Press Releases and Newsletters
Contractors Pessimistic on 2010 Prospects Unless Long-Term Bill Enacted (AASHTO Journal)
Contractors Pessimistic on 2010 Prospects Unless Long-Term Bill Enacted (AASHTO Journal)
A report issued late last week emphasized that many transportation contractors have laid off employees this year and a lot more job cuts are likely to take place in 2010 unless Congress enacts a robust authorization bill for highways, bridges, transit, and safety projects.
The report, which was issued by the Transportation Construction Coalition, states the $27 billion for highway and bridge infrastructure projects in this year’s economic recovery act provided some momentum for the industry. About 70 percent of the 527 firms that responded to the coalition’s survey said they received recovery work. The survey results confirm, however, that funding has not been enough to prevent widespread workforce reductions in this tough economic climate.
“It is impossible to overstate just how difficult current conditions are or how dire the outlook for next year is,” said Ken Simonson, chief economist for the Associated General Contractors for America. “One-time investments in transportation infrastructure like the
The survey found only 17 percent of contractors will enter next year with a work volume backlog at least as large, by value, as they had going into 2009. Contractors depend on maintaining a sufficient backlog of future work contracts to ensure the cashflow necessary to keep and perhaps even add to their permanent workforce.
The report is a part of the coalition’s efforts to press Congress to enact a robust six-year, $500 billion authorization bill that is pending in the House of Representatives. The coalition, which includes road builders and general contractors, insists that continual delays in steady funding would harm the transportation construction industry.
The previous transportation law known as “SAFETEA-LU” expired Sept. 30 and has been extended twice by Congress on a short-term basis. The current extension lapses Dec. 18. Key senators are now pushing for approval of a six-month temporary extension of transportation authorization with the goal of passing a longer-term measure next year. (see related story)
According to the coalition’s report, 63 percent of those firms surveyed have laid off employees this year. Nearly half of the respondents expect to lay off permanent employees next year, while only 5 percent anticipate hiring new nonseasonal personnel. Less than 20 percent of the contractors said they plan to purchase new construction equipment or trucks next year.
More than three-fourths of those answering the survey said they expect state departments of transportation to put out fewer projects to bid in 2010 than they have this year. About one-third of the contractors anticipate a severe decline in their state markets next year; an additional 46 percent expect a slight drop.
“Our members have capacity; they’re ready to meet the nation’s needs, but the state DOTs can’t offer projects for which there is no stable source or commitment of funding by the federal government,” said Joy Wilson, president and CEO of the National Stone, Sand, and Gravel Association.
Ron DeFeo, chairman and CEO of equipment manufacturer Terex Corp., said during a teleconference that the $500 billion spending level being considered by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee would be a much-needed boost for the industry.
“The alternative is continued spending at levels that are half that size,” DeFeo said.
More information is available at tinyurl.com/TCC-Survey.
Suppliers Also Push for Enaction of Long-Term Authorization
A consortium of asphalt and concrete industry groups are urging Congress to pass a new transportation measure soon because states won’t commit to major highway construction projects without a long-range federal spending plan.
In a letter sent to Capitol Hill on Wednesday, the consortium asked lawmakers to enact a six-year bill instead of continuing to pass short-term extensions.
“The current lack of funding certainty in the federal highway market is having a devastating effect on the transportation construction industry,” wrote the consortium, which includes the National Asphalt Pavement Association, the American Concrete Pavement Association, the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association, and the Portland Cement Association. “While the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act staved off a catastrophic decline in highway construction, uncertainty about long-term federal investment in state and local highway programs, combined with a lingering recession and associated state budget problems, poses a significant threat to the future of transportation builders and suppliers.”
The group notes that asphalt production is forecast to be down 15 percent this year. Road construction accounts for 85 percent of asphalt demand in America.
Transportation Projects Strong Contender for Inclusion in Jobs Package (AASHTO Journal)
Transportation Projects Strong Contender for Inclusion in Jobs Package (AASHTO Journal)
House and Senate Democrats have started crafting a package of legislation aimed at creating jobs. Both chambers are strongly considering including investment in transportation infrastructure as part of the package, which congressional leaders said could be enacted by early next year.
In the House of Representatives, Democratic leaders have decided to move a jobs package by the end of this year to combat the 10.2 percent unemployment rate — the highest since 1983. Although the economy has shown signs of recovering from the recent recession, the number of Americans out of work continues to climb, alarming the majority party in Congress.
The House Democratic Caucus decided Monday night to move legislation to address the dismal jobs situation. Ideas considered include infrastructure spending, aid to small business, and extensions of expiring tax breaks.
House Democratic Caucus Chairman John Larson of Connecticut has previously spoken out in favor of transportation investment as a great way to create more jobs. Other Democratic representatives said this week they want transportation to be part of the jobs package. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman James Oberstar, D-MN, has a draft $500 billion, six-year authorization measure for highways, bridges, mass transit, and safety programs that he wants to see enacted by year’s end as part of a jobs package, or as a stand-alone measure.
Oberstar has been gathering information from state transportation departments that he says will show there are several thousand “ready to go” projects across the country that could benefit from federal funding. Oberstar said he wants transportation to receive a large chunk of any appropriations authorized by a jobs package — far more than the 7 percent of February’s economic recovery act spending that went through the U.S. Department of Transportation to the states.
Oberstar has support from some of his colleagues for funding more transportation projects.
“I want the whole highway bill,” said Rep. Leonard Boswell, D-IA. “But if I can’t get a whole loaf, I’ll take a slice.”
Rep. Russ Carnahan, D-MO, said his top priority is enacting the transportation bill.
“Transportation funds would help with the spring road-construction season,” he said. “That would be one of the best job creators.”
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-MD, said this week that committee chairmen have been told to offer job-creation proposals that could be wrapped into a package for floor consideration in December. The House plans to adjourn for the year by Dec. 18. Hoyer said he wants a jobs bill done before that happens.
Paying for a jobs package is the major problem facing Democrats. It’s the same issue that has stalled consideration of Oberstar’s six-year transportation authorization measure. Some conservative Democrats known as “Blue Dogs” have expressed opposition to paying for a jobs package through increased borrowing.
Hoyer suggested to reporters Tuesday that highway spending could be accelerated in the next year or two and then paid for in later years. Representatives are also considering a proposal to pay for a jobs package by creating a new tax on stock transactions. House Highways and Transit Subcommittee Chairman Peter DeFazio, D-OR, is among the leading supporters of that plan. Taxing stock trades and other financial transactions could raise $150 billion a year, proponents contend.
Obama to Hold Jobs Summit Early Next Month; Senators Also Support Jobs Legislation
The White House will hold a jobs forum Dec. 3 with labor and business leaders. President Barack Obama is then scheduled to head to Allentown, PA, to kick off a “listening tour” that will take place over the next few months to help him sell the need for a jobs package.
In the Senate, odds of a package passing this year are slim since the chamber’s calendar is packed with a healthcare reform bill and numerous unfinished appropriations measures. But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-NV, has told his caucus a jobs package will be a top priority early in 2010.
Senate Budget Chairman Kent Conrad, D-ND, said any job-creating measures must be paid for over some period of time. Conrad said he would like to see the package emphasize infrastructure projects.
“We certainly need a transportation bill,” he said. “It’s critically important for the country.”
Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin, D-IL, and Democratic Policy Committee Chairman Byron Dorgan, D-ND, are leading the effort among Senate Democrats to compile a jobs package. Durbin has previously expressed strong support for transportation spending as part of any future economic stimulus effort. About 20 Democratic senators met Wednesday to begin hashing out a proposal that could be debated early next year.
Dorgan said he’d like to see a bill enacted before the next State of the Union address, which is typically held in late January.
Questions regarding this article may be directed to [email protected].
Boxer Asks for White House Help on Highway Extension Compromise (The New York Times)
Boxer Asks for White House Help on Highway Extension Compromise (The New York Times)
With the ongoing congressional stalemate over the next highway bill beginning to take its toll on state road and transit projects, a key senator yesterday urged the Obama administration to step in and help broker a compromise.
Boxer’s comments came one day after she and six other committee leaders and ranking members — including EPW Committee ranking member James Inhofe (R-Okla.) — relented on their ongoing effort to punt the next multiyear highway and transit bill into 2011 and instead called for a shorter, six-month extension that would continue current federal spending until June 2010.
Both the original 18-month extension and the latest six-month proposal have run into several roadblocks, most notably the steadfast opposition of House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman James Oberstar (D-Minn.), who has derailed any effort to extend the current highway law beyond the end of this calendar year.
“I, so far, have lost the battle; I can’t convince the House,” Boxer said. “We’ve dialed it back 12 months, I’m not happy about it, but at the minimum we have to do this.”
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood was the first this summer to call for the 18-month extension, and while that remains the administration’s preference, DOT Deputy Secretary John Porcari conceded yesterday that the six-month proposal would be better than a continuation of a series of smaller stopgap measures that lawmakers have used to continue federal transportation spending, albeit at a decreased rate.
The current continuing resolution is set to expire Dec. 18, and lawmakers will need to come to some type of an agreement on transportation spending before then. Still, Porcari made no assurances that LaHood or the White House would pressure the House to sign on to the six-month plan.
The current multiyear highway law — which provides the bulk of federal funding for the nation’s highways and transit systems — expired at the end of September, but federal spending has continued under a pair of continuing resolutions that include funding for a number of other federal programs.
But because of an accounting provision included in the last highway law, states can spend roughly 30 percent less federal cash than they would under a formal extension, Porcari said.
That is because the baseline funding levels in the stopgap transportation measures are set at fiscal 2009 levels, the year that an $8.7 billion rescission occurred for transportation funding. The total accrued over several years as states were required to set aside a portion of their annual spending to create budget flexibility, but the full rescission technically only affected fiscal 2009 spending levels.
Roy Kienitz, DOT undersecretary of policy, said the decrease in funding has affected each state differently but that more severe funding shortages would occur in the spring, when states traditionally see more road construction. “That’s when the problems would kick in,” he said.
For most of the summer, Oberstar had threatened to block any stopgap transportation measure as a way to pressure lawmakers to focus on his six-year, $500 billion proposal. However, when it became apparent that his bill would not see floor time before the end of September he backed down and instead pushed a three-month extension of the law through the House.
But the Senate never signed off on the plan, and Oberstar has since refused to give any additional ground in the extension debate.
Gas tax
The driving force behind the need to postpone the next highway bill is that lawmakers have yet to find a way to pay for what is expected to be a substantial increase in federal infrastructure investment.
Off the Hill, there is near universal consensus among transportation experts that increasing the gas tax is necessary in the short-term to pay for both road maintenance and new construction projects. But very few lawmakers have been willing to even float the idea for fear of the political consequences.
The White House has routinely dismissed the idea of a gas tax hike at a time when the U.S. economy is hurting. Oberstar, likewise, has stressed he is not calling for an immediate tax hike to fund his $500 billion proposal — despite accusation from House GOP leaders that he plans to in the future (E&E Daily, Sept. 24).
Boxer appeared to fuel that speculation yesterday, describing the House philosophy as: “Let’s just bring it to a crisis point, then we’ll go double the gas tax and solve the whole problem.”
Boxer, who also opposes a near-term gas tax hike, said imposing one would be nearly impossible. “I don’t have the votes on this committee to do that, let alone
Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) — the sole EPW Committee member to oppose the original 18-month proposal — has been one of the few lawmakers to vocally call for the tax hike, arguing the public is more willing to face the reality than the politicians.
“Most people in the House and the Senate are all worried about a vote on an increase in the gas tax,” Voinovich said. “They are, and you can’t do it without that, there just aren’t any other [short-term funding] alternatives.”
Voinovich, who is retiring when is current term ends in 2010, said that he has talked with GOP leadership in both chambers to urge them to drop their opposition.
“I’ve said to them that it is time that we did something on behalf of our country and stop playing politics and stop worrying if we are going to elect more Republicans the next time around, and if we can take a shot at the other side by saying they are voting for tax increases,” he said.
Likewise, Voinovich said Democrats need to stop playing their own politics with the issue. They need to stop “saying, ‘I can’t support this thing because, you know, if I do that, they’re going to shove it down my throat,'” he said.
Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), also an EPW Committee member, took a softer approach to the gas tax hike earlier this week.
On Tuesday, Carper said that he had broached the idea of a small gas tax increase with party leaders himself but that it failed to gain traction. “After I finished, I noticed that pretty much everyone around the table had their heads down,” he said at a public policy briefing. “So I don’t think they grabbed it right away. But I’m persistent and will keep coming back to it.”
By JOSH VOORHEES of Greenwire
Published: November 19, 2009
NC jobless rate bumps up to 11 percent in October (AP)
NC jobless rate bumps up to 11 percent in October (AP)
RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina’s unemployment rate rose slightly to 11 percent in October, a fraction off its historic peak earlier this year and the ninth straight month in double digits, the state’s Employment Security Commission reported Friday.
The jobless rate continued to hover around 11 percent, as it has for nearly all of this year. September’s rate was 10.8 percent.
The state’s unemployment rate in October 2008 was 7 percent.
“The most important feature is that it’s not coming down, which verifies the fears of economists and the Obama administration that unemployment will continue to rise coming out of the recession,” said John Coleman, an economist at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.
Though Wall Street has been on the upswing for months, companies remain cautious about building back their work forces because they continue to see worrying signs on the horizon such as the risk of rising inflation and tax rates, Coleman said. If the pattern of the current economic recovery sticks to the pattern set in the last two U.S. recessions, it would likely be many months before employment prospects improve substantially, he said.
Construction suffered the greatest job losses in October as employers shed about 6,600 North Carolina jobs. Government jobs saw some of the greatest employment growth, adding 5,800; education and health services added an equal number.
Since the recession started in December 2007, North Carolina has lost 240,100 jobs, the Employment Security Commission said.
North Carolina’s unemployment rate has been worse than the national average for more than a year and that continued in October, when the U.S. figure was 10.2 percent.
North Carolina had the country’s seventh-highest unemployment rate in October. Michigan was worst with 15.1 percent. South Carolina was fifth at 12.1 percent.
By EMERY P. DALESIO (AP) – 2 days ago
Transit Use is Growing, But Not Where You Think (Planetizen)
Transit Use is Growing, But Not Where You Think (Planetizen)
United States Census Charlotte Commuting Detroit Features Metropolitan Areas Oil Prices Ridership Riverside Social /
Transit saw some big ridership increases over the past few years, but maybe not where you’d expect. Data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows the top ten metropolitan areas where transit use has increased the most.
Since the 1950s, public transit hasn’t exactly been the primary focus of most American cities. But it’s out there, in pockets. New York City’s subway system carries 1.5 billion riders per year. Washington D.C.’s metro sees a little more than 200 million annually. Chicago’s carries about the same. By U.S. standards these systems are well-used and extensive. But the big boys of American transit aren’t the whole story. Transit use is growing in many U.S. metropolitan areas, and the strongest growth is occurring where you might not expect.
Metro areas like Charlotte, NC, Detroit, MI, and Riverside, CA, have seen the nation’s highest increases in transit use between 2006 and 2008. The following list shows the top 10 metropolitan statistical areas, as defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, where commuting by public transportation has grown the most. None of them are among the nation’s top 10 most populous metro areas, and yet seven are within the top 20. So what’s behind the story? Why are these smaller metros topping larger regions when it comes to growth in transit use?
The data comes from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, which is collected from a random sampling of U.S. residents on a monthly basis. The data used in this analysis was collected between 2006 and 2008, and represents the commuting patterns of Americans 16 and older. Due to the relatively small sampling size of this data collection effort, American Community Survey data can have a relatively high margin of error. Only metropolitan statistical areas with margins of error less than 15% have been included in this analysis. Because of this sample size issue, these data are most accurately represented as percentages, rather than hard figures.
The data can be interpreted to indicate a trend rather than a completely accurate count, but are bolstered by other local and national trends and developments like a spike in oil prices in 2008 and the expansion of transit services.
“We brought service to where it was needed, and that was reflected in our ridership numbers,” said Bradley Weaver, a spokesman at the Riverside Transit Agency, where transit commuting increased by 26.7%, the third highest increase in the country.
The population of the metro increased by just under 2% between 2006 and 2008, the second lowest rate of increase among metros in the top ten, and median earnings of workers rose by about 2.5% during that time. But the median income level of people commuting on transit rose by more than 15%, according to a comparison of data from the American Community Survey. Essentially, the number indicates that people with higher income levels became more likely to ride public transit to work.
The Detroit metro area has seen its population decimated in recent years, but the need for transit hasn’t gone away.
“On certain lines, ridership has skyrocketed,” said Tiffany Draper, a transportation planner with the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments. “But overall, ridership has been pretty steady.”
Figures from the American Community Survey show a 30% increase in commuting by transit between 2006 and 2008 in the Detroit metro area, though Draper says the boost was likely a reaction to rising oil prices.
Ridership increases around the country have been linked to the temporary jump in oil prices last year, when the price of oil peaked at more than $147 per barrel in July 2008.
“We had 40% higher gas prices last year that were sending people to come ride public transit,” said Olaf Kinard, director of marketing at the Charlotte Area Transit System. The Charlotte metro area saw the largest increase in transit commuters between 2006 and 2008, at a rate of 47%. The area also saw a big jump in the median earning level of its riders, with earnings rising nearly 40% over that time period.
In addition to the rise in oil prices, Kinard attributes the Charlotte area’s ridership increase to an expansion of services and the opening of the state’s first light rail line.
And though ridership was up in 2008, many in the transportation realm are expecting less impressive counts for 2009. The global economic recession is likely to blame.
“This year is tough. Everybody’s having a problem this year in transit because of the economy and the layoffs,” said Kinard. He says the lack of jobs is pulling potential commuters out of the pool, and losses within transit agencies are hurting their ability to provide services in the first place. “The big issue right now for transit systems across the country is the recession.”
But the jumps seen from 2006 to 2008 in America’s second-tier metro areas suggest the possibility of a more transit-tolerant future. Under the right circumstances, the demand for transit is there. But until the economy turns around and transit systems see their budgets rebound, slashed services and raised fares will likely stifle the rate of increase in transit commuting.
19 November 2009 – 9:00am
Author: Nate Berg
Questions of tax fairness (News and Observer)
Questions of tax fairness (News and Observer)
Generally speaking, folks don’t like taxes.
But North Carolinians seem divided on the question of tax fairness, according to a new poll by Elon University.
Almost half (48 percent) of North Carolina residents polled Nov. 16-19 say the current state tax system is either “not at all fair” or “not too fair.” But 43 percent said they considered state taxes to be fair or “very fair.”
Asked about local taxes, more than half (51 percent) said they consider them to be fair or “very fair.” Less than half (42 percent) said local taxes are “not too fair” or “not at all fair.”
As for the fairness of specific taxes, respondents overwhelmingly preferred alcohol taxes (24 percent consider them “not fair” or “not at all fair), retail sales tax (29 percent) and tobacco taxes (33 percent.)
The gas tax was considered “not fair” or “not at all fair” by 64 percent of those surveyed.
Elon surveyed 563 North Carolina residents, with a margin of error or plus or minus 4.2 percentage points.
Submitted by bkrueger on November 20, 2009 – 12:35pm.
Statewide Poll on Taxes and Government and Community Services (Elon Poll)
Taxes and Government and Community Services (Elon Poll)
The Elon Poll asked respondents their opinions on the fairness of the current tax system as the local and state levels, as well as their measurements of community services.
How fair is our current tax system at the state level?
Not at all fair: 21 percent
Not too fair: 27 percent
Fair: 41 percent
Very fair: 2 percent
How fair is our current tax system at the local level?
Not at all fair: 18 percent
Not too fair: 24 percent
Fair: 48 percent
Very fair: 3 percent
On the fairness of specific taxes:
Gas tax: 64 percent say “not fair” or “not at all fair”
Tobacco tax: 33 percent say “not fair” or “not at all fair”
Retails sales tax: 29 percent say “not fair” or “not at all fair”
Alcoholic beverage tax: 24 percent say “not fair” or “not at all fair”
On government and community services:
Fire department: 81 percent report feeling “good” or “very good” about local services
Libraries: 74 percent report feeling “good” or “very good” about local services
Garbage collection: 64 percent report feeling “good” or “very good” about local services
Property tax rates: 47 percent report feeling “bad” or “very bad” about the rates
Economic health of community: 40 percent report feeling “bad” or “very bad” about economic health
Road maintenance and repair: 35 percent report feeling “bad” or “very bad” about local services
Senate, House Face Off: Transportation Leaders Not on Same Page (The Bond Buyer)
Senate, House Face Off: Transportation Leaders Not on Same Page (The Bond Buyer)
WASHINGTON — Senate transportation leaders are in a standoff with their House counterparts over a six-month extension of the current transportation law, as states are experiencing a 30% reduction in their federal highway and bridge funding.
“We still don’t have the House side with us” on the six-month extension, said Senate Environment and Public Works chairwoman Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., during a briefing yesterday. Boxer said she would like Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood to “move forward now and help us” secure a six-month extension.
While lawmakers wrangle over the extension, the highway trust fund that provides money to states will likely provide uninterrupted funding through next summer, according to the latest estimates of the Department of Transportation.
The fund collects revenue from user fees such as fuel taxes and ran out of money during the past two years due to a nationwide decrease in traffic.
Congress has rescued the fund from insolvency twice by transferring general funds into the account, most recently $7 billion in August.
“The trust fund balance is actually very healthy right now,” Roy Kienitz, under secretary for policy at the DOT, said during the briefing.
Kienitz said the account has more than $5 billion that will stretch “well into” next year. There “wouldn’t be any kind of interim crisis” during the six-month extension that Boxer’s committee and two other Senate panels are pushing for, he said.
In addition, the nearly $30 billion of highway infrastructure funds provided to states by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act are being spent at least as quickly as the normal annual funding states receive, he said.
But at the same time, budget rules applied to the stopgap measures that are currently providing highway funds to states, along with a one-time $8 billion rescission of unobligated funds after Sept. 30, are reducing state spending.
Nevada and Illinois are among states already being forced to reduce their transportation contracts by 30% as a result of those factors, Kienitz said.
Meanwhile, a second stimulus plan, or so-called jobs bill, is in the works from both the House and Senate. Lawmakers are trotting out their ideas to finance it.
House Democratic Caucus leader John B. Larson of Connecticut in July proposed a 0.25% transaction tax on over-the-counter derivatives, which he is now recommending be used to pay for infrastructure job creation.
Larson’s office said the total revenue that would be collected by the Internal Revenue Service is unknown because the market is unregulated. However, it is estimated in the tens of billions of dollars, according an aide.
Some market participants are generally opposed to the tax.
“Imposing a tax on financial transactions is the wrong idea at the wrong time,” said Kenneth E. Bentsen Jr., executive vice president of public policy and advocacy for the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association. “It would directly and detrimentally affect millions of Americans by imposing a tax on their savings such as mutual funds, just as they are seeing their investment assets regain value.”
Bentsen called the exemptions in the proposed legislation “completely unworkable” and said the tax would restrict economic expansion.
“The better policy direction to ensure any future financial crisis does not result in an economic downturn is establishing a strong systemic risk regulator and clear, unambiguous resolution authority for failing institutions,” Bentsen said.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
By Audrey Dutton
Shaniya Davis case adds to calls for probation reform (Fayetteville Observer)
Shaniya Davis case adds to calls for probation reform (Fayetteville Observer)
State Sen. Tony Rand said the criminal history of a Fayetteville man accused of kidnapping 5-year-old Shaniya Davis demonstrates the need for more tools to help probation officers do their jobs.
“That’s why I have been raising hell and why we have put together this pilot project,” said Rand, who announced this month that he is stepping down as Senate majority leader to become head of the state’s parole and probation system.
The pilot program, being set up in Raleigh, provides a database that allows law enforcement, probation officers, court clerks, district attorneys, magistrates and others easy access to all criminal records. Rand said the system should be operating by spring.
“If somebody is arrested, they can check to see if any other arrest warrants are out there,” Rand said.
Under the current system, government officials aren’t always able to share all the criminal information on one person.
The new system may have helped in the case of Mario Andrette McNeill, a Fayetteville man accused of kidnapping Shaniya on Nov. 10. Shaniya’s body was found Monday in woods south of Sanford. Law officials say more charges are pending.
McNeill has had a criminal history since 2001, when he was charged with shooting three people. He was sentenced to supervised probation for the shootings as well as drug charges.
McNeill violated the terms of his probation and stayed in prison from October 2003 to May 2006.
He was charged with drug offenses shortly after getting out and was again sentenced to supervised probation. As part of the sentence, McNeill was required to stay free of illegal drugs.
While on supervised probation, McNeill was charged with possessing cocaine and, a few months later, with striking a police officer with his vehicle while trying to flee.
Despite those charges, a judge in November 2007 changed the status of McNeill’s probation to unsupervised.
Wayne Marshburn, head of the probation system for Cumberland County, said probation officers may not have known about the pending charges against McNeill when he was allowed to go on unsupervised probation.
In April 2008, Superior Court Judge Jack Thompson put McNeill back on supervised probation for hitting the officer and the cocaine charge. Court records show that Judge E. Lynn Johnson terminated that probation on Oct. 22, six months before it was set to expire.
Nineteen days later, police say, McNeill was captured on video carrying Shaniya into a Sanford motel. Her body was found less than a week later.
Rand said he did not know the particulars of McNeill’s case. But under the pilot system, he said, everyone involved in the judicial system would have been able to share McNeill’s history and could have made a different determination of whether his probation status should have been changed or terminated.
“I think this kind of thing, more clearly than anything else, points out the needs to have this kind of information,” Rand said. “What we’re trying to do is make everybody aware of the data we have concerning a person’s record or lack of record.”
Rand was the sponsor of a new law that will give probation officers access to a person’s juvenile records and makes drug screenings a regular part of probation. The law will give investigators the power to make warrantless searches in certain cases involving people on probation. The law takes effect Dec. 1.
Published: 06:48 AM, Fri Nov 20, 2009
Staff writer Greg Barnes can be reached at [email protected] or 486-3525.
Charlotte’s toll-free loop nettles Wake (News and Observer)
Charlotte’s toll-free loop nettles Wake (News and Observer)
Now that Wake County leaders have accepted the hard fact that local drivers must pay tolls to finance the rest of the 540 Outer Loop, they’re peeved at the news that Charlotte drivers will see their own loop finished toll-free.
“It’s a fairness issue,” Sen. Richard Stevens of Cary told Gene Conti, the state transportation secretary, at a legislative meeting this week.
Last week Gov. Bev Perdue announced a novel plan to finance the final 5-mile link of Charlotte’s congested Interstate 485 loop and to build a new interchange with I-85.
The state can afford only $290 million for a job that is expected to cost roughly $340 million, Perdue said.
So when contractors bid for the chance to design and build the two I-485 projects, they will also be asked to finance the remaining $50 million. In an arrangement used elsewhere but never before in North Carolina, the state will repay this highway loan over the next 10 years with future revenue earmarked for urban loops.
“I want it done,” Perdue said in Charlotte on Nov. 9. “And the people of North Carolina want it done.”
The state Department of Transportation was on track several years ago to start construction in 2008 on the next leg of the 540 Outer Loop in western Wake County, from Research Triangle Park south to Holly Springs. Then Conti’s DOT predecessor, Lyndo Tippett, abruptly announced that construction would be delayed until 2012 — and perhaps many years longer.
Almost overnight, the Western Wake Freeway turned into the leading candidate to become the state’s first modern toll road. ell-paid RTP workers could be counted upon to pay tolls for a faster drive to work.
After a lot of arm-twisting, Wake leaders accepted Tippett’s warning that if they insisted on seeing the freeway built without tolls, they might have to wait until 2030.
“We were told there were no other options,” Stevens said in an interview, “and now apparently there is another method.”
Apex Mayor Keith Weatherly said, “They were telling us it was the toll road or no road.”
The state Turnpike Authority is now building the 18.8-mile Triangle Expressway, which includes the Western Wake Freeway. It is expected to open for paying customers in late 2012. The remaining southern and eastern legs of the 540 Loop are expected to be toll roads also.
Urban loop money has long been a source of sibling envy in North Carolina. Charlotte officials protested the loudest two years ago when Tippett moved Fayetteville to the front of the line for a dose of scarce loop funds.
Perdue and Conti said the I-485 plan would not affect funding for other urban loops, even though it would be financed with future loop money. Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines, waiting to build his own loop, was skeptical.
“We are obviously concerned that this might divert money from our beltway,” Joines told the Winston-Salem Journal.
When Stevens commented that Charlotte and Mecklenburg County would get off without having to accept a toll road, Conti suggested that this argument wasn’t quite fair. In fact, he said, two of the state’s next three planned turnpikes will lie partly in Mecklenburg.
“The Monroe [Connector] down there in the Charlotte area is our next toll project, and the Gastonia project [Garden Parkway] is right behind that,” he said.
Conti said the design-build-finance model worked for Charlotte because it required financing for only $50 million of the project cost. It would not have been feasible to use the same method to finance several hundred million dollars on the 540 loop, he said.
