Democratic Lieut. Gov. Beverly Perdue, who is seeking to become the governor in November, opened the two-month regular session of the North Carolina General Assembly last week.
In the state’s primary May 6, Perdue bested two opponents, receiving 56.1% of the votes. In November, she faces Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory, who won the Republican nomination in the primary against three other challengers and avoided a runoff with 46.3% of the votes, a majority of those cast.
Perdue — the state’s first female lieutenant governor who wants to become its first female governor — supports ending an annual transfer of $170 million from the highway trust fund to the general fund and using the redirected funds to leverage $1 billion in new bonding capacity for transportation projects.
McCrory also said he would end transfers, but makes no mention of whether he supports bonding. Under his administration, “State legislators will no longer be able to fund their pet projects by stealing money from the highway trust fund,” according to his Web site. “All money raised for roads will be spent on roads.”
The Legislature is expected to address the funding diversion during the current session.
Last week, a panel called the 21st Century Transportation Committee recommended that the Legislature end the full annual transfer and bond at least a portion of it.
However, Democratic Gov. Mike Easley, who will be term-limited out office, has proposed in his current budget that the state phase in ending the annual transfer with a $25 million reduction in fiscal 2009.
Easley’s total budget proposal is $41.64 billion, an increase of $84.2 million over what was originally adopted for fiscal 2009, the second year of the biennium.
