Road chief’s hometown gets millions
Friday, November 21st, 2008
By Staff
Other N.C. cities protest the $270 million going to Fayetteville for its highway loop. A $270 million allocation to complete the Fayetteville Loop is protested by other N.C. cities
RALEIGH - The N.C. Board of Transportation is pumping $270 million in road money into Fayetteville, the hometown of Transportation Secretary Lyndo Tippett and of a key legislative ally, weeks before Tippett leaves office.
At meetings in October and November, the board approved the money for work on a highway loop around Fayetteville, as road money has been drying up and cash for loops around the state's other cities has been delayed.
The funding comes in the waning weeks of the terms of Gov. Mike Easley, a Democrat, and Tippett, his appointee. Tippett is also a close friend of Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand, a Fayetteville Democrat who pushed for the loop money.
The move has officials in other cities up in arms.
"I don't know what their personal roles are," Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker said, "but I know what the end result is."
Meeker, also a Democrat, said highway money has flowed to Fayetteville in recent years as most large cities in the state have received little.
Rep. Becky Carney, a Charlotte Democrat and a co-chairwoman of a legislative committee that oversees transportation, said approval of the Fayetteville project leapfrogs the state's larger cities and drains a large portion of the money available for the entire state.
"That would be a travesty," Carney said, "if the bulk of our loop money went for one project." (more…)
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