Editor’s note: Justin LeBlanc will talk at the Ocracoke Civic & Business Association meeting about what the Ocracoke Access Alliance did and learned from their trip to the NC Legislature in Raleigh in January about Ferry Division funding and tolling. The meeting will be Monday, Feb. 16, at 6 p.m. in the Community Center.
From our news services
The Ocracoke Access Alliance has sent a letter to Gov. Josh Stein and North Carolina Department of Transportation Secretary Daniel Johnson to fully fund the North Carolina Ferry Division’s Fiscal Year 2027 expansion budget request.
The letter emphasizes that the ferry system is a vital component of the state highway system and essential to coastal communities and regional economies.
The alliance stresses that full funding—particularly for recurring operations and maintenance and continued reduction of deferred maintenance—is critical to ensuring safe, reliable, and fully operational ferry service across eastern North Carolina.
“The North Carolina Ferry System is not a discretionary amenity,” Justin LeBlanc, executive director, said. “It is a core transportation asset that provides essential access to island and peninsula communities, supports economic activity, and ensures mobility for residents, workers, emergency responders and visitors. For many communities, ferries are the only practical and dependable connection to the rest of the state.”
In recent years, the Ferry Division has faced mounting challenges driven by rising fuel costs, increasing vessel maintenance demands, workforce recruitment and retention pressures, and growing service expectations.
These pressures have resulted in service reductions, delayed maintenance, and operational instability that directly affect residents, businesses, and local economies.
LeBlanc said that the North Carolina governor sends his request to the General Assembly, but what’s included in that budget is not released until after it’s transmitted.
Right now, the state is in fiscal year 2025-2027 biennial budget, for which the General Assembly still has not passed a budget.
North Carolina enters 2026 as the only state in the country without an enacted budget, according to NC Newsline.
Republican House and Senate leaders have been at an impasse since the summer of 2025, leaving town in October of last year without passing a new spending package. Key points of contention are how much to bump pay for state workers and teachers, whether to adjust the state’s planned income tax cuts and whether to fund a planned children’s hospital.
Legislators are coming back for an administrative session this month, but there’s still no sign of progress toward a deal.
No votes are expected in the Senate until April, after the March 3 primary, LeBlanc said.
When lawmakers fail to pass a budget before July 1, the state operates on a continuation budget.
Agencies get the same level of funding as the previous year, but there are limitations: they don’t get the previous year’s one-time “non-recurring” funding, and their budgets are not adjusted for population increases, inflation or other sources of increased need.
In North Carolina, the state budget operates on a biennial basis, meaning the current budget covers two fiscal years beginning on July 1 2025, and ending on June 30, 2027, with an “adjustments budget” submitted by the governor midway.
LeBlanc said that Stein’s FY 2027 expansion budget request is intended to restore and sustain full operational and maintenance capacity—not to expand service beyond need, but to ensure the existing system functions as intended.
Fully funding the request would allow the Ferry Division to maintain vessels in a state of good repair, ensure adequate staffing for safe operations, provide predictable schedules essential for commerce and tourism, and protect prior state investments in vessels and terminal infrastructure, LeBlanc said.
“Failure to fully fund the request would perpetuate service instability and deferred maintenance, increasing long-term costs to the state while undermining public confidence in a critical transportation system,” he said.
For more information on the alliance visit www.ocracokeaccesalliance.org.