N.C. House members took on a host of time-sensitive issues arising from the COVID-19 pandemic during a Wednesday, April 29, meeting of the House Pensions and Retirement Committee. They also voted to more than triple their death benefits, despite worries that raising payments from $15,000 to $50,000 during the coronavirus outbreak would look bad. The...
Hurricane victims, struggling rural hospitals, and the state Department of Transportation will get an infusion of cash. Gov. Roy Cooper on Monday, Nov. 18, signed two bills into law that aim to stabilize the DOT and rural hospitals, as well as provide disaster relief for victims of Hurricane Dorian and other major storms. Senate Bill...
Homeowners whose property was taken by the government for highway projects may be out of luck if Gov. Roy Cooper signs the transportation bill on his desk. A provision in Senate Bill 356 controls the cost of the Map Act — a controversial 1987 law that let the DOT seize private land without immediately paying...
The N.C. Department of Transportation’s financial woes may be over, but its headaches live on. After the department overspent by $2 billion, the legislature gave the department $200 million, but at a price. The department must undergo a performance audit, and strengthen its transparency and accountability measures. The department paused 900 projects in August, throwing...
The N.C. Department of Transportation shouldn’t manage its own finances, N.C. Treasurer Dale Folwell says. The transportation department overspent by about $2 billion, and Folwell is calling for a shakeup in department management. He wants the governor to sack N.C. Transportation Secretary James Trogdon and strip financial management from the DOT. The N.C. Office of...
The N.C. Department of Transportation has a cash shortfall. But not for the reasons department officials are giving. They had a deliberate policy to spend cash with little regard for normal safeguards. The House Transportation Committee recommended a bill to provide $660 million in emergency funding so the department doesn’t lay off 500-600 workers and delay...
Some House members want to give the N.C. Department of Transportation an emergency bailout. The DOT is running out of money after hefty expenses in recent months. As a result, the House Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee voted Wednesday, Oct. 23, for two major funding initiatives, in a revamped version of H.B. 967. Some say the funding...
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to clarify a statement about state law requirements for NCDOT’s cash balance. The N.C. Department of Transportation is running out of gas. NCDOT depleted its budget in 2019, a new report shows, leaving top members of the N.C. General Assembly to question how, and why, the department failed...
The Map Act’s days may be numbered. State senators voted June 12 to repeal the Map Act, the law allowing the N.C. Department of Transportation to freeze development on property within a highway corridor. The vote was unanimous. “This act has been a way for the NCDOT to tie properties up for a number of...
The N.C. Department of Transportation doesn’t have enough debt space to borrow the full $3 billion for local road and bridge construction promised in the Build NC Bond Act of 2018, State Treasurer Dale Folwell says. Folwell made this comment Tuesday in his monthly conference call with reporters. He cited the just-released state debt affordability...
Forsyth Superior Court Judge John O. Craig III issued a July 6 sanction penalizing the N.C. Department of Transportation for missing a May 28 deadline for appraising Winston-Salem properties affected by the Map Act. The department was supposed to submit 191 appraisals by May 28, but a substantial number were either submitted after the deadline...
