RALEIGH, N.C. — Gov. Josh Stein signed the state budget into law last week, starting the clock on a 90-day reprieve before local governments in the Charlotte area face financial penalties for dropping the Interstate 77 toll lane expansion in May.
Stein expressed frustration over the I-77 amendment included in the budget, citing the Republican-majority legislature’s budget “flaws.” He went on to lament “unconstitutional and wrong-headed provisions like those shifting power from the executive branch or those that are hostile to local governments, especially Charlotte.”
Retroactive to Jan. 1, it states that any local governments responsible for dropping a regional transportation project after preliminary engineering and consulting must repay those initial expenses to the state. The estimated cost for I-77 is $60 million, though at least one state transportation board member has said those expenses date to 2018. Other questions have proliferated about the legality and enforcement of such a provision.
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