County leaders have set up a road block against another effort by the General Assembly to reduce the state’s budget deficit by shifting responsibility for secondary road maintenance away from the state to the counties.
“It would absolutely break the backs of counties,” George Graham, chairman of the Lenoir County Board of Commissioners, said of that cost-shifting scheme.
Counties fought off a similar attempt in 2009 when Sens. Bob Rucho, R-Mecklenburg, and Daniel Clodfelter, D-Mecklenburg, filed legislation in March 2009 calling for counties to take over construction and maintenance of secondary road. That bill contained a provision allowing the state to allocate annual maintenance funds to the counties.
The aim then was to save the state money in the face of a huge gap between state revenues and expenses. The aim this year would be the same, except that the gap is wider at an anticipated $3.7 billion.
The N.C. Department of Transportation currently maintains 80,000 miles of roads, the most miles of any state except Texas.
“We take care of more miles of roads than almost anybody,” DOT Director of Communications Greer Beaty said.
In 2009, the bill was forwarded to the Senate Appropriations Committee, but no further action has taken place on it, according to the N.C. General Assembly website.
“There will be lots of conversations through all state services about what is the most effective way to get the job done,” Beaty said. “We strongly believe we are doing a good job in taking care of the nation’s second-largest road system, and we’re just going to keep doing that.”
Neither Rucho nor Clodfelter could be reached Monday to comment on the possibility that their legislation will be reintroduced, but the N.C. Association of County Commissioners recently stated that it will oppose any attempt to bring back the notion of transferring secondary roads.
“We understand this is going to be a tough budget session for the General Assembly, and the upcoming year will also be a difficult year for counties,” NCACC Executive Director David F. Thompson said during the organization’s recent biannual Legislative Goals Conference.
Opposing a transfer of secondary road maintenance was listed as one of the NCACC’s top priorities for this year.
Beaty said a secondary road is any local road not designated as an interstate, U.S. or N.C. highway.
“(They’re) the neighborhood roads,” she said.
Graham said Lenoir County does not maintain any of its roads, and like many other Eastern North Carolina counties, could not afford to take care of the secondary ones.
“Those counties that are able — Mecklenburg, Guilford, maybe New Hanover — may be okay but smaller counties, rural counties, across North Carolina would be out of business,” he said.
Graham added: “The state should not make an effort to balance the budget on the backs of counties.”
By David Anderson
February 01, 2011 12:00 AM
