Legislators debate merits of UNC projects

RALEIGH – Members of a House subcommittee Thursday challenged the merits of two UNC items at the top of the university system’s legislative wish list.

Primarily, legislators questioned whether a new dental school at East Carolina University is a sound investment and whether a large expenditure for UNC-Chapel Hill’s Carolina North project would crowd out funding for other programs statewide.

The debate came during the second day of hearings in the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Capital to discuss the University of North Carolina’s capital budget requests for the 2007-09 biennium. Legislators had asked UNC Vice President for Finance Rob Nelson to return to answer questions.

UNC has presented legislators with more than $839 million in capital budget requests for the 2007-09 biennium. Of that, $403.8 million would come in 2007-08 and $435.6 million in the following fiscal year. Legislators expressed concern about the large amount of funds for the biennium as well as the size of anticipated future requests for some projects.

For instance, legislators pointed out that while the Carolina North project is only seeking $12.24 million for planning funds currently, future requests are estimated at more than $232 million. That is on top of requests, at UNC-Chapel Hill, of $119 million for a genomic sciences building and $96 million for expansions at the School of Dentistry.

Carolina North is the long-discussed research campus at UNC-Chapel Hill that would be similar to the Centennial Campus at North Carolina State. It would be located at Horace Williams Airport in Chapel Hill.

Ranking Republican Vice Chair Rep. Robert Grady, R-15, said during the meeting that spending for Carolina North could come at the expense of other projects. He said one of two things could occur if Carolina North is funded. The first is that the request would drain the UNC system; the second is that a complete appropriation to build Carolina North would not occur in lifetime of many attending the meeting.

Nelson said the $232 million would be spread out over a number of years.

“It’s a huge commitment to build these things,” Grady said. “These costs you see here are just the beginning.”

Legislators also questioned the need to build a dental school at East Carolina University while also funding improvements at UNC-Chapel Hill. UNC wants $87 million for East Carolina’s School of Dentistry and $96 million for UNC-Chapel Hill’s current school. Improvements to UNC-Chapel Hill’s dental school were included in the plan to build the ECU dental school when the Board of Governors approved the request in November. Part of the plan also included efforts to improve dental health in eastern North Carolina through community-based dental centers.

According to Rep. Bill Current, a Republican legislator and dentist from Gastonia who is opposed to the ECU Dental School, told committee members the ECU school would only add 50 dental students, while UNC-Chapel Hill would have 80 students.

“We’re spending a lot of money for 130 students,” said Rep. Hugh Holliman, D-81.

Many dentists in the state have opposed the ECU dental school on the grounds that it would not provide better service to underserved rural areas but merely increase the supply of dentists in cities. Rep. Marilyn Avila, R-40, asked if the money could be better spent more effectively, saying that she isn’t in favor of that much money being spent on the project.

Rep. Carry Allred, R-64, said the project seemed very political.

“It’s ridiculous to start a new dental school for what seems like a feather in someone’s cap,” Allred said. “… That’s not a wise expenditure.”

This is just the first in many debates over what will be included in the capital budget request to the legislature and how much, if any, of UNC’s requests will be funded. In February, Gov. Mike Easley proposed that many of UNC’s projects be funded through a special bond election, to be submitted to the voters in November. The bond proposal would also fund other state projects, such as corrections.

Legislators have since introduced a bond bill that would also call for a November election. This bond would cover capital projects for public schools, and UNC bond projects were not included in that bill.