Previously, I’ve blogged about Governor Perdue’s statist desire to secure ownership of four dams in the Uwharrie region of North Carolina currently owned by Alcoa. The General Assembly has capitulated and passed legislation, providing Perdue with a means to acquire ownership of the dams. The legislation, HB972, creates the Uwharrie Regional Resources Commission which has all [...]
Transportation & Infrastructure Archives
- Jul26
Potential Scandal in Perdue DOT
It looks as though the Durham Herald-Sun may be on to something. Early this morning, an article was posted to the newspaper’s website outlining a scenario in which the Perdue Administration could be implicated in a convoluted plot to skirt local zoning regulations in Durham. Such an accusation is certainly worth examination, although the relationship [...]
- Jul23
Affirmative Action in Contracting Affirmed by Court
The United States 4th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that state agencies and departments may show favoritism to businesses owned by Blacks and Native Americans. Details about the case can be read here, but the gist of it is that a business submitting the lowest bid did not receive a contract with the North Carolina [...]
- Jul21
If It’s Good Enough for Britian’s PM…
Then why can’t Governor Perdue fly commercial every once in a while? British Prime Minister David Cameron trekked across the pond on a commercial British Airways flight and saved his country $300,000 in travel costs according to The Sun. Yet, NC Governor Bev Perdue continues to hopscotch around the state and nation in a Department [...]
- Jul21
New Commission Could Acquire Alcoa’s Dams
The General Assembly has created an avenue through which the state may strike a blow to property rights. As reported in the Charlotte Observer on Monday, the General Assembly passed HB972 which is an act to create the Uwharrie Regional Resources Commission. The bill was sponsored by Rep. Cullie Tarleton (D-Watauga) and passed unanimously in [...]
- 1May20
State Aircraft Waste
The state of North Carolina deserves some credit for selling off two planes, one each from the Department of Commerce and the Department of Transportation, per the suggestion of an April 2010 report on the massively inefficient and startlingly cost-ineffective operation of state-owned aircraft. The Department of Commerce sold a 27 year old passenger aircraft [...]
- Apr21
Perdue Proposes 25% Increase in Vehicle Registration Fees
Tucked away in the Governor’s recommended 2010-11 budget proposal is a $75 million hike in Department of Motor Vehicle fees. Because the state’s Department of Transportation has done such a woeful job of budgeting its annual funds, the Gov. is proposing the creation of a “N.C. Mobility Fund,” whose purpose would be to “provide a [...]
- Mar29
N.C. DOT: Building Roads to Nowhere
This N&O story discusses how road funding in North Carolina is based on an antiquated “equity formula” rather than allocated based on need. The equity formula was created in 1989, under then-Gov. Jim Martin, a Republican, with goals that included ensuring that nearly everyone in the state will live within 10 miles of a four-lane [...]
- Mar24
New Report Measuring Success of High Speed Rail
Randal O’Toole, senior fellow with the Cato Institute released a new policy report today urging taxpayers to look closely at the so-called “success” behind high speed rail. The full report is available here. The agencies that spend taxpayer dollars building these lines almost invariably call them successful even when they go an average of 40 [...]
- Mar08
The High-Speed Money Train Continues
Where should Obama look for his high-speed rail revival? No further than the Acela rail services along Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor-that is, according to Christian Wolmar of the NYTimes. Connecting Washington DC and Boston, the tracks offer the best “test case” for Obama to demonstrate high speed rail efficiency. Here are some highlights of the article: [...]
- Feb23
The “Jobs Governor” Didn’t Get the Memo
According to Alan Reynolds, senior fellow at the Cato Institute, the federal stimulus actually added about 2 percentage points to the unemployment rate. The jobs the stimulus was claimed to have created or saved can be mostly attributed to extending unemployment benefits and bolstering government programs such as Social Security and Medicaid. Additionally the 4th [...]
- 4Feb23
Your Tax Dollars at Work
Pretty neat video of 58 million of your tax dollars hard at work. Some aerial footage of the new data center being built by Apple in Catawba County. I’m still waiting for all the greeny environmentalists to put down their iPhones or iPads long enough to notice the number of poor defenseless trees who gave [...]
- Feb22
NC DOT Gets One Right
Late last Friday, the NC Department of Transportation released a new report that represents a major step forward for the department — they are now using a “data-driven approach is being used to score projects across the state” as opposed to its previous scoring system relying on political favor and cronyism for transportation projects. This [...]
- Feb17
North Carolina to be saddled with long-term drain on resources
At least that’s how the headline for this story about federal stimulus funds coming to North Carolina for high-speed rail projects should have read. As this Heartland Institute article points out, high-speed rail lines are nothing to celebrate: Nowhere in the world does high-speed rail make a profit. The director of high-speed rail at the [...]
- Jan28
What a Waste of Money
If you wanted to increase travel efficiency between Raleigh and Charlotte, what is the better use of $520 million? 1. Upgrade a rail line (but not fully) that serves a few hundred people per day that could possibly grow to a couple of thousand people per day. 2. Replace the Yadkin River Bridge ($300M) and [...]
- Dec01
Watch what Perdue does – not what she says!
Yesterday Gov. Bev Perdue was talking about completing the I-485 loop around Charlotte. While talking she said: “We want you to have a reason to bring it in under budget, and done well, and done so as to last for the next 50 years,” Perdue said. “The only way I think you can do that, [...]
- Oct22
Dell to Cost Taxpayers an Additional $53 million
In what has to be seen as a somewhat bizarre and highly questionable decision, the NC DOT has decided to continue with its plans to expand a Winston-Salem road that leads to the soon to be empty Dell manufacturing plant. From today’s W-S Journal: Even though Dell said earlier this month that it will close [...]
- Oct15
Heath Shuler Sponsors “Guns On A Train” Bill
Western NC Congressman Heath Shuler continues to frustrate liberals by sponsoring another 2nd Amendment bill in Congress. This time he has teamed up with fellow Democrat Mike Ross (D-AR) and Republicans John Fleming (R-LA), Spencer Baucus (R-AL), Trent Franks (R-AZ), Denny Rehberg (R-MT) to sponsor HR 3789 to finally sort out how law abiding citizens [...]
- 1Oct12
Rosy rail corridor…umm no
The N&O reveals (yet again) that it failed Economics 101. Taking cues from a new study put out by the Brookings Institution, the editorial praises the Southeast High-Speed Rail Corridor as the obvious choice to lighten air travel. The study concluded that 1.1 million people flew last year between RDU airport and either Charlotte or [...]
- Sep21
Making the Point on Light Rail
Isn’t it funny when lefties try to think they are making a point but all it does is further reinforce the arguments against a subject? In a blog post this morning, Chris Fitzsimon tried to make the case for light rail by pointing to an article in today’s New York Times about the “success” of [...]