August 4, 2009

Public Transportation Bill One Step Closer to Law

Posted at 3:16 PM by Stephen Jackson

A bill granting local governments the option of placing a public transportation sales tax referenda before voters sailed through Senate Finance today with only one audible nay vote.

H 148 allows Triad and Triangle counties to place a half cent sales tax referenda on the ballot as Charlotte has on two occasions in the past decade, with the remaining 94 counties granted a quarter cent local option referenda. The bill also allows all counties in North Carolina, providing they operate or have within their boundaries a public transportation system, to levy a $7 local vehicle registration fee to be used for public transportation. The bill also establishes a non-highway equivalent of the Highway Trust Fund to be used to match local (and federal) public transportation monies, as well as provide grants to ports and rail operations. The fund will be, no surprise given the economy, initially un-funded.

After a build-up of some months the vote on H 148 was anti-climatic. After the House easily passed the bill in April, budget difficulties and several false alarms when the bill was pulled from the Senate Finance Committee agenda at the last minute, promoted doubts that the bill would get a hearing on the Senate side this year.

Thanks to the perseverance of the bill sponsors and key advocates, a hearing of a little over 10 minutes with just two questions and one minor amendment was all it took for the bill to leap the Senate Finance hurdle. It now goes before the full Senate possibly as early as tomorrow as legislators struggle to pass the budget and get out of Raleigh before next week.

The vote came as a pleasant surprise to advocates for the bill who spent hours leading up to the vote shoring up support and worrying about possible opposition from influential Senators opposed to local option sales taxation. That opposition did not materialize in the face of a broad, bi-partisan and well-organized coalition of supporters and legislators. Those sick of waiting for the bus or train are hoping that the Senate floor vote is as clear cut.

(Update: The bill was read for the first time Tuesday and will get a second and third reading Wednesday and Thursday.)

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2 Comments

2 Comments Add yours »

Health Care Now! 5 Aug 2009 6:14 am

looking forward to riding a ‘on-demand’ shuttle bus to Wrightsville Beach.

Steve Jackson 5 Aug 2009 10:47 am

Nice misinformation, Health Care.

How about commuter buses from Clayton, Wilson or Goldsboro so that regular people don’t have to beat up their vehicles and our roads driving hours to and from work every day?

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