Cooper proposes asking voters to approve $4.7 billion for school and state building projects.

Gov. Roy Cooper has again proposed that voters approve borrowing money for statewide construction and renovation projects.

But the idea of borrowing, no matter who comes up with it, has proven to be hard to get legislative approval recently. Senate Republicans prefer paying for buildings with direct appropriations.

As part of his budget this year, Cooper has proposed putting a $4.7 billion bond to a vote in November.

-$2.5 billion would go to K-12 school construction.  A report from the State Board of Education and the  Department of Public Instruction based on a 2015-16 survey found school districts needed $8 billion for buildings, additions, renovations, and other capital costs.

-$500 million would go to community colleges

-$783 million would go to UNC campuses. The largest project is a new Brody School of Medicine building at East Carolina University, at $187 million.

The recommendation includes money for renovations at two of the state’s development centers and two of its neuro-medical centers, the state alcohol and drug treatment center in Black Mountain, and money to expand TROSA, a residential addiction treatment center based in Durham, to the Triad.

The bond recommendation includes $229 million to move the state Department of Health and Human Services from the Dorothea Dix campus in Raleigh to Blue Ridge Road.

Assorted state attractions would get a total of $460 million, including $70 million for NC Zoo exhibits.

Cooper included a $3.9 billion general obligation bond as part of his 2019-20 recommended budget that the legislature did not consider.

The state House has been amenable to the idea of asking voters to approve borrowing for capital projects. In the last two years, House Republicans have put together their own bond proposals, and passed them with little opposition.

In 2019, House Speaker Tim Moore cosponsored a $1.9 billion school construction bond bill that moved swiftly through the House and died in the Senate.

approval.

The House tried again last year, passing a $3.1 billion bond bill with the money to go to school construction and transportation projects. That bill also died in the Senate.