses that make up the General Assembly.
This week, the House released the latest version of its proposed 2008-’09 budget and though it includes many thoughtful and responsible provisions (especially given the tough economic times), there is something startlingly depressing about the business-even-worse-than-usual approach to transportation policy. Most troubling is the inclusion of a provision that would take $25 million from the current General Fund budget and shift it to the construction of a giant new toll road in western Wake County.
The so-called “transfer” from the Highway Trust Fund
The theory behind this proposed shift is that it is part of a long-term effort to end the so-called Highway Trust Fund “transfer.” This “transfer” is a remnant of a decades-old deal struck by legislators in the late 1980’s when they were establishing a new fund (the “Highway Trust Fund”) to support the construction of several new freeways, or “urban loops.”
When the law was passed and taxes were redirected and raised to support the new fund, it was decided that the state budget would be “held harmless” – that is, the General Fund would continue to receive the $170 million or so per year that it had been receiving from those same taxes to cover critical, non-transportation needs. Though technically referred to as a “transfer” in the new law, there was nothing hidden or nefarious about the deal and there was nothing written in blood or stone that DOT would somehow ultimately claim the money as its own.
Nonetheless, through the skillful use of language and repeatedly banging the drum about “ending the Highway Trust Fund transfer,” road supporters seem to have succeeded in convincing most legislators (as well as a compliant media) that it is a “given” that the “transfer” must end or be phased out. This is true despite the fact that the amount of money in question is comparatively tiny in comparison to the overall DOT budget – and perhaps even in comparison to the size of a DOT line item that might be called “waste, fraud and abuse.”
Where are we now?
Bowing to the pressure of the DOT/road building establishment, both Governor Easley and the House have proposed beginning a “phase out” of the “transfer” by shifting $25 million from the General Fund to DOT in the upcoming budget. This week’s House proposal even takes matters a step further by specifying that the money would go directly to the N.C. Turnpike Authority so that it can expedite construction of the so-called “Triangle Expressway” – a new, first-of-its-kind, multi-lane toll road that will run from Research Triangle Park to Holly Springs.
The House would up that amount to $49 million next year with an additional $24 million earmarked for a toll road east of Charlotte – the so-called “Monroe Bypass.” As an aside, environmental experts report that the Monroe Bypass is at best, years away from construction given the impact it is likely to have on an endangered species in the area watershed.
Meanwhile, as noted above, lawmakers are also giving consideration to a $1.75 billion borrowing package that would allow DOT to fast-track several other new roads in the next few years. While the theory behind such a step is that it would enable the state to jumpstart some projects before construction costs soar even higher, its clear impact would be to bring the state more of what already ails it – only at a faster clip. Though one of the bond proposals mentions devoting a small portion of money borrowed to public transit, it does not say how much. The other bond proposal makes no such mention at all.
Where do we go next?
The recent action by the Governor and House budget makers to siphon $25 million out of the 2008-’09 budget to build a toll road in one of the state’s most prosperous counties is emblematic of a crisis. At a time of unprecedented challenges in state transportation policy and tough economic times, North Carolina is in desperate need of visionary leadership that would turn the ship (18-wheeler?) of state in a different direction. Unfortunately, at this point it’s not at all clear who will provide that leadership. Reports from the Legislative Building indicate that the state Senate may even increase the House’s ante by supporting funds for yet another toll road – this one in Gaston County.
In short, though there are responsible alternative voices, it’s clear that for now, none of the state’s leading political forces has both the vision and political courage to force a serious debate about the kinds of fundamental change that are necessary. If North Carolina is going to transform its longstanding, unsustainable pro-sprawl policies, it appears that it will be necessary for the citizenry to speak up and demand change. Let’s hope the people put up a giant stop sign before state leaders get too much farther down the road.
