A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to provide stability and predictability within the state ferry system by restoring state control to the setting of ferry tolls and providing state funds for the rehabilitation and replacement of ferries and other capital improvements, as recommended by the house select committee on strategic transportation planning and long term funding solutions.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  G.S. 136‑82 reads as rewritten:
"§ 136‑82.  Department of Transportation to establish and maintain ferries.
(a)	Powers of Department. – The Department of Transportation is vested with authority to provide for the establishment and maintenance of ferries connecting the parts of the State highway system, whenever in its discretion the public good may require.

	
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(f)	Authority to Generate Certain Receipts. – The Department of Transportation, notwithstanding any other provision of law, may operate or contract for the following receipt‑generating activities and, except as otherwise provided in subsection (f1) of this section, use the proceeds exclusively for prioritized North Carolina Ferry System ferry passenger vessel replacement projects in the Division in which the proceeds are earned:
(1)	Operation of, concessions on the ferries and at ferry facilities to provide to passengers on the ferries food, drink, and other refreshments, personal comfort items, Internet access, and souvenirs publicizing the ferry system.
(2)	Sponsorships, including, but not limited to, the sale of naming rights to any ferry vessel, ferry route, or ferry facility.
(3)	Advertising on or within any ferry vessel or at any ferry facility, including, but not limited to, display advertising and advertising delivered to passengers through the use of video monitors, public address systems installed in passenger areas, and other electronic media.
(4)	Any other receipt‑generating activity not otherwise forbidden by applicable law pertaining to public health or safety.
Proceeds may be used to fund ferry passenger vessel replacement projects or supplement funds allocated for ferry passenger vessel replacement projects approved in the Transportation Improvement Program. The Department may issue rules to implement this subsection.
(f1)	Use of Receipts Generated From Shipyard. – The Department of Transportation shall credit the proceeds from receipts generated under subsection (f) of this section from activities performed by the North Carolina State Shipyard to a reserve account within the Highway Fund to be used exclusively for improvements to the Shipyard, including equipment and associated infrastructure.
(g)	Confidentiality of Personal Information. – Identifying information obtained by the Department related to operation of the ferry system is not a public record under Chapter 132 of the General Statutes and is subject to the disclosure limitations in 18 U.S.C. § 2721 of the federal Driver's Privacy Protection Act. The Department shall maintain the confidentiality of all information required to be kept confidential under 18 U.S.C. § 2721(a), as well as any financial information, transaction history, and information related to the collection of a user fee from a person, including, but not limited to, photographs or other recorded images or automatic vehicle identification or driver account information generated by radio‑frequency identification or other electronic means. The Department may use identifying information only for purposes of collecting and enforcing user fees. Nothing in this section is intended to limit the right of any person to examine that person's own account information, or the right of any party, by authority of a proper court order, to inspect and examine identifying information."
SECTION 2.  G.S. 7A‑312(a) reads as rewritten:
"(a)	A juror in the General Court of Justice including a petit juror, or a coroner's juror, but excluding a grand juror, shall receive twelve dollars ($12.00) for the first day of service and twenty dollars ($20.00) per day afterwards, except that if any person serves as a juror for more than five days in any 24‑month period, the juror shall receive forty dollars ($40.00) per day for each day of service in excess of five days. A grand juror shall receive twenty dollars ($20.00) per day. A juror required to remain overnight at the site of the trial shall be furnished adequate accommodations and subsistence. If required by the presiding judge to remain in a body during the trial of a case, meals shall be furnished the jurors during the period of sequestration. Jurors from out of the county summoned to sit on a special venire shall receive mileage at the same rate as State employees."
SECTION 3.  G.S. 136‑189.11(b)(8) is repealed.
SECTION 4.  The Board of Transportation shall cease collecting ferry tolls on the effective date of this act and shall take action as expeditiously as possible to repeal its regulations implementing ferry tolls. Prepaid tolls or commuter pass payments received by the Department of Transportation for ferry trips on or after the effective date of this act shall be refunded or, in the case of prepaid commuter passes, partially refunded based on the proportion of the time period covered by the commuter pass for which tolls were in effect. Any funds remaining in the reserve accounts described in G.S. 136‑82(d) as of the effective date of this act shall be used for the rehabilitation and replacement of vessels and infrastructure at the North Carolina State Shipyard and the system terminals.
SECTION 5.  Beginning in the 2016‑2017 fiscal year, there is appropriated from the Highway Fund to the Ferry Division of the Department of Transportation thirteen million eight hundred fifty thousand dollars ($13,850,000) in recurring funds to be used for the rehabilitation and replacement of vessels and infrastructure at the North Carolina State Shipyard and the system terminals.
SECTION 6.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2016.