Road funding bill has officials worried over what 'may' happen
April 17-23, 2009
The Business Journal
A proposed bill in the General Assembly which could alter how state road work is paid for has Triad officials worried that they could lose millions of dol lars in funding – and, at the same time, be required to take on new road maintenance responsibilities.
If passed, the bill introduced by Sen. Clark Jen kins, D-Edgecombe, would change state law to say that the state “may” provide cities with annual street maintenance funding. The current law says the state “shall” provide that funding,. also known as Powell Bill funding. The money comes from a fuel tax.
Mike Mabe, street maintenance superintendent for Greensboro, said the word “may” leaves the door open for the state to deny the funding to fill a budget shortfall. Greensboro, he said, is expecting about $6.8 million in Powell Bill funding this ,year, which goes to needs such as resurfacing roads.
Jenkins' bill, which has a counterpart in the House, also has the attention of Lanny Rhew, Burlington's city engineer. He is concerned about language in the bill that would split up Powell Bill payments into bian nual installments. Cities now get the money as one annual payment. Such a change, Rhew said, could mean that even if the city got its first payment, it could lose its second round of funds if the state's budget were to come up short. Burlington typically gets about $1.5 million in Powell Bill funds each year, he said.
Calvin Leggett, manager of the Program Develop ment Branch for the state Department of Transpor tation, which crafted the proposed language, said the bill isn't designed to allow the state to take away Powell Bill funding in a budget shortfall. He said it's meant to allow DOT to split up such payments into installments – the issue that concerns Burlington's Rhew.
“Maybe we need to go back and reread that, the way it's written, to make sure it's saying what it's intended to say,” Leggett said.
At the moment, that's slim consolation to local of ficials. Said Mabe in Greensboro: “Once it's written down, who's to say, three years down the road, ev eryone gets in another crunch and a future highway administrator dusts off the policy, and says, 'This says we 'may' pay them; my recommendation is we don't.'”
The proposed bill also pushes to transfer the responsibility for secondary roads outside the inter state and highway systems from the state to cities, without additional funding. Municipalities would be required to cover the maintenance, landscaping and repair work for such roads. How many miles of road would be affected isn't clear. DOT has not calculated the total, and local of ficials said they aren't certain which roads would fall under the state's proposed guidelines.
Leggett said the intent is to allow DOT to focus on major roads, instead of repairing smaller streets. Bob Patterson, public works director with the city of Burlington, said he estimates that around 37 miles of road could become city responsibility. While that would not be an enormous addition to the 237 miles the city already handles, Burlington's current Powell funding of $1.5 million already isn't enough for resurfacing needs, Patterson said.
Reach LAURA YOUNGS at (336) 370-2913 or [email protected].
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