Fitzsimon File

Don’t look now, but there might be a progressive idea or two finally creeping into the state’s transportation debate, and from an unlikely source, former DOT Secretary and political fundraiser extraordinaire Sam Hunt.

Hunt is a member of the 21st Century Transportation Committee that is developing recommendations for state lawmakers and he recently unveiled a plan to create a state congestion-relief fund that would provide $1.9 billion over 12 years to help pay for urban mass transit projects, freight railroads, bus service, and rail access to state ports.

The bulk of the money would match investments by local governments in transit projects. The proposal would also allow urban areas to raise the local sales tax by half a penny if the voters approved it, or increase the car registration fee by two dollars.

Hunt has yet to say where the state money would come from, though it’s likely he would use some of the $172 million that is currently transferred from the Highway Trust Fund to the General Fund every year.

A consensus seems to have developed on the Committee that the General Assembly should end the transfer, though nobody has figured out how lawmakers can balance the budget if they create that big of a hole in the General Fund that pays for education, human services, public safety, and virtually every important service provided by the state.

Nina Szlosberg, a progressive member of a very conservative Board of Transportation, called Hunt’s proposal a good start, pointing out that it adds up to only four percent of the state’s transportation spending.

Szlosberg is partially right. Hunt’s proposal is a good place to start the debate, but major questions remain, not the least of which is how the state will come up with the $1.9 billion in the next 12 years.

Cutting the General Fund budget is not the answer, especially when the state budget is extremely tight and the demand for human services is growing as the national economy continues to struggle.  Not to mention the ongoing crises in affordable housing, mental health, and child care.

It is also frustrating that most of the discussion about local transit funding always begins and ends with the regressive sales tax that falls disproportionately on the poor.

Maybe most importantly, Hunt’s proposal would give more money to the Department of Transportation to manage and distribute and is certain to be part of a much larger set of recommendations by the Committee to spend billions more on highway construction.

Despite assurances otherwise by Governor Mike Easley, the Department continues to have serious management problems and the Board of Transportation remains dominated by political donors, circumstances that have combined to erode public confidence in the way transportation decisions are made and how billions of taxpayer dollars are spent.

The wisest course for lawmakers and transportation officials to take this year is to continue public discussion and debate over transportation options and delay any significant policy changes or funding decisions until DOT’s house is in order and a new Secretary is appointed by the next governor.

An important report on state transportation policy and funding will be released Thursday by the North Carolina Budget Tax Center and you can find it Thursday morning at www.ncpolicywatch.com.

Still, it’s good news that Sam Hunt is now leading the charge for light rail and other public transit options from inside the good old boy network. Good for him. The market fundamentalists and the highway construction industry have had their way in transportation policy for too long and that’s part of the reason the state transportation system is a mess.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 26th, 2008 at 3:57 pm and is filed under Fitzsimon File. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.