NC budget & the BRIDGE

[barbmarz]

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

FROM THE DAILY ADVANCE

Senate budget closes MOA, ends bridge project

By Reggie Ponder and Cindy Beamon

The Daily Advance

Tuesday, May 24, 2011
The $19.4 billion budget proposal unveiled by the North Carolina Senate
Tuesday calls for closing the Museum of the Albemarle and ending
development of the long-awaited Mid-Currituck Bridge.

The Senate Appropriations Committee Report on the Continuation,
Expansion and Capital Budgets, posted Tuesday on the official website of
the N.C. General Assembly, lists as item 58 on page J-19 “close Museum
of the Albemarle.” The item goes on to specify that it “closes the
Museum of the Albemarle and eliminates salaries and benefits of 15
filled positions.”
The cut is estimated to save nearly $959,000, according to the committee report.
Museum of the Albemarle Director Ed Merrell noted Tuesday afternoon that the state budget is far from final.
“This is a draft budget proposal in the Senate,” he said, pointing out
the museum closing was not included in the budget passed by the House of
Representatives.
“It’s still got a lot of steps to go through,” Merrell said. “Our
position is that we have a museum to operate and we’re going to keep on
operating it until somebody tells us to stop.”
Merrell said he got a call Tuesday morning from his supervisor at the
Department of Cultural Resources letting him know that the closure was
listed in the Senate budget proposal.
He said he and the rest of the Museum of the Albemarle staff believe the museum serves an important role in the community.
“It is important,” Merrell said. “It’s an important asset to the
community, the county, to the region as a whole, and in some respects to
the state as a whole.”
He mentioned the work the museum does with school systems in the region
and its involvement in the Civil War Sesquicentennial, which is
expected to bring many visitors to the state.
“We feel very strongly that we are an important asset to the community as a museum and as a tourist draw,” he said.
Merrell said the museum staff hears positive comments about the museum from visitors and people in the community.
According to The Associated Press, the proposed Senate budget also ends
development of at least two major road projects: the $900 million
proposed Garden Parkway connecting western Gaston County over the
Catawba River to the Charlotte airport; and the $600 million
Mid-Currituck Bridge. The plan also shifts $50 million in “gap funding”
for road projects to purchasing school buses and constructing urban
loops.
Like Merrell, Currituck Commissioner Owen Etheridge cautioned that the
Senate plan unveiled Tuesday won’t be the state’s final spending plan.
Etheridge, who was in Raleigh Tuesday, said budget negotiations have
just begun in the Senate, and he is “cautiously optimistic” that the
mid-county bridge will be reinstated during deliberations.
“This is when the real negotiations come into play,” Etheridge said,
noting that much debate is still ahead on the spending plan.
Commissioner Paul O’Neal agreed.
“It’s not the end until the final budget is voted on,” O’Neal said.
O’Neal said the votes of state Reps. Bill Owens, D-Pasquotank, and Tim
Spear, D-Washington, may be key in securing funding for the $600 million
bridge project.
Both House members’ votes are needed by the Republican majority to
veto-proof the final budget, and the mid-county bridge could be part of
the bargain in securing those votes, O’Neal said.
“We are still pretty confident that Bill and Tim will be able to keep
it alive when it goes to conference because it’s in the House budget,”
said O’Neal.
Last year, the General Assembly earmarked “gap funding” for the project
that would be used to subsidize construction costs so that tolls are
not too high. The budget plan called for the state to provide $15
million a year in gap funds for the first three years of the project and
$28 million after that for up to 50 years.
Under the proposed 2012 House budget, the gap funds are still earmarked
but payment could be delayed a year. Earlier this year, a spokesman for
the N.C. Turnpike Authority estimated that a delay in funding could
push back the project’s proposed 2016 completion date by a year or two.
The proposed Senate budget redirects those gap funds to other projects.
State Sen. Stan White, D-Dare, whose district also includes Pasquotank
and Currituck counties, could not be reached for comment Tuesday
afternoon.
The Turnpike Authority was set to release its Final Environmental
Impact Statement this summer for the 7-mile span connecting Currituck’s
mainland to the Outer Banks. Plans for financing the state’s first
public-private venture have been ongoing.
The state has been negotiating a contract with private company ACS
Dragados to construct and help finance the $660 million project.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.



White: Senate plan could be ‘death’ of bridge

By Cindy Beamon

The Daily Advance

Thursday, May 26, 2011

State Sen. Stan White says a Senate budget proposal that eliminates the
Currituck Mid-County Bridge is a “serious” threat to the long-awaited
span — especially if the Republican-dominated Legislature limits changes
to the spending plan.
White, D-Dare, said he is prepared to submit an amendment “as a way not
to kill the bridge” but is unsure if he will have the opportunity.
According to recent speculation in the General Assembly, the Democratic
minority may be limited in how many changes they can present, he said.
Senate Democrats had hoped each would be allowed up to 10 amendment
proposals, but that number could be cut in half.
“If I can’t submit an amendment, and if something else is not done, I
have tremendous fear it could be a death knell” for the bridge, White
said.
White was appointed earlier this year to replace state Sen. Marc
Basnight, the former president pro tempore of the Senate who was a
longtime supporter of the bridge.
White said there may also be another way to save the project.
He said the Republican majority may be “holding the project hostage” in
order to win votes from House Reps. Bill Owens, D-Pasquotank, and Tim
Spear, D-Washington, in last-minute budget bargaining. Owens and Spear
are among five Democrats who voted with the Republican majority on the
House budget to make the spending plan “veto-proof.”
The Senate may plan on bargaining for those votes again as budget
deliberations continue, he said. And the Mid-County Bridge could be part
of the bargain, White said.
On Tuesday, the Senate unveiled a $19.4 billion budget proposal that
would halt construction plans for the seven-mile span from Currituck’s
mainland to the Outer Banks.
According to the Associated Press, the proposed Senate budget ends
development of the bridge and shifts “gap funds” to purchasing school
buses and construction of urban loops.
Last year, under the leadership of Basnight, the General Assembly
agreed to provide $15 million a year in gap funds for the first three
years and $28 million after that for up to 50 years for the project.
Even then, some legislators had sought to delay funding for the project
until the next budget year, but the move faltered and the gap funds
were stamped into the state spending plan.
With Basnight’s resignation and a shift to a Republican majority in the
General Assembly this year, many had speculated the bridge could be a
target of state spending cuts. The project survived the ax in the
House’s proposed budget, which was largely attributed to Owens’ and
Spear’s votes with the Republican majority on the spending package.
White said the two House Democrats have taken some heat for their
choice to side with Republicans, but he said the move may give them some
leverage as budget negotiations continue.
White said when he asked top Republican lawmakers about the project, he
was told to “talk to my representatives,” meaning Owens and Spear.
White said the mid-county bridge is one in many budget cuts across the state that could have devastating effects.
“I know I’m new on the block, but I can’t believe what’s going on,” White said.
He said deep cuts to education and other important state services will have a devastating impact.
“Even if they give us 50 percent of what we want, it’s going to be a
terrible budget,” White said. “It’s going to set us back I don’t know
how many years.”