Sharply higher spending in the state Ferry Division will eat up an extra $11.3 million from the Highway Fund next year, and the Department of Transportation will cut road maintenance spending by $4.4 million.
The changes are outlined in the 2011 budget, which won preliminary approval Tuesday in the House and Senate.
The budget sets aside $46 million to inaugurate the N.C. Mobility Fund proposed by Gov. Bev Perdue, who wanted nearly $100 million. The fund is supposed to pay for big statewide transportation projects, but it will take several years to produce enough money for its first priority, $150 million to widen Interstate 85 near the Yadkin River bridge at Salisbury.
Legislators snubbed Perdue's proposal to help launch the fund with $75 million in higher motor vehicle registration fees. They set aside money that otherwise would be shifted from the Highway Trust Fund to the state's General Fund.
The budget increases ferry spending by more than one-third, to $43.5 million next year. DOT officials said the money was needed to cover increased costs related to new Coast Guard requirements.
Senate budget conferees blocked a House proposal that would prod DOT to make ferry travelers pay more. Tolls now cover only 6 percent of the cost. Most ferries are free. Riders pay less on the toll ferries at Ocracoke and Southport than on similar ferries in other states.
Rep. Grier Martin of Raleigh, co-chairman of the House Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee, said he will press for higher ferry tolls.
"I fully support increasing the fares for ferry riders to cover a significantly increased portion of the costs," Martin said.
The budget also:
Softens a House proposal to punish the Global Trans Park Authority, a state-owned industrial park in Lenoir County, for ignoring the legislature's March deadline for a report on its plan to pay down its $37.8 million debt to the state.
The budget cuts $320,000, 25 percent, from Global TransPark's appropriation. The House wanted to cut twice that much. And Global TransPark has a new Dec. 31 deadline for filing that report.
Creates a few exemptions to the so-called "equity formula" for distributing state and federal road-building money.
Federal grants for the Appalachian Development Highway System now will be spent only in the mountain counties for which they are intended, instead of being shared with other counties.
The budget confers a similar change in status for the N.C. Mobility Fund project to widen I-85 near the Yadkin Bridge, and for a related $150 million project to widen the bridge itself. That means DOT can spend $300 million for the Yadkin / I-85 work without having to subtract that money from other construction in nearby counties.
