Commission boosts Triangle Expressway

A package of transportation proposals sent to the General Assembly today would enable construction of the the 18-mile Triangle Expressway to begin this fall. It also would allow Triangle voters to tax themselves for transit projects and would focus more state money on reducing urban traffic jams.

The 21st Century Transportation Commission also called for a statewide fund to provide $161 million per year for urban bus and rail transit projects. But the group did not recommend new taxes to pay for it, and members were split on whether the legislature should provide more state money for transit this year.

The only new transportation money would come from a request that the legislature stop taking $172 million from the Highway Trust Fund each year to spend for non-transportation needs.

Some of this money would be used instead to leverage plans by the N.C. Turnpike Authority for new expressways that will be financed mostly with tolls collected from drivers. The rest of the $172 million could be spent on other roads and bridges or used to underwrite a statewide transportation bond issue this fall.

The turnpike authority wants a state pledge of $22 million per year to close the expected gap between toll collections and the cost of building and operating the $900 million Triangle Expressway, an 18-mile road for commuters in western Wake County and Research Triangle Park. Approval of gap funding would allow construction to start this fall, with completion expected in 2010 and 2011.

The 21st Century panel, chaired by insurance executive Brad Wilson of Raleigh, recommended $75 million in gap funding to leverage a total of four turnpike projects, worth about $3 billion, expected to start construction in the next few years.

That would leave $97 million per year currently spent on non-transportation needs, enough to cover debt retirement for an $800 million transportation bond issue. While panel members favored a $75 million gap payment and also recommended a bond referendum, they said legislators should not ask voters to approve a transportation bond issue that is too small to be effective.

“Going to the public with a bond of any less than $1 billion as a first step to address the transportation needs in North Carolina may not be worth doing,” said Wilson, the chief operating officer of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina.

Wilson said the 21st Century panel, appointed last fall by legislative leaders and Gov. Mike Easley, is likely next year to recommend that the General Assembly raise new taxes for more transportation funding, and possibly a bigger bond issue.

If legislators agree on a bond referendum this year, they could reduce the turnpike gap money to $45 million and have enough money left over to finance a $1.1 billion bond issue, commission members said.

Half of any new money should be earmarked for urban loops, interstates, and cutting traffic congestion, panel members said, with the rest routed to current road and bridge projects. The group was split on whether to use any of that money for transit.

The commission also called for local-option legislation that would allow Triangle and other metropolitan counties to help pay for transit projects with a sales tax of up to one-half cent per dollar, and with a small increase in vehicle registration fees. The local tax hikes would require approval from county commissioners and local voters.