Fitzsimon File

State lawmakers heard good news, bad news, and sobering news from transportation officials Thursday, less than a week before the General Assembly session convenes.

New Department of Transportation Secretary Gene Conti appeared before a legislative committee and wasn't subtle about the state's transportation budget, saying it was in deep trouble. Revenues are expected to decline by $300 million a year for the next several years.

The state fuel tax is the major source of transportation funding and is indexed to the wholesale price of gas. That means it will likely be adjusted down in July, reducing revenues even more.

Conti says the state is likely to get roughly $900 million in transportation funding from the stimulus package now before Congress, $800 for highway construction and $100 million for transit and rail.  The money is coming through the federal transportation system though, which means DOT must spend it according the state's much criticized equity formula. It also means that the money won't be used for big projects, like the long-delayed replacement of the bridge over the Yadkin River that will cost $400 million.

Conti takes over a department that has been tainted by scandal in recent years ranging from faulty paving of interstates, an outside consultant's report that described DOT as dysfunctional, and political influence of board members in transportation decisions.

Governor Beverly Perdue has vowed to change all that and issued an executive order her first day in office to transition the board into an advisory panel. Conti says Perdue won't appoint new board members until DOT officials have made recommendations about changes needed in the department.

He told lawmakers that transportation decisions will be based on data and sound policy instead of political considerations. That has been a long time coming. So too has a DOT that people can have confidence in, something Conti seems well-qualified to establish.

None of that will be easy. The highway lobby is still powerful and so are the legislators who support it.

The transportation agenda this session will be shaped by the report of the 21^st Century Transportation Committee, a high-powered panel that has spent the last year coming up with ways to address the state's transportation crisis.

Committee Chair Brad Wilson told lawmakers Thursday that the state's growth demands that legislators raise new revenues for transportation and the committee provided a menu of options, including replacing the gas tax with a vehicle miles travelled tax,  a higher sales tax on cars, and an increase in vehicle registrations and fees.

The first substantive recommendation Wilson mentioned was the proposal to allow local governments to raise revenue for mass transit, citing the successful Charlotte light rail line as an example of what's possible. It is still troubling that the plan relies on the regressive sales tax, but it's encouraging that Wilson mentioned transit first, especially to a committee that has long been seen as part of the pave-it-first crowd.

Wilson then touted the committee's recommendation to increase the use of toll roads, which is the last thing the state needs, to charge drivers more to get to work everyday, drivers who have already paid taxes to support a statewide transportation system.

All that is up to the General Assembly and the Perdue Administration now.  The new governor is off to a good start, but there's plenty more to do to make sure things really are different in Raleigh and not just business and scandal as usual at DOT.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, January 22nd, 2009 at 4:42 pm and is filed under Fitzsimon File. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.