CHARLOTTE -- A Republican push to reject $461 million in federal railroad improvement grants for North Carolina appears to have collapsed.
The high-speed rail kill bill championed by Rep. Ric Killian of Charlotte was pulled Friday from the agenda of the House Transportation Committee, which had been scheduled to vote on the measure next week. Killian's bill was attacked at this week's committee meeting by Democrats, mayors and business advocates.
Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger said in a statement that legislators should have been consulted before the N.C. Department of Transportation accepted the $545 million in high-speed and intercity passenger rail grants awarded by the Obama administration since early 2010.
However, Berger added that it appears to him that DOT has the legal authority to accept the money and that there was not consensus in within the GOP caucus to back Killian’s kill bill.
“The Senate Republican Caucus has not made any formal decision regarding legislative efforts to reject this rail money,” Berger, a Republican from Eden. “I personally do not think the legislature will be able to unwind this transaction.”
The Obama administration has committed $520 million of the money to North Carolina and negotiations are under way for the remaining $25 million grant announced last year. This money comes without requirement for any matching state funds for capital improvement, but the state is committed to pay future maintenance and operation costs.
The first $59 million was committed late last year and is being spent now.
North Carolina secured $461 million in federal stimulus grants last month after fighting off eleventh-hour efforts by Norfolk Southern Railway to extract new concessions — easy terms on a federal grant for an unrelated rail project in Illinois, and a pledge that NCDOT would ignore court orders unfavorable to Norfolk Southern — in exchange for its signature on a related rail operation agreement.
