Charlotte loop's funding called legal

RALEIGH -- The N.C. Attorney General's office has settled a dispute between the state Department of Transportation and state Treasurer Janet Cowell over how to pay for finishing the last five miles of the Interstate 485 loop around Charlotte.

Grayson Kelley, chief deputy to Attorney General Roy Cooper, wrote a letter Tuesday saying that the Transportation department's funding plan for finishing the long-unlinked highway is legal.

"We believe the General Assembly has authorized NCDOT to expedite construction in this manner," Kelley wrote.

The plan, announced by Gov. Bev Perdue in November, included asking the contractor to front $50 million of the $340 million cost. The state would promise to pay back the $50 million over 10years. Cowell, who oversees the state's debt load, said a lawyer hired by her office argued that the Transportation department didn't have the authority to go into debt with a contractor.

Kelley wrote that no law or no court ruling would prohibit the "Design, Build, Finance" plan that the Transportation department proposed.

Spokeswoman Melissa Waller said Cowell disagreed with the opinion of the Attorney General's Office.

"The larger issue of debt management should be referred to the Debt Affordability Advisory Commission and the General Assembly," Waller said in a statement. The commission, made up of state officials and members of the public, advises the governor and the legislature on how much debt the state can handle.

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