Many motorists had hoped the General Assembly would have increased funding for North Carolina’s transportation system, but lawmakers actually cut appropriations for roads in the recently adjourned session of the legislature.
As in every budget since the Easley administration came to power, the new budget transferred an additional $172 million from the Highway Trust Fund to the state’s General Fund.
Since the beginning of the Easley administration in 2000, $1.53 billion — $336 million more than called for in the law — has been diverted from the Highway Trust Fund to the General Fund. An additional $6.5 million was cut from road construction funds and $41 million was siphoned from urban maintenance funds.
“We seem to be going backwards, not forwards, when it comes to transportation,” said Beau Mills, chairman of the transportation advocacy organization NC Go! “It’s not just about sitting in traffic. It’s about public safety.”
According to a recent MSNBC study, one-third of North Carolina’s bridges are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete, meaning that the bridges cannot accommodate the high traffic volumes that cross them every day.
Numbers confirm Mills’ observations. According to a study by the University of North Carolina at Charlotte’s David Hartgen, North Carolina’s highway system fell from fifth in 1989 to 36th in 2003 in quality and efficiency. The state also ranked in the bottom 10 states in condition of urban interstates, rural interstate condition, and condition of rural primary roads.
Mills says he tells legislators that the cost of highway upkeep has risen dramatically since the Highway Trust Fund was created in 1989, and the amount of money going into the fund every year does not sufficiently cover the highway and road expenses.
“It’s clear our transportation needs are not being met with the current formula,” he said. “I told them they were going to have to go in there and make some changes.”
But no changes were made this session. Mills said he thinks neglecting transportation funding was a mistake. “They just had so many other things on their plates this session that it just didn’t break through.”
As a result, some towns will feel the continued drag in road construction progress. Garner Mayor Ronnie Williams said that two scheduled large road improvements in the area were about 10 years behind schedule. He described several other road projects in Garner as “woefully behind” as well.
Not only has the transportation system been under a long-term strain from lack of funding, but the number of drivers and construction costs will only continue to climb, making the problem worse.