Charlotte's snub of suburbs over tolls threatens to boil over into other issues

Well, that didn't take long...

After Monday's vote where Charlotte City Council decided to snub North Mecklenburg and participate in the cramming of the HOT lanes down the throats of LKN voters, talk is already turning to "payback".

One area that had been previously mentioned was a possible second attempt at repealing the county's transit tax.  Theoretically, a repeal of the tax would leave the transit chieftains at CATS (a department of the City) without a mechanism to pay for building more trains.  The City would be on the hook for paying for mass transit all by itself without help from the burbs.

North Meck and the other suburbs were promised rail transit when the 2030 plan was originally put together and then again during the 2007 repeal effort.  Those promises have turned out to be lies, and the thinking goes that a second attempt may have more success.

Having been heavily involved in the failed 2007 effort, I'd have to say this is going to be a heavy lift. However, if done right and with more finesse, it's possible.

I have been a faithful bus rider since before the last repeal effort.  The reason repeal is a good idea is because the transit plan is fundamentally dishonest (just like the HOT plan), and was doomed to fail from the start because of its focus on rail rather than buses.

A repeal effort that forced the City away from its self serving rail plans towards buses could be pulled off.

The Observer at least seems concerned about the possibility, posting this editorial on Wednesday.

A second area where suburban rebellion might be seen is more unexpected.  That's with CMS's upcoming student reassignment plans.  While not directly related, Charlotte's actions Monday night threatens to pour gasoline on what was already a smoldering fire.

Like almost all urban areas, Charlotte struggles with its schools.  CMS has large numbers of schools with high concentrations of poverty - mostly within the city limits.  One way to "fix" that problem is to shift students around by manipulating student assignment in various ways - usually at the expense of the suburbs.

This tension comes to the surface every time CMS has to look at its boundaries about every 6 years.

Check out this article and its comments from Thursday's Charlotte Observer.  It is clear that the HOT lanes decision will be boiling over into this high-stakes process as well.

With many more people now understanding that Charlotte only gives lip service to the idea of regionalism, push back against its bullying could and should be more aggressive.

Charlotte's divisive leadership may be about to reap what it has sown.

Like Frankenstein…It’s Alive!!!

With Halloween upon us this week, we bring you the latest transportation spending monster being planned for Mecklenburg County.  This one involves new ways to fund a project that just won’t die – the Red Line commuter rail from Charlotte to Mooresville as part of the regional 2030 Transit Plan.

The Red Line received an apparently fatal blow last June when Norfolk Southern indicated track sharing with commuter rail did not fit the long-term plans for the company’s O line corridor which would be used for the project.  However, that has not phased the mad scientists down at the Metropolitan Transit Commission (MTC) who have been hard at work coming up with new and creative ways to finance floundering rail transit efforts - including the Red Line.

Earlier this month, the road show to start gathering support in North Mecklenburg for that creative financing kicked off in Davidson.  The MTC is requesting the towns support the following as part of its 2015-2016 Legislative Agenda for the next General Assembly.  The MTC wants:

1. Authorization to use Public Private Partnerships as a financing mechanism for transit.
2. Authorization to access certain low interest Federal loan programs usable for transit infrastructure.
3. Removal of the sunset provision on Special Assessment District legislation so they can be used for long-term transit projects.

Immediately after the September MTC meeting, canned language for supporting resolutions was distributed to all of the participating towns.  The request was to have resolutions passed by the Commission's member boards by the MTC's November 19th meeting.

Of the North Mecklenburg towns, only Davidson has seen the presentation from LNTC Chairman Bill Thunberg at this point.  He is doing the road show on the MTC’s behalf.  Davidson will likely vote on any supporting resolution at its November meeting.  If Huntersville and Cornelius vote on such a resolution by the originally requested date, they would likely need to do so at the same meeting where the information is presented to their Boards.  That puts Board members in a real bind if they are trying to make an informed decision.

Giving limited time to review information is a standard tactic when trying to ram something through.  Pushing this through while most people are focused on something else - like our current elections - is also a good way to slide this by the voters.

Why would the MTC want to do this?  A couple of reasons come to mind...

Authorization of P3s for transit financing sets up the same sort of monstrous projects we are seeing with the I77 HOT Lanes.  During the entire HOT debate, elected officials have been using the fact that the NCGA "authorized" the use of P3s years ago to abdicate any responsibility for it.

The earliest plans for tolls on I77 were tiny compared to what the project has morphed into now. Authorizing P3s for transit financing without knowing how a project would take shape in the future will result in the same thing for a project like the Red Line.

The second reason to rush this through is that paying off these projects will require going outside the half cent transit tax originally approved by voters.  If this agenda goes forward, the local economy will be stuck paying for a much larger percentage of these projects than voters originally supported.  Before gutting the property tax base with tools like Tax Increment Financing and Special Assessment Districts to pay off any massive new loans from the Federal government or the P3 private partners, the MTC should have to go back to those same voters for additional approval.  You can be sure that is not something transit supporters want to do. 

At the October 14^th meeting in Davidson, Mayor Woods described supporting the MTC agenda as a “benign and routine request”.  It is anything but that, and we’ve previously seen this same kind of horror movie with this same cast.

Former Mooresville Mayor Thunberg and Davidson Mayor Woods were instrumental in pushing for the creation the money-hemorrhaging Mi-Connection cable company back in 2007.  It too was presented to the public as something that just had to be done.  Like Dr. Frankenstein himself, as Mooresville’s Mayor, Thunberg cast the tie-breaking vote that actually brought Mi-Connection to life.  It was a disastrous decision for both towns.

Now, as the LNTC Executive Director and the MTC Vice-Chairman, Thunberg and Woods are showing the same zeal in pushing for the Red Line and transit.  With that in mind, elected officials on the various town boards would be very smart to decline supporting the MTC legislative agenda.  At the very least they should not support it without a commitment to go back to the voters first on any new financing plans.

Will enough LKN commissioners oppose something destined to be more “trick” than “treat” for area residents?  We will all know soon enough.

This post originally appeared in the Herald Weekly

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx - Sure, why not?

Mayor Foxx for Transportation Secrtary? WCNC.com

I mean...

• he's completed exactly zero major transportation infrastructure projects end-to-end.
• his signature transit project, the Charlotte Streetcar, is so ridiculous that it's bogged down in a board where his party has a 9-2 majority.
• his city's transit plan is bankrupt.

However...

• he's the in-house counsel for a "green" transit company, a job he took immediately after becoming mayor.
• he's coordinated a committee to resurrect the bankrupt transit plan by figuring out how to raise taxes, and he's gotten Republican support for the same.
• he's hoodwinked a heavily Republican General Assembly into supporting HOT Lanes on 77 which benefits Democratic Charlotte with tolls paid for by voters from Republican North Mecklenburg.

With skills like that, he should fit in just fine in Washington, DC.

Trifecta of Transit Tales Tucked in Today's Tabloids

First of all, no offense intended to the serious news outlets that posted these stories.  Tabloids you are not, but when the lead is buried as deep as it is in these stories, I couldn't resist the 6-word alliteration.

From DavidsonNews.net ... Student leaders give commissioners a wish list - Apparently one of the wishes of Davidson College students does not appear to be improved mass transit to Uptown Charlotte. 

"Commissioner Brian Jenest asked if students might head to Charlotte more often if better mass transit were available. He noted that downtown Charlotte streets are filled with young people on weekends. He got a lukewarm response, at best, with a couple of students saying they go to Charlotte for special events, such as concerts. And one student said he’s concerned about safety in Charlotte: “I wouldn’t go if you choked me.”

I am sure that must have come as a surprise to those on the Davidson Board who have been staunch supporters of the proposed Red Line. Of all the things mentioned in the meeting with Davidson College students, the Red Line has arguably been the largest focus of Town effort for the past year or two.  At Thursday's meeting, it was roundly snubbed by one of the groups (students) that would presumably make up a significant segment of the local Davidson ridership.

From Charlotte Business Journal ... Andy Dulin rules out mayoral run - Buried behind a diversionary headline is the real story about Charlotte Democrats being willing to go after their own at the ballot box over the Charlotte Streetcar.

"Whether Dulin seeks re-election is one of several questions swirling around council. This week, Fox affiliate WCCB-TV reported that Mayor Foxx wants District 2 councilman James Mitchell to run for an at-large seat as part of a bid to unseat Democrats Claire Fallon and Beth Pickering. The reason: Foxx is frustrated with their opposition to the streetcar extension, a political football that killed the Capital Investment Program proposal this year."

I used to know Claire Fallon when I lived in the University Area.  She was a supporter of Anthony Foxx during his initial bid for Mayor in 2008. To think the good Mayor would turn so quickly on someone for something as unpopular as the streetcar shows how far the pro-transit folks are willing to go in support of these projects.  It is sad and should be somewhat frightening to Charlotte voters.

Also from the CBJ ... Bank of America to sell 24-acre site near UNC Charlotte - What's not even mentioned in this article are the past mentions of site's location near what had been the full length of the Blue Line Extension - past its now terminus at UNCC.  Now that the BLE will never reach its full original length due to the exorbitant costs of the project, the property mentioned in this article won't be able to connect to the Uptown banking hub - certainly making it less useful.  That probably has as much to do with selling the property as does its reference to the bank's telecommuting program.

Transit. The gift that keeps on giving new and intersting twists in the local political scene this holiday season.