A growing, bipartisan chorus of leaders are speaking out about the need to modernize investments in our state’s infrastructure. The latest example? John Hood, a conservative thought leader and President of the John William Pope Foundation, penned an insightful article about North Carolina’s outdated and inadequate funding model for our roads and highways.  

NC Moves has highlighted the massive and growing backlog of transformational transportation projects needed to keep up with the explosive growth across North Carolina.  We have presented statistics and facts about how our current roads and bridges need repairs to be safe.  We have highlighted the impact of congestion on our residents.   

John Hood is singing from the same sheet of music. An excerpt from his recent column:  

I’ve written many times about the defects of our current system for funding highways, which relies too much on per-gallon taxes in a world of improving gas mileage and a growing fleet of electric vehicles. North Carolina needs to figure out the most economical way of moving toward charging motorists by actual usage, not gas consumed. That means adopting some combination of tolling new highway capacity and replacing the gas tax with a mileage-based user fee. 

You don’t like those options? Believe me, I understand. But the alternatives for financing our roads are worse: higher gas taxes, bigger federal deficits, and cross-subsidies from general taxes that sever the link between usage and revenue. 

NC Moves will continue to educate and advocate for a modernized funding model to help maintain and invest in North Carolina transportation.  The economic impacts are too costly to ignore.