I have a number of updates for you today, so be sure to read all the way through.
First, the Joint Transportation Appropriations Committee met today and heard presentations of varying levels of cuts to the NCDOT Aviation and Ferry Divisions. The Committee will continue on Ferries tomorrow, hear from the Rail Division, and then hear from Public Transportation. In advance of the hearing on Public Transportation the Metro Mayors Coalition sent a letter to the members of the Joint Transportation Appropriations Committee members this afternoon. We asked that they limit cuts to operating expenditures (SMAP) and that they spread any cuts to capital and technology programs/purchases over a two year period and/or defer the expenses.
We are preparing letters to communicate the resolutions you voted to support at the Coalition meeting in Greensboro last month. We sent a letter to President Obama yesterday asking him to consider North Carolina when reallocating any high speed rail funds. We are working on the others and will send you links as we get those out as well.
Speaker Tillis met with the NC County Commissioner Association leadership last week and indicated his interest in having an earnest discussion with the counties about responsibility for secondary roads in the future. This issue continues to percolate out there, so be sure you are sending copies of any resolutions on the issue to your delegation and the legislative leadership (and me).
SB 27 Involuntary Annexation Moratorium passed third reading in the Senate last night and is headed to the House.
Analysis of the census numbers continues in newspapers across the State. Here is an excerpt from an Associated Press story today: “Political power is going to follow people,” said Ferrel Guillory, director of the Program on Public Life at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “Whether you’re talking about congressional districts, of whether you’re talking about legislative districts, these two big counties and the areas around them … are going to be like giant magnets.”
The billboard bill (S183) is generating stories across the state. I pulled this excerpt from the Charlotte Observer piece that resonated with me: “It’s another sign, if you’ll pardon a bad pun, that the 2011 General Assembly takes a dim view of local decision-making by duly elected and appointed members of city councils. The legislature is moving toward reversing municipal annexations in Kinston and Lexington, an intrusive action that goes beyond preaching and gets into serious meddling. For a legislature controlled by Republicans for the first time in more than a century, many members show a remarkable affinity for a powerful central government rejecting orderly decision-making by local officials.”
The Governor is getting more use of her veto stamp. Over the weekend she vetoed her third bill, H2 Protect Health Care Freedom. Rep. Hackney said today that he believes the House Democrats will be united in supporting the veto. With three vetos in a month and a half and only nine bills having been sent to the Governor for her signature she has a batting average of .333.
