Democrat Steve Unger is challenging Republican incumbent Chris Millis in North Carolina’s House District 16, which includes Pender County and the northwest corner of Onslow County. Unger says transportation infrastructure is his number one issue, and that transportation issues need to be looked at regionally, not just county by county:
“We need to reestablish that rail link that was taken out between Castle Hayne and Rose Hill. That’s very important to my district. Highway 53 was supposed to have a bypass. That kind of drifted away. That needs to be relooked at, and that would route heavy traffic and trucks around Burgaw, for instance.”
Unger says school infrastructure also needs more state assistance—possibly coming from a higher percentage of the state’s lottery revenue. He says property taxes in Pender County went up 30% because the burden of building new schools was placed on the backs of local taxpayers.