RALEIGH — The number of people killed on North Carolina’s roads increased slightly last year, but remains hundreds lower than a few years ago, according to preliminary numbers compiled by the state Department of Transportation.

The NCDOT says 1,224 people were killed as the result of automobile accidents last year, including 23 bicyclists and 170 pedestrians. That compares with an annual average of 1,560 between 2001 and 2006 and is down from a recent peak of 1,702 in 2007.

The change mirrors a downward trend in highway fatalities nationwide. Automobile deaths in the state are the lowest since 1959, despite growth in population and the number of vehicles on the road, said Arthur Goodwin, senior research associate at the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center in Chapel Hill.

The decline can be attributed to two main factors, Goodwin said.

First, fatalities tend to ebb and flow according to the state of the economy. Goodwin points to a drop of 236 deaths between 2007 and 2008, the year the recession began.

“As the economy improves, people drive more, work more,” Goodwin said, leading to more fatalities on the roads.

While the economy has improved, employment and spending have not returned to their pre-recession highs, helping keep highway fatalities down.

Goodwin also cites improved safety measures as a big factor in the decline of automobile deaths. Features such as anti-lock brakes and air bags help, but researchers say a bigger factor is the increased use of seat belts.

“In North Carolina, approximately 90 percent of drivers and passengers wear seat belts,” Goodwin said.

The number of people wearing seat belts was given a boost by the state’s Click It or Ticket campaign, which increased enforcement of the state’s seat-belt laws, said Don Nail of the Governor’s Highway Safety Program. Nail estimates that when the program began in 1993 only about 60 percent of drivers and passengers wore their seat belts.

Nail says another campaign, focused on speeding, has also yielded results. The DOT reported 319 speed-related fatalities in 2012, down from 335 the year before, and Nail says the No Need 2 Speed campaign, launched in 2009, deserves some of the credit. The campaign uses a combination of improved signage and increased enforcement to help reduce speeding on the state’s roads.

The number of highway deaths related to drunk driving also has declined. The State Highway Patrol, which handles accidents on highways and rural roads, investigated 204 fatal collisions where alcohol was a factor last year, down from 366 in 2011. First Sgt. Jeff Gordon attributes the decline to programs such as Booze It and Lose It, which help educate the public about the dangers of drinking and driving.

“People are making appropriate decisions, choosing a designated driver, calling a cab,” Gordon said.

The decrease in alcohol related deaths also follows a national trend. Gordon says the patrol’s goal is to someday have no alcohol related deaths on North Carolina’s highways.

(The News and Observer)
By Meghan McMullen
Modified Sat, Jan 05, 2013 06:20 AM

Asheville is fighting to keep its municipal water system and avoid a soaking. But the state legislature has the last word.

Other cities should tune in to this drama playing out in the water-wealthy mountain community.

While Asheville operates its own water system, wastewater service is handled by a Metropolitan Sewerage District that covers all of Buncombe County. A legislative study committee reported last year that combining systems could achieve efficiencies, and a bill passed this summer would authorize a sewerage district to exercise “any power” of a city water system. The measure, pushed by Rep. Tim Moffitt, R-Buncombe, and Rep. Chuck McGrady, R-Henderson, was seen as a prelude to a merger. But some critics suspect the ultimate goal is to privatize water services in Asheville. Moffitt and McGrady deny it, but much of this story seems to lie beneath the surface.

The Asheville City Council is trying to block any action to remove the water system from city control. It put the question to city voters in a nonbinding referendum last month. Eighty-six percent said they wanted to keep the system. It passed its own resolution, unanimously, that warned: “The forced taking of … local government infrastructure sets a dangerous precedent in the state of North Carolina, a precedent that will have a chilling effect on any local government investing in needed infrastructure in the future.”

Asheville is currently spending $40 million for water system improvements and believes any compensation it receives if its system is folded into the Metropolitan Sewerage District won’t be adequate. A recent study commissioned by the city placed the value of its water system at $177 million and also said consolidation under MSD management would reduce costs for sewer customers by $18 million to $23 million over nine years but cost Asheville water customers $33 million more.

On the other hand, if Asheville managed the consolidated operation, the city report said, all users would save money. But that has not been an option discussed by legislators, who appear to be preparing for some action in 2013.

The state does have the power to force a regional approach to the provision of water and sewer services. And, with water resources becoming more scarce and environmental concerns putting greater focus on wastewater treatment processes, any means of achieving efficiencies must be considered.

But Asheville’s objections aren’t unreasonable. Like Greensboro, High Point and most other sizable cities in North Carolina, it has made huge investments in water collection, treatment and delivery. At the very least, its customers and taxpayers deserve fair compensation for what they’ve spent. They are the ones who stand to get a soaking.

(News&Record)
Friday, December 28, 2012
Updated 04:30PM

“You cannot build a skyscraper economy on a foundation designed for a farmhouse,” New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in talking about America’s infrastructure. We yearn for that bright future but seem unwilling to take care of what we already have. This failure to invest in infrastructure will result in lost jobs, lost opportunities and even lost lives.

Our country spends about 2.4 percent of its economy on infrastructure. In Europe that percentage is more than doubled. The Chinese spend 9 percent. Much of our current infrastructure was built in the decades following World War II and is outdated, worn out and inadequate for the current population without considering inevitable growth. The American Society of Civil Engineers gives our country’s infrastructure a grade of “D,” saying we need to invest 440 billion dollars a year, about 100 dollars a month per person, just to maintain our current infrastructure.

North Carolina fondly remembers Governor Kerr Scott for “getting us out of the mud,” paving farm to market roads, using the proceeds of an incredibly ambitious 100 million dollar road bond referendum. There are other instances where our state invested in infrastructure but our record is spotty, prompting former State Treasurer Harlan Boyles to advocate a three-pronged budget model consisting of the continuation (existing) budget, expansion (new spending) budget and a capital budget, with a dedicated percentage of state spending devoted to maintaining and improving public infrastructure.

Our recent history points to a paradox in budget priorities. During recent recessionary periods our approach has been to cut government spending, simultaneously throwing large sums of tax credits, incentives and deductions to companies promising to locate here. A New York Times report shows North Carolina governments awarded 660 million dollars on business incentives, more than 69 dollars per person. We consider infrastructure improvements to be expenditures while calling incentives an investment.

Another paradox is we aren’t willing to maintain our current infrastructure at the same time tens of thousands of new residents are moving here every year, increasing demands on roads and bridges, straining already threatened water, sewer and storm runoff systems and filling already overcrowded and outdated schools and other public buildings. Every day we fall further behind, turning our heads to the problem. It is time to demonstrate our faith in our state.

Examine the economics for a large-scale public infrastructure program. With North Carolina’s spotless credit rating and interest rates at historic lows we likely never again be able to borrow money so cheaply. Construction costs are extremely attractive. A program building roads, bridges, water and sewer systems, schools, airports and other public buildings will jump-start job creation, putting people to work, rippling our through our economy and laying a foundation for a better economic future.

Some say we can ill afford to add millions of dollars of debt service to repay bonds, but there never is an ideal time. When Kerr Scott proposed his roads plan our state was not only mired in mud but in economic doldrums following World War II. There were many skeptics but Scott convinced us we needed to invest, not only for current needs but also for North Carolina’s future. We need to start building roads (and other infrastructure) to tomorrow. If we believe in North Carolina we can do no less.

NC SPIN | December 6, 2012 |
by Tom Campbell

Sweepstakes halls across North Carolina will be out of business at least temporarily, after the state’s highest court on Friday upheld a law banning the video games run by businesses that often mimic small, electronic casinos. “The operators and the developers will have to go back to the drawing board to see how they can run a legal business under the law,” said Brad Crone, a spokesman for the Internet Based Sweepstakes Operators. Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, said he looked forward to law officers enforcing the law banning video sweepstakes operations. The state Supreme Court ruled in two cases in which amusement machine and other companies sought to overturn a 2010 law banning sweepstakes machines as a form of gambling. Sweepstakes halls have cropped up because of what justices called a loophole since the state outlawed video poker machines in 2007. The General Assembly determined that businesses that converted from offering video poker gaming to video sweepstakes were using “a mere pretext for the conduct of a de facto gambling scheme,” Justice Robin Hudson wrote for the court. Courts throughout the country have consistently ruled that states have the power to protect public “health, safety, and welfare concerns presented by gambling operations,” Hudson wrote, “even if they cleverly avoid the traditional definition of gambling.”

Amusement machine companies, a software developer, and firms that market long-distance phone and Internet services argued in court there’s no gambling because prizewinners are predetermined. They also argued that the video gaming enjoyed free-speech protections under a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year just like books and films. State attorneys countered that no one has a right to run a gambling operation and that’s what state lawmakers labeled places that offer a sweepstakes where winners or losers are notified by an attention-enticing electronic display. The court ruled the state law regulates the conduct of playing the sweepstakes games, which opponents say feed the same gambling addictions as traditional video poker machines. “While one can question whether these systems meet the traditional definition of gambling,” Hudson wrote, “it is clear that the General Assembly considered these sweepstakes systems to be the functional equivalent of gambling, thus presenting the same social evils as those it identified in traditional forms of gambling.”

Sweepstakes parlor patrons buy Internet or phone time that gives them the opportunity to uncover potential cash and prizes with mouse clicks on a computer screen. Lawmakers have been trying for more than a decade to eliminate video gambling machines and sweepstakes, saying the games can’t be regulated, are addictive to players who lose hard-earned money, and lead to crime and family strife. Lawmakers this summer tried but failed to agree on legislation that would have regulated and taxed video sweepstakes operations. The bipartisan proposal would have allowed the state to assess privilege taxes on sweepstakes establishments and terminals.

by
Emery P. Dalesio
(THE ASSOCIATED PRESS)
12/14/12

A new bipartisan group of business and city leaders has formed to push urban issues in the new Republican-controlled state government. The group, called the N.C. Communities and Business Alliance, includes Democrats such as former Gov. Jim Hunt and Republicans such as former Charlotte mayor Richard Vinroot. The group recently held its inaugural meeting. The group was formed at a time when the traditional voice of the towns and cities, the N.C. League of Municipalities, has been taking a political beating in the legislature on such issues as annexation. “The idea came out of the League of Municipalities that there ought to be a new voice up there for urban areas that represented their issues, and there were plenty of business people who felt the same way,” said Vinroot, a two-time GOP candidate for governor. “The idea is to try to bring business and local government as a voice to be heard in Raleigh.” “These are healthy cities,” Vinroot said. “We want to make sure the leaders in Raleigh understand that. As we watch Detroit sink and literally go out of business, we are thankful we live here and our leaders don’t have to live with those kinds of issues because we have such good, healthy metropolitan areas.”

(Dome, THE NEWS & OBSERVER)
12/16/12

Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, announced that he is naming Sen. Andrew Brock and Sen. Brent Jackson as co-chairs of the Senate Agriculture Committee. Jackson, R-Sampson, currently holds the post, but Brock, R-Davie, is taking the seat of Sen. David Rouzer, who unsuccessfully ran for Congress rather than seeking re-election. Berger also announced that Sen. Rick Gunn, an Alamance County Republican, and Sen. Wesley Meredith, a Cumberland County Republican, will be co-chairmen of the Senate Commerce Committee. The committee has broad jurisdiction to create and oversee state policies to promote economic growth and encourage job creation.

(Dome, THE NEWS & OBSERVER)
12/17/12

The biggest demographic problem for the Republican Party may not be Hispanics, but cities – and increasing urbanization.

In 2012, Democrats won in cities, and Republicans won outside the cities. The more urban a state’s population, the more likely it voted for Obama.

Unfortunately for Republicans – in North Carolina and nationally – cities are where the growth is. Already, the Southern Growth Policies Board says, almost 60 percent of the U.S. population lives in cities of one million or more.

And the trend is accelerating. That’s because most job growth is in the cities – like the Triangle and Charlotte metro areas.

By 2030, North Carolina is expected to grow by another three million people. Where do you think they’ll live?

This is all part of the “Big Sort.” People in cities are younger and more culturally attuned to Democrats. One example: attitudes about gay marriage.

Governor-elect McCrory won big partly because he did better in cities, especially his home county of Mecklenburg. He beat Romney there by some 40,000 votes.

Maybe that’s why McCrory and Speaker Thom Tillis were less vehement about Raleigh’s Dix deal than Senator Phil Berger.

For Democrats, this is all reason for hope.

For McCrory, it poses a policy/political question: Does he resist this trend with his economic-development policies? Does he try to force job growth away from cities? Is that even doable?

By Gary Pearce
(Talking About Politics)
December 10, 2012 14:23

Top priorities for lawmakers in next year’s session will be tax modernization and reforms to state regulations and the education system, House Speaker Thom Tillis said in a long-ranging interview with the Wilmington Star-News. “Those are going to be the three areas that are going to consume I’d say the overwhelming majority of the attention of the Legislature this year,” Tillis said. He made it clear that Republicans,with supermajorities in the House and Senate and a Republican governor unlikely to veto bills, would drive the agenda for the next two years.

Among the first controversial items on lawmakers’ plates when they return to Raleigh will be a bill to require photo identification to vote, Tillis said. The House and Senate passed a voter ID bill last year, but it was vetoed by Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue and Republicans couldn’t muster the votes to override it. But it won’t play out like that this year. A bill will be filed early in the session and move quickly, Tillis said. “There’s no question that (Gov.-elect Pat McCrory) will have a voter ID bill to sign or pass into law, probably by the April timeframe,” he said. The bill will be different than the one considered last year. Lawmakers, Tillis said, are looking at court cases around ID laws in other states and tweaking the legislation accordingly. “We want to implement it in a thoughtful way that makes it less likely that it’s going to be subjected to a legal challenge,” Tillis said. “It may even come in two parts and we’re working through that now.” On tax modernization efforts, Tillis noted that the state should be careful with any changes in the tax code as discussions over the fiscal cliff continue at the federal level and global economic uncertainty lingers.

Tillis said he planned to include Democrats in the legislative process. Soon after the November elections, Tillis picked up the phone to call House Democrats who had shown a willingness to work with the GOP during the previous session. Tillis said the phone calls marked a first step toward working with Democrats during the next two years. Another step, he said, would come when committee assignments are made during the next few weeks. Tillis said Democrats will get a chairmanship and some vice chairmanships on House committees, a sign that Republicans “have shown respect to a number of Democrats in terms of the roles that they’ll be able to play.”

by
Patrick Gannon
(WILMINGTON STAR-NEWS)
12/07/12

The number of lawmakers with extensive legislative experience has dwindled quickly in the House and Senate chambers. Two years after 44 freshmen legislators arrived when Republicans took control of both chambers for the first time in 140 years, another 52 newcomers will arrive when the Legislature reconvenes to pick chamber leaders Jan. 9. When midterm replacements are added, 102 of the 170 legislators seated three years ago are now gone, according to the North Carolina Center for Public Policy Research. “In those legislators that won’t be back, a combined 652 years of institutional memory is lost,” said Ran Coble, the nonpartisan center’s executive director. “That’s huge.” Many newcomers said they don’t want to be confined to the traditional roles of the majority and minority parties, and are willing to reach across the aisle to reduce partisan fighting seen in the past two decades. This attitude also may be attributed to the recent increase in the number of people elected with local government and business experience – two areas where people don’t necessarily take sides based on political labels. “I’ve built great relationships with the Democrats and Republicans and unaffiliated voters, and that’s who I am and that’s how I come to Raleigh,” said Democratic Sen.-elect Gene McLaurin, the mayor of Rockingham for the past 15 years and an oil company president.

Republicans will hold veto-proof majorities in both chambers, and a Republican governor – Pat McCrory – will live in the Executive Mansion. “In the short run, this is a watershed year for the Republican Party,” Coble said, but in the long term “there’s a lot of room for new ideas and a lot of opportunities for new leadership.” Another small-town mayor, Republican Sen.-elect Jeff Tarte of Cornelius, said he looks forward to working with people like McLaurin. But the longtime health care consultant acknowledges harmony can only go as far as agreement on issues. “I hope we reach out, I hope we engage,” Tarte said. “But at the end of the day if you take a very extreme position on something the reality is the majority is going to vote the way it wants to.” The combined turnover following the 2010 and 2012 elections mark the most turnover over a two-cycle period since the 1992 and 1994 elections, according to data provided by Coble’s group.

The high levels are the result of GOP-penned redistricting maps favoring Republicans and forcing incumbent Democrats to step down or face each other in primaries. Veteran legislators like 16-term Rep. Joe Hackney, D-Orange, and 18-term Rep. Harold Brubaker, R-Randolph, retired while others died or left to run for other offices. More than 90 legislators will be in their first or second term when the new two-year session begins. Among the 29 new House Republicans are at least four engineers, a neurosurgeon, hospital president, company executives and small business owners. It counters a recent trend where lawyers and retirees were filling seats while business owners and people with young children stayed at home, unable to commit to long sessions that lasted through the summer.

Redistricting and other factors have increased the number of black lawmakers from the current 25 to 31. Black members now hold a majority of seats in both the Senate and House Democratic caucuses. People who have challenged the districts in court argue the new boundaries actually weaken the power of black votes overall by bundling them in majority-black districts. GOP leaders defend the districts as fair and legal. House Speaker Thom Tillis, R-Mecklenburg, said he expects newcomers will make the legislative process more efficient. He expects most House members to switch over to following bills and amendments during floor debate by computer, not paper. Others will be less influenced by settling old scores with colleagues now gone. “Some institutional memory is good, but there’s also some muscle memory about the way this Legislature has worked in the past, that it’s probably good to move on,” Tillis said.

by
Gary D. Robertson,
(THE ASSOCIATED PRESS)
12/09/12

AUGUSTA, Maine — The Cooks Corner interchange in Brunswick, one of the busiest in the state, hadn’t been repaved since the 1980s, leaving shoppers traveling to nearby malls and tourists driving to scenic Bailey and Orr’s islands to bump over ruts and potholes.

But thanks to a new state transportation program turning some control back to local communities, that section of Route 24 and adjacent roads were repaved this summer. The city applied to the state Department of Transportation for funding in March, and the work was completed in July.
It’s a practical example of one of Gov. Paul LePage’s administration’s core principles, proponents say: cutting red tape and empowering local government.

Under DOT’s Municipal Partnership Initiative, some municipalities get to decide — within some parameters — which roadwork gets completed locally. It’s a new initiative aimed at reducing red tape, expediting construction and creating a partnership that provides good results for both DOT and local communities.
Conceived and developed early last year, the Municipal Partnership Initiative is touted as a creative way to join state and municipal money.

Currently, the new program does not represent a big part of DOT’s spending — just $7.8 million of the department’s total annual construction budget of nearly $500 million.

But Dale Doughty, DOT’s director of operations and maintenance, said the success of the first round of projects — completed during the warm weather months of 2011 and this year — encouraged the department to continue the program, and perhaps add more money in future budgets.

The way DOT completes roadwork has been to develop multiyear plans, identifying work around the state in a priority list. In those cases, no local money is used.

“But they are projects that the department choses,” Doughty said. Under the partnership program, “towns, at their discretion, could come to us,” with their proposals.

The projects for which the municipalities seek state money under the new program are often of low priority for the state, but high priority locally. The program even allows local design with local values in mind.
“If they have a nickel in it,” Doughty said of the municipalities, “our motives become very commingled.”
And it’s more than a nickel. The state will contribute up to 50 percent of the funds. Municipalities can pay the other half, or even solicit private money to get the work done.

To date, nearly 40 Municipal Partnership Initiative projects have been completed.
The Brunswick project cost $700,000, said John Foster, the city’s public works director, with the state and municipality splitting the bill 50-50. Foster praised the program.

“It was very straightforward,” he said. “We got quick answers from them” with “minimal paperwork” required. “It went along really smoothly.”

The city wanted the work to be done at night because of the busy nature of the interchange, and it was able to make that decision unilaterally.

Orono also wanted to pave and improve three key intersections and proposed that the projects be funded in DOT’s multiyear work plan. Just one was funded by the state, so the town applied for and received Municipal Partnership Initiative approval for work at the intersection of College Avenue and Park Street, a project that hadn’t made DOT’s list.

Town Manager Sophie Wilson said the state agreed to pay up to $68,000 for the work, and the town will spend close to that amount as well. The project is being designed and electrical work is expected to be completed this winter. Paving will be done in the spring, Wilson said, which would not have been fiscally possible without the Municipal Partnership Initiative.

Mike Roy, Waterville’s city manager, had high praise for the program. In a three-way cost-sharing agreement, Colby College, the town and the DOT program paid to improve a road near the college.
“It definitely happened faster,” Roy said, through the Municipal Partnership Initiative. “It worked out very, very well.”

Roy said a skeptic could argue that these state-aid or state highways are DOT’s responsibility, and that municipalities shouldn’t have to pay any part of their repair.
“The state simply doesn’t have the money to do what needs to be done,” he said. “There’s been a paradigm shift.”

In the town of York, Doughty said, officials needed to separate storm water runoff from sewage, and in so doing road surfaces had to be torn up. The partnership program helped pay for the repaving, in part because the roads needed such work anyway, and in part because DOT wanted to help the town accomplish its environmental goals.

“That was a good win-win,” he said.

Doughty offers other examples of how the Municipal Partnership Initiative may be used. A town might want to improve road pavement in a downtown area because it could help spur investment, but such work would not be a DOT priority. Or a stretch of road could have perennial drainage problems which does not affect the transportation links DOT worries about, but does cause local problems.

Some of the criteria for consideration by DOT are that projects improve safety, boost economic development and create roads that require less maintenance and improve mobility.

“We want projects that are viable,” Doughty said, and ready to go in the next construction season. “While the money is there, we can move these pretty quick,” he said, by reducing red tape.
DOT spokesman Ted Talbot gave Commissioner David Bernhardt credit for the concept.
“Local control isn’t just about politics,” Talbot said. “It’s also about infrastructure.”

(Bangor Daily News)
By Tom Groening, BDN Staff
Posted Dec. 05, 2012, at 11:33 a.m.