Mid-county bridge funds axed
\nBy Cindy Beamon
\nStaff writer Daily Advance
\nFriday, June 11, 2010<\/p>\n
The state House\u2019s proposed budget leaves out funding for a mid-county bridge in Currituck, but the move is likely to be challenged as the General Assembly negotiates its final spending plan in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n
The state House of Representatives has approved a budget plan that would remove $15 million for the bridge, using the funds instead to improve urban traffic congestion problems. Sen. Marc Basnight, president pro tem in the Senate, said the funds are critical to the project and need to be put back.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe bridge is important. It\u2019s been proposed and supported for many, many years,\u201d Basnight said Friday in a telephone interview. He said he will oppose the provision as the Senate and House work together to finalize a budget for the next fiscal year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are in the environmental phase and location phase of the project. We are closer than we have ever been before and to remove any apportionment of the funding would raise the toll.\u201d<\/p>\n
Basnight said the removal of funds could also affect financing for the project.<\/p>\n
In 2008, the North Carolina General Assembly appropriated $15 million per year as \u201cgap funds\u201d to offset construction debt not covered by toll revenue. Funds for the first installment were earmarked in 2009, but were not spent in last year\u2019s budget. Without the gap funds, tolls would be much higher, possibly too high to make the project practical. \u201cWe put the money in there to make the project viable,\u201d Basnight said.<\/p>\n
Redirecting the $15 million away from the bridge project would cause tolls, already estimated to cost between $6 to $12 one-way, to go even higher, said Basnight.<\/p>\n
Basnight he was unaware of the House\u2019s plans to redirect funding for the project until last week when House legislators finalized their proposed budget package. The House budget reallocates the earmarked funds for the bridge and other Turnpike Authority projects, a total of $39 million, into a \u201cmobility fund\u201d for next year\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n
House Rep. Bill Owens D-N.C., could not be reached for comment on Friday.<\/p>\n
The funds for the bridge remain intact in the Senate\u2019s version of the budget.<\/p>\n
The withdrawal of funds could have far-reaching effects on financing for the project. The state plans to pay for the project through a Public-Private Partnership, using a combination of bonds, tolls, federal loans and private financing to pay for construction. If the state withdraws funding, private investors may back out as well, Schorr Johnson, spokesman for Basnight, said in an earlier interview.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mid-county bridge funds axed By Cindy Beamon Staff writer Daily Advance Friday, June 11, 2010 The state House\u2019s proposed budget leaves out funding for a mid-county bridge in Currituck, but the move is likely to be challenged as the General Assembly negotiates its final spending plan in the coming weeks. The state House of Representatives […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nomcb.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nomcb.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nomcb.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nomcb.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nomcb.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=402"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nomcb.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":404,"href":"https:\/\/www.nomcb.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402\/revisions\/404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nomcb.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nomcb.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nomcb.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}