RALEIGH (Sept. 24, 2015) – Voters in North Carolina – now the nation’s 9th-largest state – appear headed for a decision in March on more than $1.3 billion in bonds to build capacity in higher education.
The state Senate approved a $2 billion bond package today that Senate leaders negotiated with leaders in the state House. The House is expected to take up the bill, HB 943, next week.
A referendum on the bonds would be scheduled with North Carolina’s presidential primary, which is expected to be set for mid-March.
The majority of the bonds would go to finance higher-education projects: More than $980 million at state universities and $350 million at community colleges.
The bill would provide financing for projects at 14 of 17 state university campuses and all 58 community colleges. The package places a particular emphasis on projects in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields.1
In part because maintenance was postponed during the Great Recession, the Board of Governors that oversees the UNC system requested $500 million for repairs and renovations to University buildings.2 The bond package includes $45 million for undesignated repairs and $10 million for a renovation project at Fayetteville State University,3 and the state budget includes $50 million for university repairs in 2015-16.4
Debate on the bonds on the Senate floor addressed the price of neglected maintenance.
“Let’s fund this stuff as we move forward,” said Sen. Rick Gunn, R-Alamance. “Because I tell you, I’ve been in real estate a long time. I’ve been around properties. And when you let ‘em go, they go down quickly and they’re always more expensive to renovate and more expensive to build.”
Sen. Floyd McKissick, D-Durham, pointed out that even though a separate bill would provide NC Central with $10 million for building maintenance, the University has $100 million in maintenance needs. And even though UNC Asheville would not receive any money for new construction, Sen. Terry Van Duyn, D-Buncombe, thanked Senate leaders for dollars to support renovation projects at UNCA.
The $350 million in bonds for community colleges would require local communities to match state bond dollars, with a sliding scale that would require the state’s poorest counties to provide $1 for every $3 of state bond money.5
Sen. Dan Blue, D-Wake, noted that no senators from wealthy urban counties opposed the reduced match requirements for rural counties.
“These workers will wind up all over North Carolina, and it’s important that they get trained in the educational systems where they are,” Blue said. “We’re all one state.”
Sen. Tom McInnis, R-Richmond, said that a new agreement between Richmond Community College and UNC Pembroke will allow students from Richmond and Scotland counties to complete courses at the community college, readily transfer to UNCP and return home as trained educators.
“Community college … is the backbone of economic opportunity in rural North Carolina,” McInnis said.
1 http://www.ncleg.net/Sessions/2015/Bills/House/PDF/H943v5.pdf, pp. 3-7.
2 http://www.northcarolina.edu/apps/bog/doc.php?id=45125&code=bog
3 http://www.ncleg.net/Sessions/2015/Bills/House/PDF/H943v5.pdf, p. 4.
4 http://www.ncleg.net/Sessions/2015/Bills/House/PDF/H97v9.pdf, p. 402.
5 http://www.ncleg.net/Sessions/2015/Bills/House/PDF/H943v5.pdf.
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