State Rep. Paul Tine wants a second term in the N.C. House of Representatives so he can help improve the transportation and education infrastructure in eastern North Carolina.

Tine, a Democrat who represents the 6^th House District, announces his re-election campaign today. The 6^th District includes parts or all of the following counties: Beaufort. Hyde Dare and Washington. As of Monday, no other person had announced her or she was seeking the seat now held by Tine.

Tine explained why voters should vote for him.

“I’ve put the district first. Over the last year, I’ve spent most of my time working for rural communities. We have a lot of issues with access, and they’re getting worse,” said Tine, a freshman legislator. “If they want somebody that’s going to put their best interests first, then I hope I get their support.”

“I spent a lot of time making some really bad bills better. I got a reputation up there for running amendments that brought some balance to bills and got a lot of them passed,” Tine said. “I also got five bills put into law and another two put into law through other bills. I was, quite frankly, surprised, being in the minority and from the east, which are two big issues — and a freshman. I worked on a lot of the issues that are important to eastern North Carolina — one on ferries and trying to make sure we keep our infrastructure running here. … I got an amendment passed on small-schools funding, which is really important to … Hyde County and Washington County, to postpone it. Hyde County was going to lose $1 million in funding over two years.”

Tine believes he’s been a consensus builder since going to Raleigh.

“I started the Rural Democratic Caucus, which I’m co-chair at this point. In that capacity, I worked with rural legislators from all over the state, both Republican and Democrat. Every bill that I had passed had Republicans on it,” Tine said. “I’m on six standing committees and six interim committees. I think that’s because I’ve worked very well with other side on certain issues.”

Tine has specific goals and hopes for his second term, if he’s re-elected.

“The two main focuses are transportation and education so that we can build jobs in eastern North Carolina. We need access to transportation, and, unfortunately, this last transportation (funding formula) change has really hurt our rural communities. The new formula is a disaster for eastern North Carolina,” Tine said.

One of the transportation divisions that is in the 6^th District had $155 million (over five years) removed from its budget, Tine noted.

“Education-wise, we really haven’t done anything really to forward progress of helping our education system, especially in our rural communities. We need to be working on getting broadband access at home for kids. We need one-to-one, which is the computers, for every kid because that’s how we work nowadays. We need to be giving our teachers the tools that they need and recruiting good teachers, which means decent pay and a good work environment,” Tine said.

Tine also wants a second term so he can help address insurance rates for homeowners and flood-insurance rates.

“The homeowners property rate insurance is a big challenge to our economy in this area. We need to make sure we’re focusing on that. There’s a flood-issue at the federal level that I’m trying to gather support from other legislators in the east to try and lobby (Washington, D.C.) about. Those are two real big things that we need to make sure we’re paying attention to,” he said.

Tine has no problem in identifying what he sees at the No. 1 goal for him during a second term.

Tine said, “To help create an environment in eastern North Carolina to grow jobs. The only way we can do that is by having a good transportation/education system. We’ve got a lot of opportunities in eastern North Carolina. We just need a few of the key pieces to help ourselves reach those opportunities.”