Highway trust fund

Let’s just be really clear about the Build NC Bonds proposal to borrow $3 billion for roads making its way, in different forms, through the North Carolina House and Senate:…

North Carolina has the largest state-owned road system, but only the 9th largest road budget. Since 2002, North Carolina’s interstates are smoother, roads are safer, and traffic congestion is improved.

RALEIGH — A better project selection process is more important than new funding sources in addressing North Carolina’s transportation needs. The John Locke Foundation’s top budget expert will deliver that…

Gov. Mike Easley’s proposed $18.9 billion budget does not provide enough relief to taxpayers who made it possible. The governor could have returned the $1.1 billion in overcollections to taxpayers without jeopardizing future fiscal health. This would include ending the half-cent sales tax and 8.25 percent income tax rate set to expire in 2007, and providing a temporary quarter-cent sales tax refund. Removing the county burden for Medicaid would also ease the fiscal pressure local governments face to raise taxes to pay for schools and roads.

Gov. Mike Easley’s proposed state budget takes advantage of a $2 billion surplus to increase spending by $1.6 billion, according to a preliminary analysis by the John Locke Foundation.

State leaders claim that capping the gas tax at 27.1 cents per gallon would cost the state up to $135 million a year in road construction. They are wrong. The state will be just $5.3 million behind projections planned for in this year’s budget if it freezes the gas tax. Furthermore, nearly $400 million in gas tax revenues goes toward spending that has nothing to do with road construction. The General Fund, public transportation, railroads, and airlines all receive gas-tax revenues. There is no need to take money from road construction so long as gas-tax revenues are diverted to unrelated programs.

RALEIGH – Gov. Mike Easley and leaders of the North Carolina General Assembly are resisting calls for halting a hike in the gas tax that took effect earlier this week,…

Gov. Mike Easley's proposed budget adjustments for FY 2002-03 help to frame the coming fiscal debate in North Carolina. The plan relies primarily on increasing revenues — including more than $400 million in tax hikes, $250 million from a theoretical state lottery, and $210 million from raiding the state‘s Highway Trust Fund — rather than on budget savings. And contrary to the governor's assertion, his plan would increase state spending in the midst of a fiscal emergency.

RALEIGH—North Carolina should spend an additional $410 million annually over the next seven years — without raising taxes — to get back on track in maintaining and expanding the state…