Dear Bob:

Mary Newsom relates that the Chamber executive committee will soon mull how to react to the half-cent transit tax repeal issue that will almost certainly be on the November ballot. Mary quotes you thusly: “We were strongly supportive in 1998 of transit. I don’t think you would see us pull back.”

Let me make two quick points. Supporting mass transit and supporting the half-cent repeal are not mutually exclusive. I know that CATS does not like to admit this, but it is an objective fact.

Second, I would note that supporting CATS’ current $9 billion transit plan, which will throw off some $350 million in yearly expenses when it is done, is a complete “pull back” from what the Chamber supported in 1998. That was an overall transportation solution plan with a strong mass transit component.

More to the point that plan was also something the current plan is not: Affordable. This is the crux of the matter, Bob.

CATS’ numbers have never made sense, but they were insulated by the stampede to secure federal funds to build the South Blvd. line. As a result local government officials and, yes, the local business community stood by lest CATS get shut out of the federal kitty via lack of local “support.”

This reaction is common for such projects around the nation and perfectly understandable. But this is not about past choices or positions. We are now, in 2007, down to consciously choosing to put virtually all of the future costs of CATS’ grand plan on the backs of Mecklenburg taxpayers.

The question before us then, is simply, Is that wise? Is that a good use of scarce public dollars?

Reasonable people might come down in different places on that question, no doubt about that. What is unreasonable, however, is to jump to the defense of CATS without considering the alternatives.

Charlotte needs the seasoned, worldly input of the local business community in this debate going forward. Shilling for the status quo or paying to advance a gloom-and-doom scenario will not be constructive nor, frankly, effective.

With your leadership, the Chamber has a chance to help put Charlotte back on the path toward fiscal restraint and sanity. A more pressing pro-business issue you will not find.

Thanks for listening.

Sincerely,

Jeff A. Taylor
Charlotte, NC