There’s new leadership in Raleigh and a high priority is changing how the state allocates its scare transportation dollars. The proposed changes are going to severely limit how much money is available for transit projects. As the Durham Herald-Sun explains:
Budget writers in the N.C. Senate are tinkering with Gov. Pat McCrory’s proposed shakeup of state transportation spending to make it even harder for local governments to obtain state aid for transit projects.
The draft Senate budget includes language that says transit projects of any sort – including “intercity rail, commuter rail [and] light rail” – can qualify only for the lowest-level allocations the governor has proposed.
That’s the 30 percent of the money, statewide, that’s destined for allocation on an equal-share basis to each of the N.C. Department of Transportation’s 14 operating divisions.
The divisions as a group would receive $450 million a year, meaning each division will receive $32 million annually.
N.C. House members earlier this month passed a standalone bill that would allow transit projects to tap a second pot of money for multi-division regions that backers think will contain another $450 million a year.
