North Carolina Senate Rules chair Bill Rabon cites his long legislative experience as the reason he is co-sponsoring the bill to let Mecklenburg County voters decide if they want to pay a higher sales tax for transportation purposes.
Senate Bill 145 would allow the state’s second-most populous county to set an election for a 1 cent sales tax increase, paving the way for a proposed $19 billion program over the next two decades. It would be a record public works project for the state.
Rabon is a Republican from New Hanover County who has been in the Senate since 2011, having won eight straight elections.
He says the bill might need the help of someone who’s “been through it a few times” to get over the finish line.
Charlotte civic leaders, including Mayor Vi Lyles and top business executives, have marshalled widespread support among Mecklenburg politicians for the proposed tax. They want to hold a vote in November. State laws require General Assembly approval of the local election required to boost the tax, and sentiment against raising any taxes runs deep in the GOP-dominated legislature.
Rabon says there’s a strong argument for giving the county the authority to hold a vote. “Number one, that metropolitan area is large enough to raise enough money to get this to fruition,” he says.
The bill would allow Mecklenburg officials to devote 60% of the revenue to transit development. The remaining 40% would go to the governments of Charlotte, Cornelius, Davidson, Huntersville, Matthews, Mint Hill and Pineville for city-maintained streets. Typically, the towns rely more on the N.C. Department of Transportation for road improvements.
Priority for the transit money would go to the proposed Red Line commuter-rail service from downtown Charlotte to Davidson.
“It’s going to be their money, and it’s going to be their riders,” Rabon says. “And with an area that big, although I’m not a person that is a great fan of light rail or of transit, I think it’s necessary in that area. And if the people want it, good for them.”
Other lead sponsors are Republican Sens. Vickie Sawyer and David Craven. Sawyer is a Mooresville resident whose district includes the northernmost part of Mecklenburg County. She is the only Republican in the county’s Senate delegation. Craven is from Randolph County, though his district covers a slice of Union County, part of Charlotte’s suburbs.
Charlotte-area business leaders are promoting the transportation plan as essential for helping improve mobility in the region and as an economic development jolt. They have said commuters and tourists from outside Mecklenburg County will account for at least 30% of the sales tax revenue.
Mecklenburg’s sales tax is now 7.25%, the same as Wake County. Durham and Orange counties levy a 7.5% sales tax, the highest in the state.
N.C. House Speaker Destin Hall and Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger did not endorse the bill during a February visit to a Charlotte Regional Business Alliance meeting.
