The NC General Assembly gave local citizens a voice in our local transportation needs, specifically including decisions about ferries in coastal counties.
Please attend your local Public Hearing (complete list at end of this email). Contact your County Commissioners and RPO members. We must speak truth to our local Rural Planning Organizations, specifically to the Transportation Advisory Committees.
Ferry tolls will never raise sufficient funds to purchase a new ferry for any route. Tolls will cause grief and hardship on local citizens, without raising significant funds.
Bureaucrats at the NC Dept. of Transportation are threatening local transportation planning organizations. They are trying to coerce the local boards into requesting ferry tolls on all untolled ferry routes. They claim the Legislature mandated this action in the 2014 Budget Senate Bill 402/Session law 2013-360. THIS IS NOT TRUE. See the actual language on pages 308 and 309 of the Budget. NO ferry tolls can be added without a request from the local citizens through their RPO.
NC Dept. of Transportation launched bureaucrats into ferry counties to threaten us with disingenuous information and tactics. They claim the local RPOs MUST vote on ferry tolls. NOT TRUE. On January 9, 2014, the Chairman of the NC Board of Transportation announced, “In adopting this methodology, …we approved tolling...” Listen to his statement on the 1/09/14 meeting video around minute 28:51.
Your local RPO must NEVER ask request a ferry toll. Why? Here are the reasons:
Very little net proceeds will be raised from tolling the untolled ferry routes.
Please attend and encourage other citizens to attend. Come 30 minutes early, register to speak, and express your opposition to ferry tolls. Remember, you are really speaking to persuade your local friends and neighbors on the RPO. Be courteous, respectful, and brief.
Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have questions.
Best regards, Henri and Joe McClees
McClees Consulting, Inc.
Post Office Box 430
Oriental, NC 28571
Office (252) 249-1097
Fax (252) 249-3275
Joe’s mobile (252) 671-1585
Henri’s mobile (252) 671-1559