That didn’t take long.
The House voted 104-11 to kill legislative funding for a study on the feasibility of a $3 billion state port in Southport, days after investigative stories in The News & Observer and Carolina Journal questioned the viability of the proposed port.
Rep. Pricey Harrison, the Greensboro Democrat who sponsored the study-killing amendment, called the port a “Global TransPark on steroids,” and Rep. Bill Owens, D-Pasquotank, cited the apparent lack of support for the port among locals (who formed the nonprofit NoPort Southport to oppose the project) as reason for skepticism.
Harrison also said the Ports Authority should underwrite the costs of any study.
The project was launched by the Easley administration, but Gov. Bev Perdue has kept it alive.
Under the Dome reports the study funding is in the Senate budget, so a conference committee will determine its eventual fate.
