Peter St. Onge: A tolls gambit backfires on the governor

One by one they came forth, with surprising unity. Democrats and Republicans. Charlotteans and suburbanites. Elected officials and the people who vote for them.

They didn’t all agree on the wisdom of managed toll lanes in the region, which was the official purpose of Monday’s Charlotte City Council meeting.

They weren’t unanimous on the I-77/Cintra toll lanes, which was the real reason they showed up.

But the dozens who spoke Monday were unified on this: Not one said this discussion should happen on this night, in front of this public body. And everyone knew who was to blame: Gov. Pat McCrory.

The N.C. Department of Transportation has signed a contract with Cintra, a Spanish company, to build and manage toll lanes on I-77 north of Charlotte. That would allow the state to theoretically rid itself of a huge transportation headache without having to pay much for the medicine.

But a lot of north Mecklenburg residents don’t want the toll lanes. They’re loud about it, and they vote.

So four weeks ago, the governor tried a new gambit. He hoisted the I-77 tolls issue onto the Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization, which draws up long-range plans on roads. The CRTPO gives 46 percent of the voting power to one person, Charlotte City Council member Vi Lyles. Lyles decided to let the council tell her what to do.

That led us to Monday’s meeting, in which 11 City Council members who don’t commute on I-77 in northern Mecklenburg would help decide its fate for the next 50 years.

But first, the governor’s transportation officials came to Charlotte to let wavering council members know that it would be a shame what might happen to other Charlotte transportation projects if this one got canceled.

And one more thing: The CRTPO, and therefore council members, was told it couldn’t vote only on the Cintra contract. It had to affirm or reject its longtime support for managed lanes, which would give the governor the political cover he wanted.

It didn’t work.

“Throw it back to the governor,” one speaker, Chuck Suter, urged council members Monday.

“Don’t fall for that all or nothing,” Mecklenburg commissioner Jim Puckett told them.

“I respect the seats in which you sit,” said Rev. Mildred McCullough of Charlotte, “and I am glad I’m not sitting in them.”

“I apologize to y’all,” N.C. Rep. Charles Jeter said. “It’s not fair the position y’all are in.”

Council members were happy for the sympathy.

“We’ve been dealt a hard hand here,” said District 1 representive Patsy Kinsey.

“I think we need to put it in a box, put a bow on it and send it back to the governor’s office,” said District 2 rep Al Austin.

That’s what council members ultimately did. They expressed sympathy for their north Mecklenburg neighbors, but reminded them that Charlotte has its own own asphalt to look after. So instead of voting down a Cintra contract that few of them liked, they voted to affirm the managed lanes concept in general. Then they approved a second measure that emphasized how the bad Cintra contract wasn’t their doing.

It wasn’t the courageous stand toll opponents were hoping for, but it puts the issue pretty much where it was a month ago. The governor will surely trumpet Monday’s council vote as support for toll lanes, but he’ll still face the ferocity of a group that has transitioned from a handful of protesters to a surprising political force.

Monday’s spectacle didn’t change the mind of anyone who will bring their anger about tolls to the voting booth in November. Now, in an election in which he might need every vote he can manage, the governor has clumsily dragged Charlotte into the debate, too. And on a night he was looking for political cover, he got everyone united in only one way – against him.

This story was originally published January 12, 2016 at 10:51 AM with the headline "Peter St. Onge: A tolls gambit backfires on the governor."