‘Not a slam dunk’: Some Mecklenburg commissioners skeptical of new transit sales tax
A proposal that could bring Mecklenburg County’s largest tax increase in decades could face another hurdle — from county commissioners.
At issue is a proposed 1-cent sales tax hike for transportation. If the city of Charlotte takes it to the General Assembly, and if lawmakers authorize it, it would be up to commissioners to put it on the 2021 ballot.
And that, Commissioner Mark Jerrell said Wednesday, “is not a slam dunk by any stretch of the imagination.”
Commissioners heard the case for the sales tax hike Tuesday night from leaders of a city task force that studied transportation needs. They say the tax would raise more than $6 billion over 30 years, enough to cover half the cost of an array of transportation projects including expanding light rail, buses, road improvements, bike lanes and greenways. The rest would come from the state and federal governments.
Former Charlotte Mayor Harvey Gantt, who chaired the task force, has said the proposal “has the potential to shape our community for generations.”
There’s no guarantee that state lawmakers would authorize any sales tax hike for Mecklenburg, let alone the full 1-cent. But if they do, commissioners would likely vote in late spring or early summer whether to put a referendum on the November ballot.
At this point, some commissioners appear unlikely to do so.
“The timing is terrible,” Commissioner Pat Cotham said Wednesday. “We have people that are suffering. How do we look them in the eye when they’re struggling and say, ‘We’re going to raise your taxes now’? There’s no doubt we need better transportation. But we need to take care of the people.”
Commissioner Vilma Leake, like all nine commissioners a Democrat, said a sales tax hike “is going to be a tough sell for me and anybody trying to make it through these trying times.”
And Commissioner Elaine Powell told colleagues Tuesday night her north Mecklenburg constituents are still mad about the last sales tax hike for transit, a half-cent increase passed for light rail in 1998. Many north Mecklenburg residents say they’ve seen nothing in their area from the tax.
“It’s offensive to so many people who live in my district who believed they would have a light rail more than 20 years ago,” she said Tuesday night. “It is offensive to the majority of the population to ask for an additional tax for us to pay for the rest of Mecklenburg County.”
Not every commissioner has such reservations.
“This planning is necessary to have a community that’s equitable, that’s affordable and sustainable,” Leigh Altman told the Observer Wednesday.
Like Jerrell, Altman said she wants to hear from the community. But Altman, who lived in Atlanta before moving to North Carolina a decade ago, said Charlotte can’t end up like that city: a mess of snarled traffic and long commutes.
“That’s not a good quality of life,” she said.
Mecklenburg’s recent attempts to raised the sales tax have died at the ballot box.
Last year voters rejected a quarter-cent hike that would have gone to the arts and parks. In 2014 they turned down a similar proposal that would have raised money for teacher pay raises, Central Piedmont Community College, libraries and the arts.
Commissioner Susan Rodriguez McDowell acknowledged the timing could be better, but said the tax could lead to years of building and jobs.
“I’m sitting here open to hearing the case for both sides and I certainly haven’t made up my mind,” ” she said in an interview. “But I do think investing in our future is always a good thing.”
Commission Chairman George Dunlap signaled his support for a public vote.
“The best way to know what our people think is to let them have a say,” he told colleagues Tuesday night. “My hope is that you will vote to let people have their say.”
