Priorities Compete for Place in Budget (Greensboro News and Record) (exerpt)
Meanwhile, Gov. Bev Perdue wasn’t going to let her idea to create a new “Mobility Fund” for high-need, high-cost road projects die. From the story:
As proposed, the fund would take in up to $300 million per year by 2013 through a combination of fees on drivers and ending a sales-tax break on new car sales.
But at least some House members are skeptical they would agree to raise fees as residents struggle with an economy that has sent unemployment over 11 percent.
“I don’t think this is the time to enhance revenue,” said Rep. Nelson Cole, a Reidsville Democrat who plays a key role on transportation issues. “There’s no support on (either) side of the aisle to make this happen.”
And as House leaders held a public hearing on the budget Monday, dozens of speakers from across the state pleaded the case for priorities such as schools for deaf children and health care programs for the poor — all of them competitors for scarce tax money.
But Rep. Hugh Holliman, a Lexington Democrat and the House majority leader, said Cole may have overstated the objections. He said the mobility fund was still being discussed.
And Perdue said shying away from fee increases was a “political” calculation, rather than one taking into account the needs of businesses.
“I don’t know of any business, both in North Carolina now and outside North Carolina, who will ever walk away from laying down jobs in this state because of what the cost of a DOT fee is or what the cost of a registration fee is,” Perdue said when asked about objections to the fees. Those businesses, she said, would leave if they couldn’t move goods and workers about the state.
