Tax increase not a given solution, chairman says
Tuesday, October 30th, 2007
By Chris Fitzsimon
Panel to examine financing shortfall for road-work needs JOURNAL STAFF AND WIRE REPORT Tuesday, October 30, 2007
RALEIGH
The chairman of a blue-ribbon committee that will examine the financing shortfall for North Carolina’s transportation needs said yesterday that he is going into his job with no preconceived notions about whether higher taxes are part of the solution.
Three top Democrats - Gov. Mike Easley, House Speaker Joe Hackney and Senate leader Marc Basnight - announced the creation of a panel that will scrutinize the road-building challenges facing the state.
State transportation officials have estimated a $65 billion difference over the next 20 years between transportation revenues and North Carolina’s highway and public-transportation needs. Some people, including Easley, have been skeptical about the amount.
“Whatever the number is, it’s very large,” said Brad Wilson, the chief operating officer of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, whom Easley asked to lead the 21st Century Transportation Committee.
Wilson said that the committee is not about offering political cover to Democratic legislators who were unable in the summer to agree how to invigorate flat revenues for roads, while asphalt and other construction expenses soared.
The committee is supposed to make recommendations to the legislature before it reconvenes in May.
“I think that’s a narrow, cynical view of what our charge is,” Wilson said. (more…)
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