Not So Fast With Fed Money For High-Speed Rail
UPDATE: Um, nevermind
As rail-transit enthusiasts and cheerleaders for big government spending celebrate clearing a hurdle that would land North Carolina upwards of $461 million in federal grants for high-speed rail from Charlotte to Raleigh, a growing number of Republicans in the General Assembly are hopping on board legislation that would require the state to return the federal largess.
Rep. Ric Killian, a Mecklenburg Republican who co-chairs a House appropriations subcommittee on transportation, on Monday filed legislation that would “prohibit the [NC] Department of Transportation from accepting federal funds for a high-speed rail project without explicit authorization from the General Assembly, and to provide a penalty for the Department of Transportation for non-compliance.”
The penalty has some teeth: According to the legislation, “any funds received by the State from the federal government for high-speed rail projects shall be deposited into the General Fund to be appropriated at the discretion of the General Assembly by a later act. Additionally, the Department of Transportation shall pay from the Highway Fund any penalties, interest, or other charges that result from its acceptance of funds…”
Rep. Phillip Frye, a Spruce Pine Republican and co-chair of the House transportation subcommittee, joined Killian in filing the legislation, which has already attracted three co-sponsors (Glen Bradley, Fred Steen and Harry Warren). The timing of the proposed legislation is appropriate.
The NCDOT announced today that it had secured an agreement from Norfolk Southern Railway that would clear the tracks for the state to accept $461 million in federal grants for the Charlotte-to-Raleigh high-speed rail project, part of a $545 million stimulus jackpot the Obama administration had promised to North Carolina last year. The Federal Railroad Administration had withheld a majority of the money until NCDOT could reach a deal with Norfolk Southern that would ensure freight trains wouldn’t interfere with high-speed rail travel.
Proponents of the high-speed rail project say it will create about 4,800 jobs over the next two years and, once the tracks are completed, cut the travel time from Charlotte to Raleigh to less than three hours.
The project has particular significance to Charlotte, shelling out nearly $90 million for a railroad bridge near a proposed uptown transportation hub central to serving Charlotte Area Transit System’s plans for future rail-transit corridors.
But accepting federal grants to fund construction of high-speed rail, critics say, comes with a steep price: There’s no job-creation guarantee and paying for long-term operating costs of the rail line would require spending millions of local dollars.
That’s why Republican governors in Ohio, Wisconsin and Florida have all recently rejected a combined nearly $4 billion in federal grant funding for rail projects in their states.
In North Carolina’s case, Killian said, local money required down the line to pay for future operating costs of the high-speed rail project would likely be raided from the state’s Highway Trust Fund.
“Unfortunately, we don’t have a governor who is fiscally responsible,” Killian said, explaining the need for the proposed legislation that would effectively prohibit Gov. Beverly Perdue’s Department of Transportation from accepting the federal grants. “It’s not free money, no matter what some people think.”
Killian said the aptly named “No High-Speed Rail Money From the Federal Government” bill is already gaining “very strong support” from other Republicans in the General Assembly, and he hopes to move it forward as early as next week.
“It doesn’t make any sense to use federally borrowed money to build a project of questionable merit that would cost us millions of dollars to operate and maintain,” Killian said.
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