North Carolina's Secretary of Transportation Norris Tolson will make good headway against rot in the state's transportation department with a list of reforms that he unveiled yesterday. But when it comes to the root of the problem, Tolson choked. He either couldn't or wouldn't bring himself to call for sweeping changes in the board of transportation. The secretary should have asked the legislature to break the long-standing, unhealthy connection between campaign contributions to the governor and appointments to the board.
Any lasting reform requires no less.
As long as contributors are rewarded with appointments to the board, they will be tempted to treat their seats as entitlements. Removing the temptation is simply a matter of making board seats off-limits to campaign contributors. Fortunately, there will be time for debating the board's structure when the legislature convenes in May. In the meantime, Tolson turned in a good 45 days' work. For starters, he removed Larry Goode from his job as highway administrator, a wise decision because Goode is too closely associated with shortcomings at the department to be a credible reformer.