GoTriangle 'Optimistic' Light Rail Funding Will Be Restored After Surprise Alternate Cap from Senate

The Durham – Orange Light Rail project may not be out of the woods quite yet under the budget proposals from the North Carolina legislature.

The 17-mile rail proposal has an estimated price tag of nearly $1.6 billion and would be funded at 50 percent with federal dollars, 25 percent from the state and 25 percent locally.

The local funding is slated to come from a sales tax increase approved years ago by Durham and Orange County voters. The project had received initial approval for $138 million from the state and the project’s operator – GoTriangle – was working on securing federal funding.

Then last year’s state budget included a $500,000 cap on light rail spending very late in the proceedings. Mecklenburg County Republican William Brawley said during a committee meeting in May that had the cap been introduced prior to the end of the session, it likely would not have been implemented.

“Let’s be candid guys,” Brawley said, “in September, we would’ve swallowed a lot of bitter pills to get out of town.”

That cap was removed in this year’s House budget proposal. The Senate initially voted to remove the cap also, but the final Senate budget included a cap on light rail spending at 10 percent of the project’s total cost – much less than the 25 percent that would be needed for the project to go forward.

But the cap isn’t dampening the spirit of GoTriangle.

“We are optimistic that the remaining budget language will be adjusted to be able to protect the integrity of the Strategic Transportation Investment law and allow us to continue securing the federal funding that’s needed to deliver these projects that will help relieve congestion and better connect people to jobs, education, health care and other services throughout the area,” spokesperson Mike Charbonneau said.

While remaining optimistic, Charbonneau did say the organization is “concerned” about the newly proposed percentage cap in the Senate budget proposal “that could potentially put us in challenging situations, both from a timing and financial standpoint, to be able to fully implement the Durham-Orange Light Rail project efficiently and on time.”

Charbonneau said, “We’re at a stage where we’re ready to award contracts to begin the design and planning phase.”

It is important to be able to show that the design work is moving forward, Charbonneau said, in order to secure the necessary federal funding in the President’s 2017 budget proposal.

“The timeline we’re really working on is to be able to continue moving forward with those contracts, get the design work done and be able to show that we have a solid financial plan between local, federal and state moving forward in order to make that 2017 mark and be able to have those full federal funds secured by 2019,” Charbonneau said.

Local House Representative Graig Meyer previously told WCHL that he believed the light rail spending cap would, in some form, be a negotiating tool for the Senate in this year’s budget discussions.

Governor Pat McCrory said this week that he wants to see the funding restored for the light rail proposal as a final budget in negotiated, according to the News & Observer.

If the spending cap is lifted, the current plan calls for construction to begin in 2019 with operation beginning in 2026.

GoTriangle ‘Optimistic’ Light Rail Funding Will Be Restored After Surprise Alternate Cap from Senate

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