Press Releases and Newsletters
N.C. roads need all the gas tax they can get (The Winston-Salem Journal)
Every time gasoline prices spike at the pump, one politician or another proposes cutting the state gas tax to “help working families save a few of their hard-earned dollars.”
Please don’t do us any favors. First, because you’re saving us only pennies on a fill-up. Second, because the millions the state highway fund loses mean our roads don’t get paved, our potholes don’t get repaired and our urban loops don’t get built. Third, because rising oil prices also increase road-maintenance and repair costs.
At the General Assembly, the recent gasoline increase to $3.50 a gallon has some legislators thinking they should either freeze the adjustable portion of the motor-fuels tax or cut it.
The adjustable rate changes every six months and reflects the retail price of fuel during the previous period. If prices stay where they are now, the tax will go up two cents a gallon. Simply capping the adjustable rate and freezing the state tax at the current 32.5 cents per gallon seems reasonable until one considers the ramifications. The Department of Transportation says a cap would amount to $1 billion in lost revenue over the coming decade. That means 18,335 miles of roads will go unpaved in that time.
Sen. Neal Hunt, R-Wake, a proponent of freezing the tax rate, says the state can shift a billion dollars from other projects – mostly building unneeded roads – to pay for repaving those 18,335 miles. But North Carolina faces a long-term transportation shortfall somewhere in the stratosphere of $50 billion plus. Does Hunt not understand that first-rate transportation infrastructure is essential to building an economy?
The legislature should leave the tax law as it is and protect our roads.
… real benefits (News and Observer)
As state Transportation Secretary Gene Conti was battling to protect North Carolina’s interest in that dispute with Norfolk Southern Railway, some Republicans in the General Assembly were continuing to argue against the state’s interest, in a bizarre proposal from Charlotte Rep. Ric Killian. Republican Killian is sponsoring a measure to return to the federal government the $461 million in rail improvement grants awarded to the state.
It is a ludicrous idea that would, among other things, cost the state about 5,000 jobs at a time when those jobs are desperately needed. The money would pay for a range of worthwhile improvements in rail lines. And now Gov. Beverly Perdue is trying to land another $624 million to replace stations in Charlotte and Raleigh and build new ones in Hillsborough and Lexington, along with purchasing right-of-way that would be devoted to the Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor leading toward Richmond and Washington.
Jobs would be created, of course, and there likely would be some new development around those stations. The money would come from the $2.4 billion in high-speed rail grants that were turned down by the state of Florida. What a sense of irony that brings to the current debate over North Carolina’s already-secured grants. Republicans, some of them anyway, want North Carolina to match Florida in foolishness. Let’s cut off our noses, they say, to spite the president’s face.
And make no mistake: Killian’s maneuver is more about repudiating President Obama’s program to improve rail service, a progressive, environmentally beneficial effort, than it is about holding the line on federal spending. He would deny jobs to workers (including many in his district) rather than support projects that would connect his bustling city more easily to Raleigh and Washington.
This is the type of spending that will help the state and stimulate the economy. It is investment that will bring dividends to people. Killian isn’t fooling anybody. At least, let’s hope not.
Rail deals (News and Observer)
It appears from public records that Norfolk Southern Railway wanted, figuratively speaking, to tie North Carolina to the tracks in a test of nerves during negotiations over $461 million in federal grants that will greatly improve passenger rail service in the state and create almost 5,000 jobs for designers and construction workers.
The freight railroad is responsible for keeping the trains on time on tracks that it shares, and its executives say they don’t believe that adding a second track between Greensboro and Charlotte and straightening curves in other areas and building bridges at crossings to separate trains and cars would help Norfolk Southern.
It appears that Norfolk Southern dispatchers would have their hands full with added traffic made possible by the track improvements, but the job can be done. And by the way, the railroad is getting a $105 million federal grant for freight rail upgrades stretching from Pennsylvania to Alabama. So it isn’t as if Norfolk Southern has exactly been left in the cold by the feds.
But according to records, as reported by The News & Observer’s Bruce Siceloff, the railroad tried to throw its weight around in last-minute negotiations while it knew the state was in a hurry to close the deal on that $461 million.
So, before reaching an agreement with the state, Norfolk Southern engaged N.C. Department of Transportation officials in drawn-out talks trying to minimize the freight carrier’s legal obligations related to passenger service being on time. State officials held the line in a way that did not automatically excuse the railroad from responsibility.
Then Norfolk Southern wanted the federal Department of Transportation to sweeten the terms of a deal with the railroad on a $131 million grant for a project in Illinois that had nothing to do with North Carolina’s plans. But nobody would agree, and rightly so, to link the two different efforts.
Basically, it appears the freight carrier was simply trying to use the urgency of North Carolina’s situation to its own negotiating advantage.
What it apparently didn’t count on was the savvy and toughness of state Secretary of Transportation Gene Conti, who’s been in the transportation field at the federal and state levels for a long time, and who is a politically active professional rather than a politically active politician, which has been the case with some prior DOT chiefs.
Conti wrote to federal transportation officials and had state transportation people talk with an influential congresswoman from Florida (who publicly chewed on Norfolk Southern for trying to block the state’s efforts).
The railroad came to an agreement pretty quickly after state and federal officials threatened to nix that $105 million deal for the Alabama-to-Pennsylvania freight improvements.
Some perhaps would say that what Norfolk Southern was doing here was simply being cagey and trying to get the best deal it could. Nevertheless, its actions could have put that $461 million in jeopardy, which would have been a serious blow to North Carolina.
Norfolk Southern is based in Virginia, but it has a huge presence in North Carolina and should realize the importance of helping boost this state’s economy, which the rail projects will do.
This episode is evidence of the importance of having a pro to head the state transportation office, one who knows how to throw the high, hard one when the “game” starts.
GOP’s Killian takes on big fights (Charlotte Observer)
RALEIGH Two years ago, Ric Killian was dodging mortar rounds as an Army Reserve officer based near Baghdad.
Now the Charlotte Republican has been taking fire – some from friendly forces – in the General Assembly.
Killian’s third term in the N.C. House is his highest-profile yet, elevated by his party’s rise to power and his own appetite for controversial issues.
“Clearly I’m trying to do some bigger things,” he says. “I’m not afraid to take risks.”
Killian, 46, raised eyebrows after the election when he ran as a dark horse candidate for speaker, losing to fellow Mecklenburg County Republican Thom Tillis.
Now he’s co-sponsoring a bill that would require a photo ID for voting and, late last week, opposed a watered-down version some Republicans back as a compromise.
And he’s leading the charge against $461 million in federal grants for high-speed rail, money proponents say would create 4,400 jobs statewide and bring more than $150 million to Mecklenburg alone. That bill is scheduled for debate in a House committee today.
“He’s not one to shy away from pushing for what he believes,” says Raleigh Democratic Rep. Grier Martin, a friend and fellow reservist. “So I’m not surprised he is standing in front of the train. (But) I think he’s dead wrong on this one.”
Since November’s election catapulted Republicans to leadership, Killian isn’t the only one to flex his new political muscle.
“Republicans like Rep. Killian who have maybe been out of the political mainstream … now feel emboldened to be more open and aggressive,” says Chris Fitzsimon, executive director of the liberal N.C. Policy Watch.
“I don’t think people elected legislators to turn away hundreds of millions of dollars of federal infrastructure money.” Tillis calls Killian “one of the most energetic, brightest people we have.”
“One thing I can count on Ric to do is ask tough questions and expect tough answers,” he says. “And that’s what you’re seeing him doing.”
The rail bill
Killian is a lanky West Point graduate who keeps the academy’s motto taped to his office door. “A cadet will not lie, cheat or steal nor tolerate those who do,” it says, though “cadet” is crossed out and replaced with the handwritten “state representative.”
Until this year, he labored in the obscurity of the minority. He ranked 75th of 120 members in effectiveness, according to a survey by the N.C. Center for Public Policy Research.
Killian chairs two committees, including the Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation. It was there, he says, that he began to question the state’s long-term costs of accepting the high-speed rail money. Nobody could give him the answers he wanted.
“You know how I respond when the questions being asked aren’t being answered,” Killian says. “I think that’s real contempt for the system and the citizens of this state and I can’t accept it. So I filed a bill that’s pretty far-reaching.”
Critics call it short-sighted.
“(The money) is going to benefit Mecklenburg tremendously,” says Democratic Rep. Beverly Earle of Charlotte. “And to have that rail moving from Charlotte to Raleigh (is) a tremendous boost for the state. It’s short-sighted of him to even introduce something like that.”
It’s not clear how much support the rail bill has, though a dozen Republicans have signed on.
However, in a House committee last week, it was Republicans who helped deal Killian a setback.
The veterans’ bill
He’d introduced a bill that would have required the state to set a voluntary goal of awarding 10 percent of any contract to firms owned or run by veterans. The bill, similar to one that passed the House unanimously last year, had wide support among veterans.
But critics argued that the bill would cost the state money to comply with and create red tape for contractors. Even a Republican questioned the burden of additional regulation.
Opponents, including Earle, pushed for a delay. Killian declined. The bill failed.
“I had counted votes coming in, but obviously not enough,” he says.
Killian, a father of four, is a former real estate investor and developer who says now he’s essentially living off savings. A lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserves, he’s working long-distance on a master’s degree in strategic studies from the Army War College. He expects to finish in July.
Unopposed in all three of his elections in his far southeast Charlotte districts, Killian says he expects to serve one more term after this. After that it’s up in the air. But, he says, “my lifetime experience would apply at the federal level.”
Martin, the Democrat and the only other lawmaker in the Reserves, disagrees with Killian politically. But he admires his commitment.
“He, more than anyone else down there, is there for the right reasons, out of a genuine desire to serve the public,” Martin says. “And everything he does derives from that.”
By Jim Morrill
Charlotte Observer Posted: Tuesday, Apr. 05, 2011Published in: Politics
Governor calls on counties to dip into savings to bridge funding gaps (News & Observer)
RALEIGH (MCT) — Gov. Bev Perdue regrets having to ask, but counties including Wake should have to spend more on their own operations — even if that means dipping into the $2 billion in fund balances they hold collectively, a spokeswoman said Monday.
Not so fast, furious members of the Wake County Board of Commissioners said Monday, adding that every cent of the $95 million Wake has in the bank is already earmarked for ongoing expenses and specific projects.
It’s not the first time Perdue has suggested that counties spend more to help the state balance its budget. But a recent request for specific numbers from the state has raised county hackles again.
“To infer, without any research, that cities and counties are hoarding money and should be slain by the state is lazy and insulting,” Wake County Manager David Cooke said in a letter to the N.C. Association of County Commissioners, which had passed on the state’s request for counties to report fund balances. “But to answer the question directly, Wake County has no money ($0) in our General Fund Balance that is undesignated. Wake County plans to use ($0) in fund balance to balance the (fiscal year) 2012 budget.”
State budget officials are relying on a calculation that counties only need to have a fund balance representing 8 percent of their operating budgets. That adds up to nearly $1.3 billion the counties have on hand that they could use for programs that have been paid for by the state, Perdue figures.
“We have looked into it and found that North Carolina tends to be more generous to counties than other states,” Perdue spokeswoman Chrissy Pearson said, adding that counties should shoulder more of the burden.
Perdue had previously said counties would take on some state responsibilities.
But the association of county commissioners is sounding the alarm, and Wake Commissioner Joe Bryan happens to be the president this year. “It would destabilize all 100 counties in North Carolina. It’s preposterous,” Bryan said.
Cooke’s letter said that counties are required to explain changes in their fund balances to bond rating agencies and to the state’s Local Government Commission.
Rebecca Troutman, director of intergovernmental relations for the county commissioners association, said in a letter to county managers that the state may have its eyes on revenue sources such as county lottery funds and payments for the housing of state inmates in county jails.
“It is very disconcerting that county insolvency is being suggested as the silver bullet to manage the state’s budget crisis,” Troutman wrote Friday.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011 (Updated 6:25 am)
By News & Observer
Off-Track (News & Observer)
Perhaps it’s a tea-party moment, who knows? But Charlotte state Rep. Ric Killian seems to be taking an ideological stance against more federal spending on railroads even though the $461 million coming to North Carolina in federal stimulus funds would benefit his own constituents. It also would employ, a representative of general contractors in the state says, 13,000 to 15,000 people in “direct and indirect jobs.”
But Killian is against better railroads and more routes and less road congestion and pollution and faster trains connecting areas of the state to one another. His logic is nonsensical. “Folks,” he told a House committee, “what we need are private sector jobs. We do not need publicly financed jobs. Taking federal dollars for temporary jobs in our state, it’s not going to solve our economic problems.”
OK, so it won’t solve all our problems. But there are many thousands of people in North Carolina who have no job at all right now, whom it might help. And these “temporary” jobs would be fairly long-lasting, give the time needed to finish such projects.
And yes, North Carolina needs private sector jobs, but did it occur to Mr. Killian that if more rail routes are improved that it could lead to more construction near station sites, more development and more industries that need rails for transportation?
Apparently not. Or at least, Killian was selective in his logic used to support his stated attempt to kill the federally funded rail program in North Carolina. For those who have signed on to co-sponsor this foolishness, the point is to stand behind reduced federal spending, all of it. The problem with that is the same as with people who would just as soon let a well freeze up or go bad rather than pour a little water in to prime the pump.
This is federal money of direct benefit to the people Killian is supposed to represent. And contrary to what he says about freight service being harmed by investment in passenger rail, state Transportation Secretary Gene Conti said the federal funding will help improve freight service, which freight companies recognize, by the way.
Legislators from the Triangle delegation, representing an area that would benefit greatly from this money, need to lead the opposition to Killian’s proposition.
And one wonders how his home-folks back in Charlotte feel about Killian’s wanting to turn down the $152 million that would go to projects, and jobs, there.
staff editorial
April 3,2011
Troop deployments cost N.C. an extra seat in Congress (Associated Press)
RALEIGH — Most of the military personnel deployed from North Carolina bases during the U.S. Census were tallied for other parts of the country, denying the state a congressional seat and future tax dollars, according to an Associated Press review.
The Census usually counts troops at the base where they live and work, but the government decided decades ago to tally deployed personnel toward their listed home state, which often refers to where the service member grew up or has family.
North Carolina officials estimate more than 40,000 troops were deployed from the state’s military bases around the time of the Census one year ago, but only 12,200 of the nation’s overseas military personnel listed North Carolina as their home state, according to Department of Defense data provided to AP.
The gap of some 28,000 troops was costly: The state was about 15,000 people shy of getting an extra congressional seat from Minnesota. Those seats are doled out based on population figures in order to ensure fair representation in the U.S. House.
A Government Accountability Office report found that about $478 billion federal tax dollars — for everything from Medicaid to highway projects — were distributed in fiscal year 2009 at least in part based on Census data.
North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue unsuccessfully lobbied Census officials last year to count deployed personnel to their base of last assignment. Perdue’s liaison for Census issues, Bob Coats, doesn’t see a way to fight the discrepancy but plans to work with the Census for the 2020 count.
“A large chunk of those people who are deployed out may not consider themselves to be North Carolinians on their paperwork, but their presence at this base definitely impacts North Carolina’s economy,” Coats said. “They’re voting in North Carolina. They’re using goods and services in North Carolina.”
Even though personnel may stay at a base for only a short period, they are typically replaced with more troops.
Camp Lejeune on North Carolina’s coast had about 8,000 service members deployed at the time of the Census — more than 10 percent of the population of Jacksonville, where the base is located.
Richard Woodruff, Jacksonville’s city manager, estimated the policy will cost the city about $7 million in state and federal tax money that would be divided up based on population figures over the next decade.
“To undercount any community is an unfortunate thing. But when you’re undercounting people who are actually out there defending freedom, that is the ultimate insult and the ultimate discourtesy,” Woodruff said.
The Census first began assigning troops to their home state during the Vietnam War in 1970. It was abandoned for the 1980 count in part because officials weren’t sure about the reliability of records listing the “home state” of overseas personnel. The policy returned in the 1990 count amid pressure from Congress to include overseas Americans.
If the home information is unavailable, the Census turns to a service member’s legal residence and then last duty station.
Massachusetts claimed after the 1990 Census that the policy improperly cost the state a seat in Congress, but the Supreme Court rejected the state’s legal challenge, determining the home state assignment was compatible with the Census policy of identifying each person’s “usual residence.”
It’s a dispute that has sharpened because of large deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Carter Hendricks, president and CEO of the Hopkinsville-Christian County Chamber of Commerce, said the Census count came when between 6,000 and 8,000 troops were deployed from Fort Campbell, Ky. Not only will that curb tax dollars awarded, Hendricks said it could also hamper economic growth and recruitment because so many businesses assess population trends before deciding where to invest or expand.
Hendricks said the policy skews the numbers for an area that will be supporting the troops when they come home.
“All we’re asking the Census bureau to consider is where they actually live when they come back from deployment,” Hendricks said.
By Mike Baker
Posted March 29, 2011 – 2:04 PM
From the Editors
Associated Press
New Hanover might be split into two Senate districts (Star News)
Because of growth during the past decade, New Hanover County is almost certain to be split between two state Senate districts as a result of the once-a-decade redrawing of state legislative districts.
“It’s going to probably be a two-county cluster. That’s the law,” said Sen. Bob Rucho, R-Mecklenburg, chairman of the Senate Redistricting Committee, which met for the first time Wednesday afternoon.
New Hanover residents currently are represented by one state senator, Republican Wilmington attorney Thom Goolsby, who is in his first term.
But the 2010 U.S. Census determined that the county now has 202,667 residents, 6.3 percent more residents than the ideal population of each state senate district – 190,710.
The N.C. Constitution, according to interpretations in the courts, requires that no state House or Senate district can have a population that deviates more than 5 percent either way from the ideal district population.
Members of the Senate Redistricting Committee met for the first time Wednesday afternoon, setting in motion the complicated and controversial drawing of new state legislative and congressional districts to account for population changes. The new districts will be in place through 2020.
The meeting was scheduled as a joint meeting between the House and Senate redistricting committees, but the House’s regular session ran over and the Senate committee went ahead without the House members.
Legislators plan a series of redistricting public hearings across the state, including meetings in Brunswick, New Hanover and Pender counties on May 5. Residents may also submit written public comments through the General Assembly redistricting page, www.ncleg.net/Redistricting.
Inherently a political process, this year started no differently. After taking control of the House and Senate in last year’s elections, Republicans control the process for the first time in more than a century.
At the start of Wednesday’s meeting, Sen. Martin Nesbitt, D-Buncombe, questioned why Rucho, the Republican committee chairman, wouldn’t allow Democrats, despite a number of requests, to add Sens. Dan Clodfelter, D-Mecklenburg, and Dan Blue, D-Wake, to the committee. Nesbitt himself offered to step down, along with another Democrat on the committee, to make room for Clodfelter and Blue, who Nesbitt described as two of the Senate’s most seasoned members on redistricting.
Nesbitt said Rucho has reiterated frequently his desire to draw “fair and legal” districts through a “fair and open” process.
“But when you deny people with the most expertise and the most knowledge the opportunity to assist with redistricting, the only conclusion I can draw is that there is no intent to have a fair or open redistricting process,” he said.
Rucho said committee assignments wouldn’t change. He said members were selected based on geographic distribution, from urban and rural counties and from areas required to get federal preclearance of redistricting plans to ensure their compliance with the federal Voting Rights Act.
Rucho also said that committee members would have plenty of help from General Assembly staff if expertise is needed.
“My intent is to draw fair and legal districts with immediate preclearance and no lawsuits,” Rucho said.
Lawsuits challenging redistricting plans are commonplace. Asked why he thought this year would be different, Rucho said: “Maybe that’s a high standard, but I’ve always tried to excel in everything I’ve ever done.”
Freshman Sen. Bill Rabon, R-Brunswick, a member of the Senate Redistricting Committee, said he hasn’t looked closely at any population numbers aside from what he’s read in newspapers.
He said he refrained from that on purpose so he could go through the process “untainted.”
He said he planned to go through the process, trying to ensure that it’s as open as possible and that anyone who wants to is able to provide input to the committees.
The end result, he said, echoing a Republican redistricting mantra, should be “fair and legal” districts.
“At the end of the day, that’s all anyone can ask,” Rabon said.
Rep. Carolyn Justice, R-Pender, is expected to serve on the House Redistricting Committee.
By Patrick Gannon
Published: Wednesday, March 30, 2011 at 7:30 p.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, March 30, 2011 at 7:30 p.m.
1st redistricting meeting goes on without NC House (News & Observer)
RALEIGH, N.C. The first legislative committee meeting to consider North Carolina’s once-a-decade redistricting was marked by House delays and complaints by Senate Democrats the deck was being stacked against them by the Republican majority.
The House didn’t participate Wednesday in what was billed a joint House-Senate committee meetings because its members were stuck in a floor debate over the state employee health insurance plan.
Then Senate Minority Leader Martin Nesbitt argued that Republican leaders in his chamber wouldn’t allow two members involved heavily in previous remapping to serve on the Senate Redistricting Committee. Nesbitt said the GOP’s stand indicates the party doesn’t want a fair or open process.
Committee chairman Sen. Bob Rucho of Mecklenburg County told Nesbitt membership was set in place for geographic and racial diversity on the panel.
The Associated Press Published in: Wire – North Carolina
