Letter from Phil Kirk

Higher Ed Bond Program on Track

Despite the fact that the $3.1 billion higher education bond issue was passed nearly four years ago, we still receive communications about this campaign from across the country.

NCCBI worked hard with many partners to get the legislation authorizing the bonds for community colleges, the 16 campuses of the University of North Carolina system, and UNC through the General Assembly after it stalled the year before. Then we provided key leadership for the campaign itself. I had the opportunity to chair the campaign steering committee, and Leslie Bevacqua Coman, NCCBI’s vice president of governmental affairs, took a leave of absence and managed the campaign on a day-to-day basis.

George Little, Southern Pines businessman, led the fund-raising efforts that yielded more than $4 million for the statewide campaign. The results were impressive. Seventy-four percent of the state’s voters approved the bonds, and they gained majority support in each of the 100 counties. In politics, 55 percent approval is considered a landslide. This bond is the largest higher education bond ever passed in the entire country.

We recently published a mid-term report on the 2000 Higher Education Bond Program and titled it, “Responding to a new imperative.” In what is believed to be the first time a comprehensive report to the people on bonds which they approved has been issued, we traced the history of the bonds, beginnning with the approval by the UNC Board of Governors in 1999 of the “Building for the New Millennium.” This extensive report documented outmoded buildings, a huge backlog of deferred maintenance, and a growing shortage of critical science and technology facilities on the 16 campauses and three affiliates, including UNC-TV.

The North Carolina Community College System had also completed the fourth phase of its Funding Formula Study that recommended a new capital outlay model featuring an ability-to-pay index for low-wealth counties. Then the General Assembly in bipartisan fashion put the issue on the ballot. Phil Phillips of High Point, who was then chair of NCCBI, was the primary advocate for getting NCCBI heavily involved in the lobbying and in the campaign to pass the bonds.

Not only were the bonds needed to meet some of the current and future needs of the community colleges and UNC campuses, but they also proved to be a boon to the economy in North Carolina at a time when we were losing thousands of manufacturing and other jobs. In the first three years of the bond program, more than 33,000 new jobs were created throughout the state in the construction industry. That number will grow to 88,000 jobs over the life of the program.

As of Jan. 1, almost 90 percent of the projects were in design or under way. As of that date, four campuses had achieved a significant milestone of having all their projects completed or in progress. In the UNC System, there are 316 total projects and 41 were complete as of the first of the year; 154 were under construction, and 86 were in design. Among the community colleges, 31 projects were completed; $134,011,089 had been expended; and $425,426,724 approved for future projects.

University projects are receiving $2.5 billion of the bond money. Thirty-six percent is going into science-related projects, including modernization, new and replacement laboratories, and additions.

Increasing enrollments on every community college and four-year institution campuses are even more dramatic than the information we used to help pass the bonds. UNC enrollment is expected to increase by at least 50,000 students in the next 10 years and at least 57,000 more are expected to enroll in the community college system.

Community colleges are spending 16.6 percent of their funding on renovation projects and the percentage for the universities is 34.7 percent. Frankly, maintenance of existing buildings had been deferred for years, but even the best buildings often no longer met modern standards for equipment and technology.

To make sure the money is spent wisely, the legislature wisely created the Higher Education Bond Oversight Committee, which is co-chaired by Charles Davidson and Paul Fulton. Other members include Kelly Barnhill Sr., Marshall Bass, Peaches Gunter Blank, Mac Everett, Bill Long, David Redwine, Bill Smith, with assistance from Ann Faust, and Kristine Leggett.

For additional copies of this mid-year report, contact Debbie Mueller at dmueller@nccbi.org or 919-836-1404.