McCrory: Connect NC ‘extremely important’

N.C. Department of Public Safety Secretary Frank Perry joined Governor Pat McCrory as he visited ECU on Monday to discuss the Connect NC bond act, which goes before voters on March 15. Also speaking at the event were Chancellor Steve Ballard and Pitt Community College President Dennis Massey. (Photos by Cliff Hollis)

By Doug Boyd
ECU News Services

Gov. Pat McCrory stopped at East Carolina University on Monday to tout the $2 billion Connect NC bond act, saying its proceeds are vital to educating workers for the future.

The bond would provide $90 million to build a new biotechnology and life sciences building at ECU if voters approve it next week when they go to the polls for the state’s primary races.

“The most important election on March 15 is not the presidential election or the primaries,” said McCrory, who himself faces two primary opponents. “These bonds are extremely important to North Carolina.”

In addition to the money ECU would receive, the 16 other University of North Carolina institutions, the state’s community colleges, state parks – nine of which are in eastern North Carolina – and the N.C. Zoo, the National Guard and local water and sewer projects would also receive funding from the bond. Officials have said the bond would not require a tax increase.

“It is budgeted, it is paid for, it will require no new tax increase,” McCrory said. “In five years, debt will be less than today.

“I don’t see their alternative plan,” he added, referring to critics who oppose the bond. “If we wait, the cost will be greater for taxpayers in the future.”

Others who spoke in favor of the bond were ECU Chancellor Steve Ballard, Pitt Community College President Dennis Massey and N.C. Department of Public Safety Secretary Frank Perry.

Ballard pointed to the enrollment growth at ECU since the Howell Science Complex opened in 1969. The proposed life sciences and biotechnology building would replace Howell, which was built when enrollment totaled 9,000. Today, it exceeds 28,000, with thousands of students taking biology-related courses and labs, Ballard said.

The new building would be the home of the biology department, the Pharmaceutical Development and Manufacturing Center of Excellence and the biomedical/bioprocess engineering department.

Biomedical and bioprocess engineers earn a median income of nearly $87,000 a year, and job growth is predicted to climb 27 percent by 2022, Ballard said.

Massey pointed to the earnings gap that exists across North Carolina and the need to educate students in the field of advanced manufacturing, an area where the community college cooperates with ECU.

“Without this, we’re going to be much worse off as a state,” Massey said. “We need this to move forward.”