Bills make road upkeep a political hot potato (N&O)
Published: May 05, 2009 02:00 AM
By Bruce Siceloff, Staff Writer
The twin towns of Carrboro and Chapel Hill rarely see eye-to-eye with the state Department of Transportation, so it was no surprise last month when Carrboro scorned the DOT's plan to widen part of Smith Level Road on the south side of town. The surprise came in the DOT's reply to Carrboro: We'll build Smith Level Road your way, if you'll take it off our hands. The offer echoed a new argument being advanced this year in the state legislature.
Two bills would have city and county governments take over local roads, which have been a state chore since the 1930s.
A simple reason that North Carolina has a hard time paying for highways and bridges is that the DOT handles an unusually large share of all road mileage within its borders.
In most other states, county taxpayers are responsible for secondary roads. Inside North Carolina towns and cities, municipal governments maintain some streets and the DOT maintains others.
A solution to make life easier for the DOT has been proposed by Sens. Bob Rucho and Dan Clodfelter of Mecklenburg County. Their bill would have the counties take over all secondary roads — about 64,000 of the 79,000 highway miles now maintained by the state.
The counties would get some of the gas-tax money collected for the DOT, but they would have to jack up local property taxes to cover the rest of what would be a huge new expense. And they would have to learn to build and maintain roads.
DOT leaders say they aren't pushing the county roads bill – but they have proposed another measure aimed at towns and cities.
The second bill, sponsored by Sen. Clark Jenkins of Edgecombe County, would reclassify an estimated 4,700 miles of minor DOT-maintained streets inside town and city limits.
It would start shifting these streets to local governments. The move would occur only where the city governments agreed, and only after the DOT brought the roads into good shape. It's not clear how cities would pay for this.
“The objective is not to push roads away from DOT to somebody else,” said Jim Trogdon, chief operating officer for the DOT. He said the DOT just wants to start a conversation with cities about which roads each side should take care of.
“And then let's develop a process and a revenue source that supports that outcome – whether it would be with us or with them.”
Jenkins said he won't push the bill unless the legislature finds a way to help cities pay for it.
“I have no intention of transferring part of the state road system to a city and not transfer the adequate funding source to maintain it,” Jenkins said.
Local leaders, including Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton, are lobbying against the proposal.
“What it amounts to is shifting the tax burden for these roads onto local property taxpayers,” Chilton said. “It would mean just huge tax increases.”
The bill would shift about five miles of state-maintained streets in Carrboro to the responsibility of the town, which already tends 39 miles. Raleigh, which maintains 1,014 miles of streets, would pick up 90 miles.
On Smith Level Road, the Carrboro aldermen liked the DOT's proposal to replace a stoplight with a roundabout, easing the flow of cars and buses at Carrboro High School. They agreed with the plan to line Smith Level with sidewalks and bicycle lanes.
But — as with other road work around Carrboro and Chapel Hill — the town balked at adding more lanes for cars.
“DOT traditionally has taken a very different view than we have about what would be an appropriate thing to do,” Chilton said. “It would be nice to have more say as to how these roads are built.
“But we don't have more money on hand than DOT has to do this. We have less money.”
Enlighten the Road Worrier: blogs.newsobserver.com/crosstown or 919-829-4527 or [email protected].
