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On Wednesday, the Metropolitan Transit Commission once again went head-to-head with its rogue member, Matthews Mayor John Higdon.
Higdon wanted the MTC to consider a new funding split for a transportation sales tax: 40% for roads, 45% for rail and 15% for buses. That’s slightly different from what the MTC and almost all local leaders agreed to, which is 40% roads, 40% rail and 20% buses.
But that slight difference could be worth billions of dollars. Higdon hopes that allocating 45% of the tax money for trains could bring the Silver Line light rail closer to his town.
For the last several months, local leaders have essentially said the 40-40-20 split is sacrosanct, and is the only allocation that would pass muster in Raleigh.
But that talking point was punctured last month, when Republican state House member Tricia Cotham filed a transportation tax bill that only required 40% of the money be spent on roads. Transit leaders could spend the remaining 60% however they wanted. GOP House Speaker Destin Hall praised Cotham’s bill.
Emboldened by Cotham, Higdon pressed his colleagues for more train money.
Higdon voted yes. Everyone else voted no.
The near-unanimous vote was a message to Higdon: Please stop talking and get with the program — but the bigger impact would be felt in east Charlotte.
The current plan for the Silver Line calls for the train to start near the airport and stop at Bojangles Coliseum. Having more money for rail would allow the train to go farther, serving more of east Charlotte — possibly as far as North Sharon Amity Road, Idlewild Road, or even Village Lake.
Greg Asciutto, with CharlotteEast, said he was stunned by the vote.
“It’s massively frustrating,” he said.
He noted that for months the MTC had said they couldn’t consider a different funding split because the current split was the best way to get a bill passed in Raleigh.
With Cotham’s bill, “that rationale fell on its face.”
Wednesday’s discussion showed the evolution of Charlotte’s changing talking points, which have been used to keep MTC members in lockstep with the current plan.
- From roughly 2019 to 2024, Charlotte’s transit plan called for spending almost all of the proposed tax money on trains. By one account, as much as 90% of tax money would go to rail transit. There was some money for buses, but the remainder would also be split between sidewalks, greenways and roads.
Improving the bus system was considered important, but there wasn’t much money behind it — certainly not 20% of all tax money.
- After Republican legislative leaders told Charlotte they would be spending too much money on trains, local leaders devised the 40-40-20 split. When Matthews officials complained they wouldn’t get the Silver Line, the talking point became: It’s not our fault — this is what Raleigh decreed. Another line: It’s out of our hands.
- But Higdon then began pushing for a slightly different split of the money, such as 45% for trains and 15% for buses. It wasn’t a dramatic overall reversal, but a slight shift in allocations.
The Charlotte Area Transit System then shifted its talking point to the importance of the Better Bus program — aimed at improving frequency on the system’s busiest lines, expanding service and buying more buses. Better Bus was said to need at least 20% of all sales tax money — even though that hadn’t been the original plan.
- Wednesday’s MTC meeting offered a new rationale for why the original funding split couldn’t be changed: It would be unfair to the public and staff to go back and look at something new.
Mecklenburg County Manager Dena Diorio, who helped broker the original 40-40-20 split, said it would be too much hassle — and too confounding for a public that’s already watched more than five years of transit debates — to hold new public meetings.
“I think even having a conversation around a different scenario would confuse the public after all the work the staff has done on that,” she said. “And I think that would be unfair to all of the public engagement that has taken place.”
Asciutto said Diorio’s statement makes no sense.
Asciutto noted that CATS held years of public meetings that focus on the idea of having the full Silver Line, running from the airport to Matthews. It also spent more than $40 million designing the route. Much of that money would be squandered if the train terminates at Bojangles Coliseum.
“After willingly scrapping years of meetings and planning and spending all that money — that’s poor governance,” Asciutto said.
It should be noted that east Charlotte would still get a lot under the transit plan.
The streetcar would be extended to the old Eastland Mall site, though it’s unclear whether there will be enough funding to build it. The east side would also get more bus service, along with other parts of Mecklenburg County.
It should also be noted that all of this may be moot. There hasn’t been any meaningful action on the two transit bills filed in Raleigh, and the legislative session is scheduled to end this summer.
But the entire debate between Matthews (and east Charlotte, to a lesser extent) and the MTC has highlighted unresolved questions about the region’s transit plans.
Leaders haven’t forcefully asked why CATS carries only 55% of the passengers it did at its peak in 2013-14 — despite the region’s population growth, despite spending far more money, and despite service hours declining by about 7%.
The goals of the Better Bus program are also vague. Clearly, having more frequent service and more amenities like bus benches and bus shelters would improve the transit experience of existing passengers.
But will it attract new riders? CATS has never offered a forecast of how many new riders it might recruit and MTC members don’t ask.
Concerns in Black community
A day after the MTC voted to move forward with the current split, Mayor Vi Lyles and other city officials attended a forum in east Charlotte held by Colette Forrest’s Black Voter Project.
Forrest later sent an email noting that “people had some really good questions with very little answers given regarding transit.”
Forrest listed her concerns. Among them:
- Why can't Beatties Ford or West Boulevard be fitted for light rail?
- Why is light rail only being looked at for Ballantyne, Matthews, Mint Hill, Davidson and Huntersville?
- Why are the Black communities relegated to buses?
- With soaring costs and economists warning of a potential recession, is now the right time to tax?
To be fair, the city’s plan calls for light rail from the airport to uptown. It would be along Wilkinson Boulevard, predominantly Black west side. There is no light rail planned for Mint Hill.
There is also a streetcar extension planned for Beatties Ford Road, on the west side.
But there is some truth to the questions. The Red Line would serve a mostly white, affluent area in Lake Norman. The Blue Line extension to Ballantyne would serve another affluent, white area.
If the Silver Line were extended to the east past Bojangles Coliseum — which is not funded in the current plan — it would travel through some of the most diverse parts of the city, a mix of Black, Latino and white residents.
