Ferry Toll Fight 2013

Joe and Henri McClees from Oriental are our lobbyists in Raleigh. 

Henri McClees’s email is:  henri@mccleesconsulting.com.  Her phone number is: 252-671-1559.

Joe’s phone number is 252-671-1585.   Joe’s email:  jdm@mccleesconsulting.com.

Email one of them to get on their mailing list. They are available to talk to any of us any time.

• We will need a lot of people to make calls and write emails. We will need several Team Captains to oversee the people doing this.  Who can volunteer for this?

• We will target specific legislators.   By Tuesday, March 19, the McCleeses will have this list of Legislators on the Transportation Committee and information about them.  
• On Wednesday, March 20, we want to begin calling all the members of the House and Senate Transportation Committees that this is a big issue and will have a list of points to make in these calls.  Certain members of this committee are more important than others. Even if you don’t talk directly to the Legislator, you can leave your message, which will be relayed to the Legislator.
• A House bill to abolish ferry tolls is being drafted and will be introduced by Paul Tine (Kitty Hawk) and Charles Jeter (Charlotte). As soon as we get that bill number, we will get that to you and you should refer to it in your correspondence. A Senate bill to eliminate the tolls also is in the works by Bill Cook.
• Also, as soon as this bill is introduced, we will need some Ocracoke folks to go to Raleigh to visit key legislators and beg them to visit the island.
• If we can get some of these legislators to visit, we will need people on the island to take them around, show them the sights, talk to people, etc.  In other words, tell Ocracoke’s story.
• We will revive the “No Ferry Tax” Facebook page. Facebook helped us in 2011 and can help us again.
• We are working on a PowerPoint presentation re: the history of ferries on Ocracoke for these new legislators

General info:

• THE MESSAGE IS: Eliminate this regressive tax.

• Legislators pay attention to emails, phone calls and letters—lots them!  They MUST be personal, not form letters.  Personalize them for each Legislator.
• One half of the Legislators are from urban areas. We need to educate them about Ocracoke and its challenges. Tell your Ocracoke story in letters.  
• The $5 million they are seeking from ferry tolls is minuscule in the NC DOT’s $5.2 billion budget.
• The ferry system is part of the highway system that receives federal support as well as the proceeds from the gasoline tax, which is one of the highest gas taxes in the country. Why doesn’t this suffice to fund the ferries?
• The ferries enabled Ocracoke to become the community it is now.  Raising the tolls will decrease tourists and therefore tax receipts. This fight is about the economic survival of one of the poorest counties in North Carolina.
• Tourism is our industry here; we don’t have other options.  Tourism is our lifeblood.