Sales tax referendum passes
Nov. 4. By Dave Vieser. Mecklenburg County voters approved a sales tax referendum by a 52% to 48% margin.
Support was strongest in Charlotte, while opposition came mainly from northern Mecklenburg precincts and Matthews.
The measure, a result of a bipartisan effort by county and state officials, will add 1% to the county’s sales tax starting next year. Opponents say the increase amounts to a 13.8% hike.
Proceeds are earmarked for road improvements and public transportation projects, including the Red Line commuter rail to Charlotte, which would serve Cornelius.
The referendum likely benefited from extensive paid media and public relations efforts.
Election results (unofficial, will be certified Nov. 14)
| NAME ON BALLOT | PARTY | BALLOT COUNT | PERCENT |
|---|---|---|---|
| For | N/A | 92,251 | 52.13% |
| Against | N/A | 84,716 | 47.87% |
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Ridiculous. The Democrats waste money on every project to. Why trust them on this. The Red Line will never be built with these faik3d leaders.
Thank you to Cornelius Today for your coverage of this initiative – this was not a simple issue and voters’ consideration of the initiative benefited from your thorough coverage.
Now approved, the new law requires the Red Line to be prioritized. White the current Red Line proposal will be a boondoggle, revisions to the Red Line plan can improve the outcome if planners focuses on three things:
1) The new Red Line plan must increase the percentage of funding derived from fares and property surrounding the transit stations. The best way to achieve this is by charging higher fares for greater trip distances and by the transit authority being a landlord to high value tenants at or near the public transit hubs and using that as a revenue source.
2) The new Red Line plan must increase public confidence in transit safety. This should come via vigorous enforcement of rules like 100 percent fare collection and zero tolerance for unacceptable behavior while riding public transit. Planners must make every effort to prevent the horrific killing that happened on the light rail this August from ever happening again on public transit. Public transit must be safe and people must believe it is safe. Otherwise people will not use it.
3) The new Red Line plan must prioritize express trips from North Mecklenburg stops to Uptown Charlotte to reduce travel times. As proposed, the average speed of trips to Uptown from North Mecklenburg will be 45 miles per hour. This is half the speed of an express bus. A slow, old-tech, 20th century train is not an acceptable approach for a new transit project. The new train must provide faster trips through either offering direct trips at a higher price than a train with local stops, or by eliminating stops between Huntersville and Uptown altogether. This will not be popular, but it is necessary to preserve the value of the Red Line.
As proposed, creating a slow, local-stop focused non-interoperable commuter rail opening fifteen years from now is a collasal waste of money – a boondoggle. But, if planners can modify the plan to shore up funding sources, improve safety, and decrease travel time, they can respect that the money they are using is taxpayer money that should not be wasted.
Hard to believe that with all the wailing and gnashing of teeth about inflation and the higher cost of living that a majority of people who voted chose to make things more expensive for all of us.
I am grateful that voters across Mecklenburg supported the transit tax and look forward to the Red Line’s arrival.
The reality is that Cornelius is a wonderful town inside a fast growing metropolitan area. I-77 and its traffic will always be with us. The ability to have what is proposed to be seven day a week, half-hourly/hourly connectivity between our town and Charlotte – including eventually cross-connecting to NC’s very popular intrastate rail services and to the Silver Line to connect to CLT airport and the Blue Line – will be a wonderful addition to North Meck and the region.
We live here and love it here; and, we also regularly enjoy going into Charlotte for events, meals, walks and time outdoors, and we often take the Blue Line when we are there. We have always found it timely, comfortable and safe – recognizing the awful event that happened there a few months back, though in a world of school shootings and unspeakable violence, sadly we see this as a generalizable issue and not a transit specific one. My spouse and my conversation on the slow drive back up I-77 is, when will we finally see the long-planned, now city-owned O Line become a real transit access for our town?
The Red Line promises to do what the 77X does not. A commuter only bus, as the 77X is, is not nearly enough to provide real connectivity between North Meck and Charlotte. Hornets and Panthers games? The Mint Museum? A day in the South End or NoDa? A movie at the IPH? Access to Atrium or Novant specialty hospitals? These all come into reach in a way that we couldn’t use before.
I hope the detailed plans for the Red Line will include thoughtful choices for equipment that is quiet (diesel generator to electric drive, such as Stadler’s commuter rail trains), avoid overbuilding elaborate stations, and prioritize supporting transit oriented development uses around the station areas, much as Antiquity does – and which was approved by town leaders as a dense neighborhood with an eye towards the Red Line. I also hope we will all advocate to transit planners that the seven day, morning to late night services proposed in last year’s community forums continues and that service is not reduced to a simulacrum of the 77X weekday commuter only hours, which makes it low value for many among us.
Here’s to all of us working with town and county leaders and the new transit commission on the Red Line and other transit projects!