Anthony Foxx: The transit tax won. My suggestions on next steps.
The author is former mayor of Charlotte and United States Secretary of Transportation.
Two generations ago, residents of Mecklenburg County faced a dramatic choice. Like many communities across the south, our Charlotte-Mecklenburg School Board had resisted broad school integration following the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision. Instead, the Board slow-walked the decision with piecemeal integration. Finally, in 1971, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a federal court order to bus students. Even after this decision, the Board struggled to craft a student assignment plan that met the letter and spirit of Brown.
It took private citizens, led by Maggie Ray, to mobilize around a student assignment plan. This group gathered school data, drove proposed bus routes and obtained approval of their ideas by consulting PTA leaders at many of our schools. What transpired in Charlotte became a national story, and our city became known as the place where busing worked. It worked because the courts forced our community’s hand and because the student assignment plan itself flowed upstream from grassroots people.
As mayor and as U.S. Transportation Secretary, I never believed in transportation as just throughput. At its best, it knits communities together while also getting us places efficiently. With a new transit tax in Mecklenburg County, we have another forcing mechanism and another opportunity to become a national example. This moment will shape how our people and commerce will evolve for generations to come.
I supported the referendum despite some concerns. I would have preferred a full one-cent sale tax for transit, which would have enabled the Silver Line to be included and perhaps even a spur of Blue Line to connect to Gateway Station. Also, the massive board of the authority will face challenges governing effectively, and its composition may include appointees with deep conflicts of interest.
Moreover, aside from the task of navigating new projects, much of the work will involve operating bus routes and balancing access with operational efficiency. Unfortunately, we have some difficult history to overcome, as reflected in the referendum’s thin 52-48 margin of success. Along the west side, two interstates, I-77 and I-85, along with Highway 16, split neighborhoods decades ago. Along Independence Boulevard, the east side of Charlotte has never fully recovered from the expansion. This history still echoes.
Even so, regions only have so many chances to take bold steps forward.
My advice to other proponents of the referendum is to take the narrow approval vote as a signal that broader confidence needs to be established. Take the concerns about affordability, shared economic opportunity and service levels seriously. For opponents, I would urge becoming part of the solution. Many criticisms of the referendum had merit. With passage, constructive skeptics at the table can improve the roll out of this new system.
I desperately urge our leaders to hold the members of the new authority to a strong code of ethics. Those who hold vested interests in the development of certain lines should not be allowed to self-deal. Mere recusals may not suffice to establish confidence in this new board. I would discourage those seeking to profit in any way from serving on the board altogether. Any hint of corruption will hurt confidence in this system early.
Here are my other strong suggestions:
The new authority will be a working board, and every member will need to devote the time and focus to its work: This new board will need active members ready to contribute to its decisions right away. Representation on the authority matters. In every way, the board should reflect the community. People who serve on this new authority but cannot devote the time or focus to its work will disappoint. They will be forced to vote on decisions made by others rather than help form options to be considered.
Our community will be tested by the following: selection of a chair of the new authority, a CEO, ensuring appropriate service levels, setting fares and future route changes: For decades, the transit system has been run by Charlotte city staff and overseen by elected officials. When the public opposed transit decisions, it held ultimate recourse at the ballot box. We will now be led by an appointed but unelected board. The chair should be someone who immediately instills confidence across the region but especially among regular transit users. Who will serve as CEO? Charlotte tends to favor familiar faces. But, even if one is selected, a national search needs to be conducted. What factors will drive transit service levels? How will the authority respond when there is a public outcry about bus route changes or fare increases? These sorts of issues will arrive, and in those moments, we will know how well trust and confidence has been established.
Make no mistake, though, now is the time to build it.
High humility and low arrogance must characterize the work of the authority: Transit is about the highest and lowest within our community and everyone in between. When the new authority begins its work, its members will cease to be private citizens in a true sense; they will be public servants vested with a degree of trust to work on behalf of our community. They may be appointed for specific expertise, but their primary responsibility will be to provide a key service. With billions of new dollars and a new untested structure, the authority will attract people looking to wield power. I implore those interested in serving to ride the Number 7 bus, not just the express routes. See the people who need this service. Respect them. Their hard-won dollars are invested in this system, too, and they deserve an authority they can believe in.
Shared prosperity: The new authority will ultimately approve billions in contracts to improve our system. In addition, the road funding will also result in many new area projects. Participation in these projects should also reflect the breadth of our community. There will also need to be tight coordination between all six municipalities and the new authority to address our affordable housing shortage.
Charlotte and our larger region took a big step forward lobbying for a new sales tax, and those involved in its passage, including the state legislature, should be applauded. But the hardest work starts now. We should remember Maggie Ray and those who spent the long days and nights crafting a workable school integration plan. If the new authority works well, that’s the spirit it will need.
Our region can become one that makes transit work for every community-- economically, politically, racially and geographically. That’s the real promise of this referendum. And it is worth the cost if we can make it so.