Predicted DOT shortfall leaves Easley cold

Gov. Mike Easley is leery of "absurd" warnings that North Carolina will fall $64 billion short of meeting its highway, transit and other transportation needs over the next 25 years.

The warnings come from Easley's own Department of Transportation.

Reporters asked Easley last week why he proposed in his 2007-09 budget to shrink the Highway Trust Fund, taking $173 million a year out of the road-building fund to help keep the state's General Fund in balance.

"Obviously, we have to get more money into transportation ...," Easley said, "once we can get a handle on what the real costs are. But we've heard some astronomical figures coming out of DOT as to what the needs are. That's a wish list. Some of these numbers are absurd."

Last year, Easley and the legislature cut the yearly shift of money between the two funds to $57 million, the lowest since the Highway Trust Fund was established in 1989. Transportation advocates and Republican critics have called for a halt to these "raids" on the Highway Trust Fund, which have reached as high as $253 million.

Nancy Dunn of Winston-Salem, appointed by Easley to the state Board of Transportation, oversees DOT's effort to make long-range plans and to estimate how much money North Carolina will need for transportation in the next 25 years. The $64 billion funding gap forecast was a preliminary figure, but Dunn said the final estimate, expected this spring, probably will be worse.

"I don't believe it's overstated, I really don't," Dunn said. "We have let our transportation system get in the kind of shape that will take that kind of money."

North Carolina Go, a statewide transportation advocacy group, has called for a $1 billion transportation bond issue and an end to the Highway Trust Fund transfers. The group's chairman, William "Beau" Mills of Raleigh, criticized Easley's budget.

"Instead of trying to find solutions, he seems to be questioning the estimates that his own department has put together on the growing gap," Mills said. "We're still hopeful that he is going to be an active partner in trying to solve these problems."

Governors on health care

Easley has been in Washington for the past few days for the National Governors Association winter meeting. The governors met with President Bush at the White House on Monday.

Easley said in an interview the association made available via satellite that the governors were concerned about the health-insurance program for low-income children who are not on Medicaid.

States are running out of money for the program, and some may not have enough to last until the next federal budget passes. Easley said the formula for distributing federal money for the program should be recalibrated every year.

North Carolina is using state money to cover costs "when the federal dollars are sitting here or sitting in some other state not being used," he said.

A Pollie for 'Whackos'

And you thought the Academy Awards was a hugging and back-slapping fiesta. Just think about wading into a room full of political ad writers.

Down in Miami last weekend, the American Association of Political Consultants handed out their prizes, the Pollie Awards.

The mailer "Whackos," an ad featuring a made-up cereal with the face of former state Rep. Russell Capps of Raleigh on the box, won the Campaign Network of Carrboro a silver award in the "best use of humor" category.

The company won 11 prizes in all, including the gold for humor.

"We love the humor thing," said Thomas Mills, a company partner.

Group adds coordinator

Chris Farr, a conservative activist from Raleigh, has gone to work as grass-roots coordinator for Americans for Prosperity-North Carolina, an advocacy group with headquarters in Raleigh.