Voters will decide the fate of the largest bond proposal in state history on Nov. 7. If it passes, the bond will fund capital improvements on the state's public university and community college campuses.
Shortly after the N.C. General Assembly unanimously approved the bond referendum in May, university advocates launched a large-scale campaign, aimed at ensuring the bond's passage.
And polls suggest that campaign is working.
Poll data released last week by WRAL and The News & Observer indicates that 58 percent of likely voters favor the bond. The Daily Tar Heel also conducted informal exit polls last week at Morehead Planetarium, Orange County's new satellite polling site. Of those polled at Morehead, 454 said they voted for the bond. Only 30 said they voted against it.
Campaigners cite the promising poll data as evidence that the bond is likely to pass. But few can name suitable alternatives for funding the university system's capital needs in the event that the bond fails.
"There isn't any good alternative," said Board of Governors member John Sanders.
If the bond does not pass, Sanders said the state would only have three possible sources of funding for the system's capital needs - tax revenue, private gifts and tuition.
But Sanders expressed little faith in the feasibility of all three.
He said current tax revenue would be inadequate to fund a multibillion-dollar capital improvements project and increasing tuition would conflict with the state's constitutional responsibility to ensure access to public higher education.
