So what happened at the CharMeck Government Center on Monday night?
In the blink of an eye, Charlotte City Council went from a veto threat against a compromise budget that would still have spent over $600 million in additional capital projects to one that included zero dollars. Yes, zero. No tax increase this year and no new Capital Improvement Plan or CIP.
The vote occurred along faction lines, not party lines, with the breakaway Democrats (Barnes, Cannon, Fallon, and Pickering) voting for the smaller plan and 2.44c tax increase that did not include the Streetcar. Republicans Dulin and Cooksey switched votes to side with the Mayor's new zero tax increase budget, along with all of the Streetcar supporters.
Ironically, in the end only the two Republicans on the Council got what they wanted. That's an amazing feat when outnumbered 9-2!
However, why did this happen the way it did?
Unfortunately, the answer to that is a little less sanguine. You see, what really happened is that it showed just how far the Streetcar supporters are willing to go to save their pet project. They are willing to delay police stations, sidewalks, roads, and everything else they had pushed for just to keep the Streetcar on life support. If the Streetcar had not been included in a compromise budget that passed, it would be dead. That would be an official vote by Council against it - making it very difficult to get any further Federal money down the line. Rather than face that, its supporters conducted a tactical retreat to buy time, and they were willing to sacrifice everything else in the CIP to do it. (Note: Dulin and Cooksey were pushing for no tax increase from the beginning - coming at the budget from a wholly different point of view.)
Make no mistake, the Streetcar's route to implementation just got more difficult, but it did not get completely derailed. Since the Streetcar bonds will not be on this year's November ballot, they will not have the advantage of the higher East Side and West Side turnout driven by President Obama being at the top of the ticket. Turnout spiked in these areas in 2008 and likely will again this year. If the Streetcar faces a ballot without this advantage, it will be a heavier lift to get it passed.
The delay will also likely be more than a year because the city politicians won't want to put it on the ballot in 2013 since it is an election year for them. One of those unwritten rules in politics is to not raise taxes when your name is on the ballot. It's better to raise them in an off-year and hope voters forget before you are up for reelection.
However, after some delay expect to see this project back at the top of the priority list.
To be sure, Monday night was a huge victory for fiscal conservatism and Councilmen Dulin and Cooksey should be congratulated along with all the activists who pushed for this result. It is easily the biggest victory since the Uptown Arena bonds were voted down. But, we have an arena now don't we?
Keep your eye on the ball.
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