State Portion of Funding for Street Maintenance (a/k/a “Powell Bill” Funds)

NC State Street-Aid Program for Maintenance (a/k/a “Powell Bill” Funds)

A portion of every municipality’s annual budget revenue is comprised of funds received from the State of North Carolina for maintenance of public streets. The State’s Street-Aid Program, commonly known as “Powell Bill” funding, began in 1951 when North Carolina State Senator Junius Powell of Columbus County (and former Mayor of Whiteville) introduced a bill in the NC General Assembly that was enacted that year as Session Law 1951-260 and referred to initially as the “Powell Act”. A certain percentage of funds derived from the State’s taxes on the sale of gasoline would be apportioned to the municipalities across the State to be used for maintenance of public streets maintained by those cities and towns. In order to qualify to received annual “Powell Bill“ funding, a municipality’s streets must only be open for use by the general public and must have an average width of not less than sixteen feet wide. No other standards are required by the program. Last year for FY 2014-2015, the Town of Southern Shores received $118,000 from the State’s Powell Bill funding for maintenance of its public streets. This revenue supplements Southern Shores’ own annual budget appropriations for street maintenance utilizing annual revenues derived from its own local sources, including property, occupancy, land transfer, and sales tax revenues. Here is a link to the program’s description and the applicable codified statutes.