State OKs speedier bond sales

Universities, prisons, museums and smaller projects will benefit from $742 million

RALEIGH -- The N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences grows larger. N.C. State University gets a new library. Prisoners get more cells, and the N.C. Zoo's polar bears get a new home.

And it will all happen a little sooner than initially planned.

In one of his last acts as chief executive, Gov. Mike Easley on Monday pushed through approval of an accelerated schedule to sell $742 million in bonds for university buildings, prisons, museums and smaller projects around the state, such as an oyster hatchery.

The legislature previously approved the projects, and Easley proposed the expedited schedule in November. The Council of State, made up of the governor and other elected executive branch officials, voted Monday to speed up the bond sales in hopes that the construction will generate thousands of jobs and ease the pain of a sagging economy.

"It has a huge ripple effect," Easley, a Democrat, told the council. "Thirty days [sooner] makes a whole lot of difference if you're out of a job."

State Auditor Les Merritt, a Republican, questioned the idea of speeding up the accumulation of debt that was approved months ago, in a different economy.

"We have a lot of projects that were voted on [by the legislature] in a bright-looking picture, and now the picture isn't so bright," Merritt said.

Sixty-five million dollars of the new debt will be issued this spring. Approximately $258 million in bonds likely will be sold in the fall and the rest in succeeding years.

Easley said the plan allows the state to raise a large amount of money and start construction while not having to start paying down the debt until the end of 2009, when the economy likely will be recovering.