After I-77 toll vote, city must reach out to north Mecklenburg

Back in 2007, a grassroots group aiming to kill Mecklenburg’s half-cent sales tax for transit took its case to the voters.

It got clobbered. Seventy percent of referendum voters stood behind the tax.

Now the food fight over Interstate 77 toll lanes in north Mecklenburg has resurrected talk of a transit tax repeal.

Mecklenburg commissioner Jim Puckett, who helped with the 2007 repeal effort, is considering taking another shot at the transit tax. Like many in north Mecklenburg, he was disappointed earlier this week when the Charlotte City Council decided not to block the hated toll lanes.

If Charlotte won’t help fight the tolls, he asks, why should north Mecklenburg residents help pay a transit tax that primarily benefits Charlotte? Given the widespread anger in north Mecklenburg over the tolls, a second transit tax repeal effort might well prove stronger than the first.

But putting the question on November ballots would be a drastic and ill-advised attempt at political payback. Indignant City Council members rightly call Puckett’s idea a threat.

A repeal would cripple the Charlotte Area Transit System’s 2030 long-range plan. That plan does include suburban projects – the stalled commuter rail line to the Lake Norman area and a transit corridor to Matthews. But there’s no money for those; the recession left CATS with a shortfall of up to $5 billion.

Lake Norman residents have a right to be angry. But the city of Charlotte didn’t oversee the highway funding system that put eight interstate lanes through sleepy Salisbury and left north Mecklenburg’s most congested stretch with four.

And despite Gov. Pat McCrory’s quest for political cover on this issue, the City Council can’t kill the hated contract with Cintra. Only the McCrory administration can do that.

Puckett still holds out hope that the City Council and the Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization can block the project. Given the pressure applied by state transportation officials, that’s highly unlikely.

Therefore, Mayor Jennifer Roberts and other Charlotte officials shouldn’t shrug off whispers of a referendum.

Beyond the toll lanes contract, city officials must begin repairing frayed relations with the northern suburbs. Perhaps that means seeking new ideas for breaking the impasse with Norfolk Southern over commuter rail. Or seeking more ideas on how best to maximize usage of express buses on the new toll lanes. Or simply showing up, as they failed to do at one key north Mecklenburg meeting on tolls.

Most Mecklenburg voters aren’t likely to yank the financial foundation out from under the popular Blue Line and its much-anticipated extension to the University City area. But toll opponents have worked hard, they have significant numbers, and they still feel ignored.

Perhaps state transportation officials can live with that. The city of Charlotte’s leaders can’t afford to.

This story was originally published January 13, 2016 at 6:11 PM with the headline "After I-77 toll vote, city must reach out to north Mecklenburg."