Gov. Bev Perdue appointed five men to the N.C. Board of Transportation on Monday. Four have ties to the real estate and development industry.

The new appointees are Sam Halsey, David Burns, Gary Ciccone and Ronnie Wall, Current board member Stan White was reappointed. The DOT board consists of 19 members, each serving a four-year term.

Halsey, who lives in Jefferson, is a realtor and former chairman of the Allegheny County School Board, according to a media release from Perdue's office.

Burns, of Laurinburg, is chief executive officer at Z.V. Pate, Inc. and president at Burns Farms, Inc.

Ciccone, of Fayetteville, is a develoiper and partner in a commercial real estate brokerage firm.

Wall is the mayor of Burlington and an assistant superintendent for the Alamance-Burlington School System.

White, of Nags Head, is the owner of a construction and realty firm and the past chairman of the Dare County Board of Commissioners.

In these times of budget strain, legislators are still pausing to consider the flowers.

The Senate gave final approval Thursday to a bill that increases the number of roads along which the DOT can pursue beautification projects.

The bill allows the state to use money raised from the sale of specialized licence plates — the ones with icons such as the Blue Ridge Parkway or the Durham Bulls logo — to plant flowers along all highways. This money currently is only spent on non-interstate roads.

The flowers already along interstates were funded by the sale of personalized plates — the "PB4UGO"s of the world.

The bill doesn't change how much money is raised through the sale of specialized license plates or what percentage is spent in each district, but it does mean that legislators and others coming into Raleigh on I-40 will see more flowers.

Public relations consultant and one-time candidate for the N.C. House Greer Beaty has signed on as communications director at the Department of Transportation.

Beaty joined the staff on Tuesday, leaving French West Vaughan public relations. She previously worked in various public relations roles for the Department of Commerce and the Smart Start program. In 2006 she ran unsuccessfully as the Democratic challenger to Rep. Nelson Dollar, a Cary Republican.

Beaty, 43, is a native of Rocky Mount and an East Carolina University pirate. She will earn $71,000-a-year.

Secretary of Transportation Gene Conti has replaced his chief information officer, two years after employees griped long and loud about computers and software.

Mark Paxton, the department's CIO since 2003, will be replaced starting Monday by Margaret "Randy" Barnes, who holds the same job at the Department of Revenue.

Two years ago a consultant's report on DOT included employee surveys with considerable complaints about information technology, and then-Secretary Lyndo Tippett got an earful about computers and programming at a November 2007 "town hall" type meeting. One employee explained that Microsoft Office 2003 would be installed on computers during the spring of 2008.

Paxton's hiring in 2003 was the result of a search committee within the department, headed by: then-Chief Deputy Secretary Gene Conti.

In another top techie shift, David Nicolaysen has moved from CIO of the Department of Crime Control & Public Safety to serve as an information technology manager at the Transportation Department.

When the Legislature capped North Carolina's gasoline tax in 2006, it gave politicians something to crow about at election time to show they cared about voters' pain at the pump.

While motorists currently save about a nickel for each gallon they buy because of the cap, its loss for the state Transportation Department is much greater: $600 million.

That's about how much less the department will have taken in cumulatively by the time the cap is scheduled to expire next June 30, compared to the amount that would have been collected had there been no cap, according to state estimates.

The department and General Assembly researchers estimate more than half of that money would have been collected this fiscal year, when record gas prices combined with the state's variable gas tax formula would have brought in more than $400 million extra.

Lawmakers returning to Raleigh in January must decide whether to let the cap expire or extend it and find money elsewhere to pay for road construction and repair. There's an estimated $65 billion gap between transportation revenues and needs in North Carolina through 2030, the Department of Transportation has said.

"Politically to some it would be better not to touch" the cap, said Rep. Becky Carney, D-Mecklenburg, a member of a blue-ribbon transportation funding committee meeting last week. "But there's no money. We're going to have to find it somewhere and it's going to have to be in the form of a tax or fee."

The extra money could have been used to reduce a road-building backlog that now stretches for decades. This year's uncollected money would have been enough to cover the $316 million shortfall now projected for the Highway Trust Fund and Highway Fund this fiscal year. (AP)

State Rep. Bill McGee said an increase in funding for transportation is needed.

"I don't think it's any doubt that if more funding were available it would be put to good and immediate use," McGee said.

McGee is a member of the 21st Century Transportation Committee. The committee is studying the infrastructure needs of the state.

Projects in Forsyth County, the district McGee represents, have been delayed year after year because of low funds, he said.

The Department of Transportation also needs to finish the major roads across the state, which would relieve traffic congestion and tie-ups, he added.

"I think that's something that needs immediate attention," McGee said.

Bill Graham said Tuesday that counties might play a bigger role in transportation if he's elected governor.

"I do think some of the local maintenance issues could be turned over to the county, if you send the money with it. Don't turn it over to the county as an unfunded mandate," said Graham, a Republican and lawyer from Salisbury.

He was speaking at a transportation conference in Cary sponsored by NC Go!, a group backed by transportation contractors that lobbies the state to spend more money on transportation, David Ingram reports.

Unlike many states, North Carolina's road system is highly centralized. The state is generally responsible for building and maintaining all non-city roads, including county roads. But with pressures on the state transportation budget, some state leaders have questioned whether localities need to chip in more.

Graham reiterated his support for ending transfers from the Highway Trust Fund, for focusing on improving interstate highways and for using tolls in some areas.

Five candidates for N.C. governor agreed Tuesday that they don't like transportation bureaucracy.

They spoke at a transportation conference in Cary sponsored by NC Go!, a group backed by transportation contractors that lobbies the state to spend more money on transportation, David Ingram reports.

"The bureaucracy that has to make every decision in Raleigh is antiquated," said Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue, a Democrat, adding that DOT's bureaucracy "needs to be totally reconfigured."

State Sen. Fred Smith of Clayton, a Republican and chief executive of a paving contractor, said DOT's job should be to build roads, "not to elect politicians." He added, "We need the people and the leadership to make sure that we use our money the right way."

N.C. DOT has been a frequent political target in recent months after an external audit called the agency poorly managed and too political.

Also Tuesday, Salisbury lawyer and Republican Bill Graham called the agency a "Soviet-style-managed organization."

Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory, a Republican, said the state has "an organizational process set up for failure." Former N.C. Supreme Court Justice Bob Orr, a Republican, reiterated his proposal to strip the Board of Transportation of its power.

State Treasurer Richard Moore, a Democrat, did not attend the conference.

Fred Smith knows about roads first-hand.

The Republican gubernatorial candidate took over as chief executive officer of Raleigh-based paving company C.C. Mangum Co. in 2004.

He recently told Dome the company gets about 30 percent of its business from public contracts.

Since 2004, the state Department of Transportation has paid C.C. Mangum about $42.4 million for 16 completed and ongoing projects in Wake, Granville, Durham, Orange, Chatham and Johnston counties.

The most expensive project is still being finished. C.C. Mangum bid $35 million for work on N.C. 54 in Durham and Wake counties and has received about $15 million for work so far.

More after the jump.

   Comments (5)

A spokesman for the state Department of Transportation says it was a misunderstanding that led security officers to temporarily deny entry this morning to a News & Observer reporter seeking to attend Board of Transportation meetings.

"That's been cleared up," said Ernie Seneca.

Seneca said the department's policy is to let his office know when reporters show up for the meetings.

Why?

"Well, you know, sometimes we like to know if the media are attending an event," Seneca said. "They may want to interview a member or staff. It's a good idea to know who's covering a particular meeting, what (media) outlets are being represented. And that's all that was intended."