The town of Matthews hosted a transit summit of elected officials on Saturday to try and build support for a transit plan that would allow light rail to be built to the town.
But several key officials didn’t attend, and it’s unclear if Matthews can change a transportation plan that’s already been approved by 7 of 8 governments in Mecklenburg County.
Matthews is concerned that the plan would only spend 40% of new sales tax money on rail transit, along with 40% on roads and 20% on buses. The original plan called for as much as 80-90% of the money from a proposed one-cent sales tax increase to be spent on trains.
With less money for rail, the city of Charlotte told Matthews in May that it doesn’t have enough money to build the Silver Line to Matthews. It told the town that it would build bus rapid transit to Matthews instead.
Matthews Mayor John Higdon called the meeting to tweak the plan so light rail can reach the town.
But no one from the towns of Davidson, Cornelius, Huntersville showed up. Those officials are satisfied that the plan requires the Red Line commuter train to be built to Lake Norman.
No one from Pineville or Mint Hill came either. Those towns have said they are happy with the amount of road money they would receive under the plan.
Other key officials, like Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles, City Council member Ed Driggs and Mecklenburg Commissioner Leigh Altman, either didn’t come or couldn’t come. Altman has called Higdon’s summit a “political stunt.”
Higdon said he was disappointed that more people didn’t attend.
“I don’t want to cast aspersions,” he said. “I don’t know why they aren’t here. They are key players, and it’s unfortunate they aren’t here.”
Four Mecklenburg Commissioners did attend: Elaine Powell, Susan-Rodriguez-McDowell, Mark Jerrell and Arthur Griffin.
Two Charlotte City Council members also attended: Renee Johnson and LaWana Mayfield.
Higdon's group decided to formally ask the city to run financial projections for different allocations, including 45% for roads, 45% for trains and 10% for buses.
They also proposed two other funding plans.
One was: 49% for rail, 40% for roads and 11% for buses. The other was to dedicate 100% of all tax money for roads for two years, and then change to a funding model of 80% for rail, 10% for roads and 10% for buses.
Higdon said he’s not optimistic there’s enough support to switch from the 40-40-20 model.
“If that goes to the voters, I think it will fail and we’ll get nothing,” he said.
