A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to remove the Garden Parkway in Gaston County from the list of Turnpike authority projects and to prevent the expenditure of any further state funds on the project.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  G.S. 136‑89.183(a) reads as rewritten:
"§ 136‑89.183.  Powers of the Authority.
(a)	The Authority shall have all of the powers necessary to execute the provisions of this Article, including the following:
…
(2)	To study, plan, develop, and undertake preliminary design work on up to seven Turnpike Projects. At the conclusion of these activities, the Turnpike Authority is authorized to design, establish, purchase, construct, operate, and maintain the following projects:
a.	Triangle Expressway, including segments also known as N.C. 540, Triangle Parkway, Western Wake Freeway in Wake and Durham Counties, and Southeast Extension in Wake and Johnston Counties, except that no portion of the Southeast Extension shall be located north of an existing protected corridor established by the Department of Transportation circa 1995, except in the area of Interstate 40 East.
	c.	Monroe Connector/Bypass.
d.	Cape Fear Skyway.
e.	A bridge of more than two miles in length going from the mainland to a peninsula bordering the State of Virginia, pursuant to G.S. 136‑89.183A.
…."
SECTION 2.  G.S. 136‑176(b2) reads as rewritten:
"(b2)	There is annually appropriated to the North Carolina Turnpike Authority from the Highway Trust Fund the sum of seventy‑seven million dollars ($77,000,000). Of the amount allocated by this subsection, twenty‑five million dollars ($25,000,000) shall be used to pay debt service or related financing costs and expenses on revenue bonds or notes issued for the construction of the Triangle Expressway, twenty‑four million dollars ($24,000,000) shall be used to pay debt service or related financing expenses on revenue bonds or notes issued for the construction of the Monroe Connector/Bypass, and twenty‑eight million dollars ($28,000,000) shall be used to pay debt service or related financing expenses on revenue bonds or notes issued for the construction of the Mid‑Currituck Bridge. The amounts appropriated to the Authority pursuant to this subsection shall be used by the Authority to pay debt service or related financing costs and expenses on revenue bonds or notes issued by the Authority to finance the costs of one or more Turnpike Projects, to refund such bonds or notes, or to fund debt service reserves, operating reserves, and similar reserves in connection therewith. The appropriations established by this subsection constitute an agreement by the State to pay the funds appropriated hereby to the Authority within the meaning of G.S. 159‑81(4). Notwithstanding the foregoing, it is the intention of the General Assembly that the enactment of this provision and the issuance of bonds or notes by the Authority in reliance thereon shall not in any manner constitute a pledge of the faith and credit and taxing power of the State, and nothing contained herein shall prohibit the General Assembly from amending the appropriations made in this subsection at any time to decrease or eliminate the amount annually appropriated to the Authority. Funds transferred from the Highway Trust Fund to the Authority pursuant to this subsection are not subject to the equity formula in G.S. 136‑17.2A."
SECTION 3.  No additional funds shall be expended by the North Carolina Department of Transportation for planning, design, financing, or construction of the Garden Parkway project during the 2013‑2015 fiscal biennium.
SECTION 4.  Section 3 of this act is effective when it becomes law. The remainder of this act becomes effective July 1, 2013.