Mecklenburg County voters on Tuesday voted yes on an increase in the sales tax to fund a nearly $20 billion transportation plan that area leaders have spent more than five years working to win approval for.
With nearly all precincts reporting, the vote was 52.28% for and 47.72% against.
The sales tax on most items, except for food, medicine and some other categories, will rise 1 percentage point in Mecklenburg, to 8.25%
The vote caps off a push that began more than five years ago, and represents the biggest single source of new infrastructure funding in the region’s history. But question marks remain — such as whether the federal government will pick up any of the tab for the rail buildout — and the full plan will take decades to realize.
The funds will be spread between different transportation and transit modes: 40% of the new tax revenue will be dedicated to roads, bike lanes and sidewalks; 40% will be spent on rail transit, and 20% will be set aside for buses and new microtransit.
Charlotte leaders began discussing a new transit tax before the pandemic. Their efforts appeared stalled for years, with Republican legislative leaders in Raleigh rejecting the first versions of the plan, which dedicated almost all of the money towards rail. But last year, local officials came to a new agreement, setting aside money for roads. That change cleared the way for the PAVE Act to be approved in the General Assembly with overwhelming bipartisan support.
To get the tax approved, the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance spent at least $1.7 million, according to the most recent campaign finance report. The alliance spent heavily on yard signs, digital ads and radio ads. The group’s slogan was “Faster Commutes, Less Congestion.”
The opposition, on the other hand, was vocal but not well funded. Robert Dawkins with the progressive group Action NC said he spent about $6,000 opposing the tax. Dawkins campaigned heavily in the Black community. He assembled a coalition of religious leaders and politicians such as former Mayor Jennifer Roberts who opposed the plan, mostly on the basis that the sales tax was regressive and would hurt low-income residents.
The city of Charlotte said the average household would pay $240 a year.
Building on the half-cent tax
This is the county’s second sales tax dedicated for transit.
The first tax, a half-cent, was passed in 1998. It built the Lynx Blue Line and expanded the bus system, but ran out of money roughly 15 years ago.
The new tax money is slated to first build the Red Line commuter train to Lake Norman. After that, the Silver light rail from the airport to Bojangles’ Coliseum is the second priority. A six-mile extension of the Gold Line streetcar is next, followed by an extension of the Lynx Blue Line to Pineville.
It’s unclear whether all of those projects can be built. The construction timeline is heavily dependent on grants from the Federal Transit Administration, which are not guaranteed. And construction costs could increase, making the projects too expensive. That was one of the problems with the original half-cent sales tax.
The Red Line is expected to open in 8 to 10 years, so long as it secures federal funding.
One controversy during the campaign centered around Charlotte and the Metropolitan Transit Commission’s decision to shorten the Silver Line because the transportation plan had less money for rail transit. The Silver Line was supposed to go all the way to Matthews; the train would now end at Bojangles Coliseum.
Despite the shortened line, some in east Charlotte voted for the tax.
“There’s people in places that need transportation, and I think they need to extend the transit system,” George Beachem said .
The PAVE Act also calls for transit to shift from the city-controlled Charlotte Area Transit System to a new authority, which will be governed by a 27-member board. Local governments, as well as the alliance and the Foundation for the Carolinas, are expected to name their nominations later this month.
The new authority must then tackle the legal complexities of transferring CATS employees, property and debt to the new governing body.
While the rail transit is expected to take years to build out, CATS has said the improvements to the bus system can be finished in five years. CATS has said it will upgrade 15 routes to have buses arriving every 15 minutes; all other routes would have buses arriving no later than every 30 minutes.
