The tax is expected to raise $19 billion over the next 30 years, marking the biggest public works project in N.C. history. Planners expect a potential additional outlay of about $5 billion in federal support, but that hinges on the whims of federal politics.
Former State Board of Transportation chair Ned Curran of Charlotte said local support for the plan exceeds any other initiative he recalls over the past 50 years. The reason is simple, he said: “It’s hard getting around here anymore.”
Local officials can’t just approve voting for the tax unilaterally because of state law that requires General Assembly approval of elections for tax hikes.
The bill is tied to passage of the state budget, which often occurs in the summer after months of debate between the House and Senate. No matter the timing, Curran says officials want to hold the referendum this fall. Bond campaigns typically take several months to organize, but Curran says the Mecklenburg leadership will be ready if the bill passes.
Senate Bill 145’s lead sponsors include Sen. Bill Rabon, R-Brunswick, chair of the chamber’s Rules committee. The others are Sens. Vickie Sawyer, R-Iredell, and David Craven, R-Randolph. Sawyer represents the northernmost part of Mecklenburg County’s Interstate 77 corridor and is the only Republican in the county’s Senate delegation. Craven’s district includes Union County.
In addition to giving Mecklenburg County Commissioners authority to call a referendum, the bill allots 40% of the revenue from the penny surcharge to the governments of Charlotte, Cornelius, Davidson, Huntersville, Matthews, Mint Hill and Pineville for use on work to city maintained streets.
The remaining 60% would go toward public transit, with Charlotte Area Transit’s proposed Red Line from downtown Charlotte to Davidson (and perhaps eventually Mooresville) getting priority.
There’s a second cap within the transit allocation that that promises as much as 20% of the money to bus transit. But with the precise earmark only getting calculated 30 years into the program, it gives Mecklenburg officials greater latitude to deal with the Red Line’s upfront construction costs.
Mecklenburg officials including Charlotte City Manager Marcus Jones and County Manager Dena Diorio, have been working on the framework of a deal for months now.
Senate leader Phil Berger in December signaled that the issue is likely to get addressed this session. He and House Speaker Destin Hall visited the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance Monday, telling local leaders that the road to passage will take lots of work over coming months. Attendees included Jones, Diorio, Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles, Alliance CEO Andrea Smith and many other area politicians and business leaders.
“We ain’t there yet,” Berger said about the bill’s passage. Hall noted that idea of raising money for rail transit in Charlotte, which go back at least five years, “had been a tough sell.” Previous Speaker Tim Moore pushed for more road spending, and less for mass transit, disappointing the overwhelmingly Democratic political leadership in Mecklenburg who had favored as much as 80% of the money going for transit projects.
“It may take much of the long session” to pass the bill, Hall said.
Sawyer could not be reached for comment on Monday. She has previously said it’s not clear a referendum bill can get majority support within the Senate Republican caucus.
Lyles nonetheless called Monday’s introduction “an important milestone. … In a community that presents opportunity, where more people are arriving every day, this will provide infrastructure to support a good quality of life,” she said. “It will help secure a more prosperous and better future through transportation investments.”
Curran also noted that the proposed road allocation gives the receiving cities more control over where money gets spend. Matthews, for example, would get $5 million in first year, $28 million over time.
A successful referendum would give Mecklenburg County the state’s highest sales tax rate, 8.25%.
The current 7.25% includes a half-penny surcharge that helped for existing transit service. Durham, Wake and Orange counties have similar local-option levies their voters approved in the 2010s.
So far, there’s no parallel bill in the chamber to SB 145. The only Republican in the Mecklenburg House delegation is Rep. Tricia Cotham, whose district covers Mint Hill and much of the county’s southeast.
