Change in ARC funding formula bodes well for WNC (Asheville Citizen Times)
For too much of our history, Western North Carolina and the rest of the Appalachian region has been the lost land where you couldn’t get there from here.
Now thanks to long overdue action by our General Assembly, WNC may at long last receive all the federal money annually earmarked to build and improve highways across our mountains.
The mission of the Appalachian Regional Commission has been to build highways across the mountains that had been bypassed by the nation’s interstate highway system and the growing economy of the 20th century. Congress created the commission in 1965 as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s war on poverty, making good on President John F. Kennedy’s promise to help the mountain people who had historically lagged the rest of the nation.
The agency started funneling money toward the 13 states that have Appalachian counties, hoping to end the region’s relative isolation by developing the Appalachian Development Highway System. Over the years, that money has gone to build and improve thoroughfares such as U.S. 19-23 through Asheville, which later grew into Interstate 26 through Madison County.
But unfortunately, North Carolina had a long-standing formula that mixed ARC money slated for the western 29 counties with the N.C. Department of Transportation’s general budget. Money meant for mountain roads was going to pave Piedmont and Coastal projects as well.
Sen. Martin Nesbitt, D-Buncombe and the Senate’s majority leader said it was one of the legislature’s chief accomplishments during the short session in a year marked with budget shortfalls and hard decisions to change that formula. “This is huge for our region,” Nesbitt told the AC-T editorial board this week.
That should mean $30 million annually focused specifically on highway needs in the mountains, in addition to the state highway funds allotted for the western counties.
Nesbitt said the funding could be used to improve the Corridor K series of highways — U.S. 64 and U.S. 74 — from Sylva to Bryson City, Andrews and Murphy over into Chattanooga, Tenn. Some portions of that road remain controversial in Graham County, where environmentalists worry about destruction of natural habitat while business leaders welcome potential economic benefits.
Along with meeting road needs in the region, the ARC has helped finance economic development projects in the Appalachians, originally serving 360 counties in 11 states.
Nesbitt and Sen. John D. Snow, D-Murphy, who helped change the highway funding allocation, hope to get the region more economic development money as well from the ARC for the region.
North Carolina, although it has the highest mountains east of the Rockies, has lagged behind other Appalachian areas in receiving the federal money from ARC. Since 2005, North Carolina with its 29 western counties has received $17 million compared to $33 million that’s gone to Mississippi, a state added to the compact along with New York through laws pushed through Congress.
Mississippi wouldn’t seem to have much in the way of mountains, but that state gets more ARC funding since it has more economically distressed counties compared to North Carolina, which has none under ARC formulas.
Money for worthy projects may have gone elsewhere since Nesbitt said local officials have not always bothered to apply for ARC grants. “I always made the argument that was because we were used to being told no.”
But ARC funding has been critical to completing many area projects. Southwestern Community College, for example, used a $300,000 grant for a study of local telecommunications needs, which led to the private and public investment in the BalsamWest fiber optic network that brings super-fast Internet access to the westernmost counties of the state.
Each year, ARC funding supports staffers at the Land-of-Sky Regional Council and other councils of government, who help local municipalities with a variety of projects. Last year, North Carolina received $4.3 million in ARC grants, which went to 16 projects including sewer infrastructure in Cherokee County to an industrial park in Wilkes County.
Western North Carolina has benefited greatly with improved roads and infrastructure over the years, thanks to the Appalachian Regional Commission. It’s in America’s best interests if all of Appalachia succeeds. We can’t afford as a nation to write off whole counties or regions as forever poor with no road to a better future.
August 5, 2010
