News

Here is a brief weekly update from the RTA business coalition – the voice of the regional business community on transportation.

North Carolina state budget becomes law

Only three days after President Biden signed the $1 trillion-plus federal infrastructure bill, North Carolina Governor Cooper signed our state budget into law. Of interest from a mobility standpoint is a provision in the newly-passed state budget that would reallocate some revenue from short-term vehicle leases to the State Highway Fund (instead of the North Carolina General Fund). This is both an important improvement — roughly $90 million annually — and a starting point for achieving a broader, more robust revenue solution for mobility infrastructure.

As I noted in last week’s blog, we will continue to press for sustainable and modernized revenue solutions to keep our growing region and state moving. Kudos to the NC Chamber and our other partners across the region and state in the Destination 2030 coalition for continuing to elevate this issue. My professional view is that the successful bipartisan compromise that created a viable state budget has also laid the groundwork for more success on transportation policy and related revenue legislation. 

RTA South Florida tour — our agenda is coming together

We are just over two months away from what may be our greatest regional leadership tour as an organization, and our most important as a region. RTA tour honorary chairs Mary-Ann Baldwin, Mayor of Raleigh; J. Eric Boyette, NCDOT Secretary of Transportation; and RTA chair-elect Harold Hicks with RTI International look forward to welcoming business, elected, and transportation leaders from our extended region and beyond to South Florida in late January.

The RTA Regional Leadership Tour to South Florida, presented by GoTriangle and the NC Railroad Company, will be held from January 26-28, 2022. The tour creates a wonderful opportunity for both the public and private sectors to demonstrate a shared commitment to learning together and to advancing new multimodal options and ideas for the Research Triangle region and for North Carolina.

As I discuss in this week’s blog, our agenda is coming together. And I hope you do come join us in south Florida, because the visit won’t be the same without you. Please register here; feel free to reach out to me or my colleague Alicia Miller with any questions. Thank you to our RTA presenting sponsors the North Carolina Railroad Company and GoTriangle, and to our RTA tour sponsors: WSP, the Research Triangle Foundation of North Carolina, Kimley-Horn, and HDR.

Let’s get moving,

Joe Milazzo II, PE
RTA Executive Director

Click here for prior RTA Member Briefings and RTA Blogs.