Local officials and transportation planners have learned that their local road projects are on the chopping block. North Carolina’s State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) is overprogrammed.

North Carolina does not have enough money to pay for all of the transportation projects we need to complete.

“[Tristan] Winkler said the draft STIP for 2024-2033, which was released this spring, is trying to correct its budget for projects, which is overprogrammed by $8 billion.

‘It’s my understanding there’s no immediate shortfall in cash, but looking at what’s expected over the next 10 years versus the money that’s anticipated to be available, there’s an 8-billion-dollar shortfall,’ Winkler said.”

Our state elected leaders must modernize our transportation revenue stream to keep up with the growing needs of our state. Otherwise, local projects will continue to be kicked down the road.

One easy fix – Stop the Transfer!

Right now in North Carolina, sales tax revenue generated from the use of our highways gets diverted to the state’s “General Fund” instead of helping maintain and improve our roads and bridges. That means the money from transportation doesn’t go back into transportation. It goes into the state’s biggest pot of money, where it can be spent on anything and everything.

One common-sense way we can improve transportation and shake loose the state’s growing backlog of infrastructure projects? Stop the transfer. We encourage legislators to dedicate a portion of sales and use tax revenues to address our transportation needs.