Highway funding tops legislative goals' list
By Steve Herring
Published in News on September 4, 2014 1:46 PM
During a meeting last month of the Wayne County Transportation Committee, local officials weren't buying the state's explanation of why a new highway funding formula favors urban areas at the expense of rural communities.
On Tuesday, Wayne County commissioners agreed that asking state legislators to amend the formula should be their top legislative goal.
A list of goals also includes a call for increased flexibility in the use of 911 revenues, restoring lottery and library funds siphoned away by the state and protecting the state's industrial incentives.
The goals were put together as part of the state Association of County Commissioners' legislative goals program. Counties submit their goals to the association that compiles them for a vote of the membership as its annual meeting in January.
The goals are then forwarded to state lawmakers.
Commissioners argued that the Department of Transportation funding formula assures that the state's economically struggling rural areas will not get the infrastructure necessary to effectively compete for economic development projects.
The formula needs to be amended to take into account the crucial role that infrastructure plays in bringing economic prosperity to all of North Carolina, not just the major urban areas, commissioners said of the goal.
In support of more flexibility in using 911 revenues, the county contends that some of that money should be used for the operating expenses rather than forcing the county to rely on property tax or sales tax revenues.
In addition, it argues that the makeup of the state 911 board gives too much authority to the telecommunications industry. One option to explore if the state refuses to grant counties greater flexibility in the use of the funds is a local 911 fee established by county commissioners.
County Manager George Wood said he knew that restoration of lottery funding would be one of the association's goals.
"But we just wanted to reiterate because it is so critical," he said. "As you all know there is a growing concern because in this year's session they actually adopted a bill that said going forward we could no longer pledge lottery funds for repayment for school debt.
"Why would you pass that bill unless you were getting ready to go after that money? There is no other reason to pass that."
The library funding was suggested by Wayne County Library Director Donna Phillips. The goal is to restore funding to State Aid to the Public Libraries Fund to the pre-2011 level of $15.7 million.
Commissioner Ray Mayo brought up the incentives suggestion.
He said legislators had come out with a bipartisan bill concerning incentives for industries.
"I am also concerned about the One N.C. (program) because I know that (Development Alliance Vice President) Mike Haney has been to several meetings, and they have changed it to where you have to have 30 jobs to be eligible for any incentives from One N.C. Now it is 20," Mayo said. "I want to make sure that our legislators, whoever ... understands that we need to keep that number at 20 and not raise it to 30."