Mobility Fund DOA in House? (Progressive Pulse)
Posted at 6:06 PM by Stephen Jackson
Representative Nelson Cole, House Transportation Appropriations Sub-committee Co-chair said in a meeting of that sub-committee today that, ‘Now is not the time to burden our citizens with more taxes.” He intonated that this was a feeling shared by a senior Appropriations chair.
This would appear to strongly suggest that the Governor’s Mobility Fund, one that relies heavily on DMV fee increases (especially a registration fee increase of 25%) and the scrapping of the sales tax net-of-trade exemption for used vehicles, is facing a steep uphill battle to gain traction in the House.
The rebuff at the 4pm meeting followed the Governor’s presser at 2.30 where a line of mayors and DOT Board members stood quietly as Perdue implored the House to take up her Mobility Fund proposal in the name of jobs and economic development.
Perdue admitted that the Fund was a response to the federal government not doing something about the I-85 bridge over the Yadkin River, but stressed that it was also a Fund that could address rural project needs and critical projects.
The notion that the Fund would focus on strategic projects appeared to be at odds with the proposal to direct 6.5% of the Fund to municipalities for use under Powell bill rules. Those rules allow municipalities to spend the dollars on projects as minor as sidewalks. In addition, $30 million would be used for interstate maintenance.
In questions from the press, Secretary Conti acknowledged that the capacity of existing funds that could pay for the Yadkin River Bridge project’s various phases were ‘encumbered by various formulas’. He added that the distribution of dollars around the state was an issue that required a longer conversation. Conti was referring to the equity formula of the Highway Trust Fund.
