Bonds worth supporting
Published September 24, 2015
Editorial by Greensboro News-Record, September 24, 2015.
The legislature’s $2 billion bond proposal may accomplish less for more, but it’s worth supporting anyway.
It includes projects worth close to a quarter-billion dollars in Guilford County.
This should have been approved in time to be placed on this November’s ballot. It would have been if legislators responded to Gov. Pat McCrory’s request much sooner. Instead, they left final action until after passing an overdue budget. They also dropped much of what the governor said was needed, such as funds for transportation projects.
Delaying a bond referendum until March will add to the cost of borrowing. Interest rates will go up, so the state will get less than it could for its money. Some projects will be pushed down the road, fewer jobs will be created and the economy will get less of a boost.
Maybe that’s quibbling. The proposal still spends a lot of money on the UNC and community college systems.
It funds an engineering building at N.C. A&T for $90 million. This will be a campus showcase and enhance a university that already ranks as UNC’s No. 3 research institution and the nation’s leading producer of black engineers.
It provides $105 million for a School of Nursing building at UNC-Greensboro. This replaces a $20 million appropriation for a Jackson Library renovation contained in an earlier proposal. The nursing building will allow UNCG to accept more nursing students, and it also will provide additional space for science labs.
Guilford Technical Community College will receive $9.5 million for new construction, repairs and renovation — although Guilford County will have to put up a 50 percent match from local funds.
Also, the National Guard’s McLeansville Readiness Center is slated for a share of $70 million divided among three such facilities in the state.
The bill gives $25 million to the N.C. Zoo to replace the obsolete African Pavilion with an Australasia complex. This was scaled back from $45 million proposed by the Senate. The difference will be spread around to other state parks, including Haw River in Guilford and Rockingham counties. Haw River, one of the state’s newest parks, would receive $1.5 million. The help is welcome, if inadequate, but the state has decided to rely more on a new “dynamic pricing” concept, meaning that state residents will pay more for some activities at their recreation areas.
Gone from the bill are the transportation projects that McCrory said were essential to the state’s economic progress. The legislature boosted transportation funding in the budget, but McCrory wanted more.
“We’d prefer to see transportation projects in addition to what was done in the budget,” Budget Director Lee Roberts said Tuesday.
The university projects stress science and engineering work on our state’s campuses. Community colleges are great worker training centers. Putting more resources into these institutions makes sense.
At the same time, this package creates a sense of missed opportunities. Proposing it sooner could have saved borrowing costs. Adding more transportation projects could have helped move the state forward faster.
The bonds will be worth supporting when voters go to the polls in March, but they won’t accomplish as much as North Carolina needs.
