GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 1993

S	1 

SENATE BILL 625

Short Title:  ISTEA Amendments.	(Public)
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Sponsors: Senator Lee.
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Referred to:  Transportation.
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March 29, 1993

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT TO AMEND THE GENERAL STATUTES IN ORDER TO ALLOW FULL IMPLEMENTATION OF THE FLEXIBLE FUNDING AND ALTERNATIVE USES AUTHORIZED UNDER THE FEDERAL INTERMODAL SURFACE TRANSPORTATION EFFICIENCY ACT OF 1991.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
Section 1.  G.S. 136-18(12) reads as rewritten:
"(12)	The Department of Transportation shall have such powers as are necessary to comply fully with the provisions of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991, Pub. L. No. 102-240, 105 Stat. 1914 (1991), as amended, and all other federal aid acts and programs the Department is authorized to administer, and the Department may expend State highway funds and federal aid funds for environmental mitigation, for transportation enhancements, for transportation alternatives, including capital costs for transit, rail, bicycle and pedestrian projects, and for all other purposes authorized by the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991.  The said Department of Transportation is hereby authorized to enter into all contracts and agreements with the United States government relating to survey, construction, improvement and maintenance of roads, urban area traffic operations studies and improvement projects on the streets on the State highway system and on the municipal system in urban areas, under the provisions of the present or future congressional enactments, to submit such scheme or program of construction or improvement and maintenance as may be required by the Secretary of Transportation or otherwise provided by federal acts, and to do all other things necessary to carry out fully the cooperation contemplated and provided for by present or future aid acts of Congress for the construction or improvement and maintenance of federal aid of State highways.  The good faith and credit of the State are further hereby pledged to make available funds necessary to meet the requirements of the acts of Congress, present or future, appropriating money to construct and improve rural post roads and apportioned to this State during each of the years for which federal funds are now or may hereafter be apportioned by the said act or acts, to maintain the roads and other projects provided for or constructed or improved with the aid of funds so appropriated and to make adequate provisions for carrying out such construction and maintenance.  The good faith and credit of the State are further pledged to maintain such roads now and other projects constructed or provided for built with federal aid and hereafter to be built and to make adequate provisions for carrying out such maintenance.  Upon request of the Department of Transportation and in order to enable it to meet the requirements of acts of Congress with respect to federal aid funds apportioned to the State of North Carolina, the State Treasurer is hereby authorized, with the approval of the Governor and Council of State, to issue short term notes from time to time, and in anticipation of State highway revenue, and to be payable out of State highway revenue for such sums as may be necessary to enable the Department of Transportation to meet the requirements of said federal aid appropriations, but in no event shall the outstanding notes under the provisions of this section amount to more than two million dollars ($2,000,000)."
Sec. 2.  G.S. 136-44.20(d) reads as rewritten:
"(d)	Of the amount appropriated to the Department each year for State construction under the Transportation Improvement Program, the Department may use up to five million dollars ($5,000,000) to develop economical transit alternatives to highway construction.  The Department of Transportation may also use such funds for the matching share of federal grants for such transit alternatives to highway construction.  These alternatives may include high occupancy vehicle lanes and rail routes."
Sec. 3.  This act is effective upon ratification.