{"id":19721,"date":"2013-06-06T13:48:43","date_gmt":"2013-06-06T17:48:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raleighpublicrecord.org\/?p=19721"},"modified":"2013-06-10T12:53:41","modified_gmt":"2013-06-10T16:53:41","slug":"bike-pedestrian-funding-from-state-at-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/news\/2013\/06\/06\/bike-pedestrian-funding-from-state-at-risk\/","title":{"rendered":"Bike, Pedestrian Funding from State at Risk"},"content":{"rendered":"

A bill making its way through the House could cut state support for bicycle and pedestrian projects and lessen funding for public transportation.<\/p>\n

HB 817 replaces the equity formula, which has been in place since the 1980s, said Raleigh\u2019s Transportation Manager Eric Lamb. The original formula distributed money in equal parts across the state \u2014 regardless of traffic or population.<\/p>\n

Instead, if approved, HB 817<\/a> would allow the state government to distribute money, the bill\u2019s authors say, to better reflect how the population has grown.<\/p>\n

While that sounds good in theory, Lamb said it leaves bicycle and pedestrian updates pitted against larger projects, such as roads and transit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe key premise is to update the funding formulas and how different regions receive money,\u201d Lamb said. \u201cPart of that is changing the geography of the distribution and changing what types of projects are eligible for what types of money. One of the concerns is how projects of different modes will compete against each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

While sidewalks and curb cuts would be covered as part of road projects, state money would no longer be available to fund independent sidewalk and greenway projects.<\/p>\n

Projects under construction or authorized for construction by June 30 will not be affected, but in Raleigh that approaching cutoff date could endanger the completion of projects such as the Neuse River Greenway<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"neuse<\/a> A sign marks an entrance to the Neuse River Greenway. Photo by Jennifer Wig.<\/p>\n

\n

\n<\/div>\n

The last section of the project is the \u201cRiverbend\u201d section, a 1.2-mile stretch ending near Horseshoe Farm Park. The project uses 80 percent federal money and 20 percent state\u2014and the state match was about $166,000, said Vic Lebsock, senior greenway planner for the city of Raleigh.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe project was approved in April and we had a good chance of having it fully funded, but now that state match could effectively be removed,\u201d Lebsock said. \u201cIt would be totally impossible for construction to be started June 30, based upon the timing of when the funds became available.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are actually two bills proposing this change, one is an independent item in the House and the second as part of the larger budget bill from the Senate.<\/p>\n

It is not clear yet whether it will pass as a bill on its own or as part of the budget said Julie White, executive director of the N.C. Metropolitan Mayors Coalition.<\/p>\n

If passed, the bill would allow statewide projects to move faster and allow more local input than ever before, White said.<\/p>\n

Senate members have suggested cities use funding from the Powell Bill, another state program, to fund street projects, covering the sudden loss of other state funds.<\/p>\n

\u201cUsing that money is kind of an empty promise,\u201d Lamb said. \u201cMost cities use up Powell Bill money to take care of basic resurfacing needs, so it\u2019s kind of backhanded.\u201d<\/p>\n

White agreed that Powell Bill money isn\u2019t a feasible solution for metropolitan areas such as the Triangle.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a challenge for big cities because the Powell Bill is woefully insufficient to do the roadwork it needs to be doing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Dividing the Money<\/strong>
\nThe Senate bill divides money for transportation into a statewide pot, regional pot and divisional pot. Public transportation would be included in the divisional pot, which could strain funding for urban areas. There are 14 proposed highway divisions, and each divisional pot would have $36 million to do all major arterial road projects, White said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat involves any kind of bus and transit efforts, and any rail efforts will come out of that money as well,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

This includes projects such as the Durham-Orange Light Rail Transit Project. Transit efforts like these get expensive, White said, and there wouldn\u2019t be enough in the division tier to do that project.<\/p>\n

In the House version, rail and bus transit would be funded in the regional pot, which would take some of the pressure off of divisional pots for urban areas.<\/p>\n

Statewide money will be determined by data compiled by the Department of Transportation such as travel times savings, congestion, economic competitiveness and safety. The regional pot will be determined per capita and each divisional pot will get an equal share.<\/p>\n

The state and local governments will need to work together to create a formula for spending the divisional pot, White said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey will have to make a decision about what the priorities are because they won\u2019t be able to fund everything,\u201dshe said.<\/p>\n

White said the bill is a huge step forward for the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just have to figure out how to address these few little difficulties,\u201d White said. \u201cThere just isn\u2019t enough money\u2014at some point we have to hope for new revenue options from the House and the Senate, which is ultimately what we need to solve our transportation challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n

As of May 30, the budget bill has gone from the House to pass the Senate, and the independent bill has passed the House and must be reviewed by two more committees in the Senate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A bill in the House and a companion provision in the Senate budget could eliminate state funding for bicycle and pedestrian projects. HB 817 replaces the equity formula, which has been in place since the 1980s, said Raleigh\u2019s Transportation Manager Eric Lamb. The original formula distributed money in equal parts across the state \u2014 regardless of traffic or population.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24107,"featured_media":1886,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15,23],"tags":[1279,1869,1280],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19721"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}