RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) – North Carolina will face serious problems such as increased joblessness, more highway deaths and further congestion if politicians don’t develop a strategy for funding transportation needs, business leaders said Wednesday as the General Assembly met for the first day of a new session.
“North Carolina, in our opinion, is at a crisis point,” said Lew Ebert, president and chief executive officer of the N.C. Chamber. The crisis will deepen in July when the state must refigure the gas tax, which will drop because of the decrease in the price of oil, he said. The gas tax provides about 70 percent of the Transportation Department’s budget.
The state faces a funding gap of $65 billion to pay for transportation needs and has no strategy to cover that difference, he said at a news conference.
“This is probably the most studied issue in recent North Carolina history,” he said. “The only thing that’s happened since all the studies have been written is the needs have become more urgent. And like most big problems, they don’t get better with time.”
Although the Chamber handed out a report the Institute for Transportation and Research and Education at North Carolina State University that included funding options, Ebert declined to endorse any of those possibilities, which include tax increases.
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