Charlotte Streetcar...a real "threat" from Governor Pat or just kabuki theater?

From Thursday's Charlotte Observer...

Gov. McCrory warns streetcar could risk light rail money

and Friday at WCNC...

Council Members to Gov. McCrory: Wait, was that a threat?

Call me a cynic, but people need to remember that this is politics.  What you see is not always what is really going on.  To think that Governor Pat McCrory is going to let anything derail the Blue Line Extension is fantasy.

Governor Pat is and always has been a mass transit supporter in all its forms and at all costs.  Between his two runs for the Governor's mansion he spent his time lobbying for higher transit taxes elsewhere around the country.  See here for an example as recently as 2011 from our neighbors to the south in Atlanta.

As was pointed out in the above CO article, Governor Pat has in the past supported going outside the Mecklenburg County transit tax in support of the Red Line.  Also true is the fact that backing out now on the Blue Line Extension is highly unlikely with the Full Funding Grant Agreement in place.  Finally, the newly preferred way to build infrastructure for NC Republican appears to be increased use of local funds rather than more State funds.

The Red Line plan, the Charlotte Streetcar plan, and the I77 HOT lanes plan are ALL following this model.

Here's how this very likely could play out.  Governor Pat's "threat" causes the Charlotte City Council which is dominated by Democrats to reflexively vote to put Streetcar funding in a future CIP simply because a Republican "threatened" them.  That gets the Streetcar moving again - accomplishing the real goal of the so called "threat".  Governor Pat feigns outrage, but nothing happens to the BLE.  

The other projects go forward as well following the additional local funding model.  Much of the time this will be done without even asking the voters.  My guess is that at some point they will actually use the Charlotte Streetcar as the example of how local funding works to support these other efforts.

There is one way to know if the above is possibly not the case.  As the NCDOT reorganizes under the new Transportation Secretary (Tony Tata), if Paul Morris keeps his job as DepSec for Transit that can be taken as a sign it's going to be full speed ahead and business as usual.  If he is replaced, then maybe there is a course correction in the works when it comes to building trains.

Until we know what happens at NCDOT, this is all just kabuki theater.