Trying to muster the will to say something about the declaration from Ron Tober that of course the 2006 plan cannot be funded by the half-cent transit tax.

For now I’ll merely point out that none of the additional dedicated revenue sources Steve Harrison mentions could remotely fund $9.5b. worth of trains and buses either. Think about it. A quarter-cent split with roads would be about $15m. more a year, tops.

Were CATS publicly-traded the SEC would have the execs frog-marched out of the building.

Update: In response to a jaw-dropping post over at the Uptown paper of record, I sputtered out this volley:

Good heavens!

This is pathetic. The entire Charlotte power structure stood shoulder-to-shoulder 12 months ago — more recently even — and swore up-and-down to the public that the half-cent would be able to fund the 2006 transit plan.

Anyone who suggested otherwise was lampooned as a buffoon, cretin, and oh, yes, a caveman. You might remember that.

The question all along has been how to build an effective mass transit arm that is a net plus to Charlotte’s transportation and mobility needs. Some of us have held that heaving a half-cent of sales tax revenue at CATS and hoping for the best was bound to lead us astray. Some of us pointed out that CATS was fantastically inefficient, actually spending more money per each additional ride and refusing to capture sufficient revenue from users — how is it that CATS ridership can skyrocket yet that make no meaningful impact on CATS revenue? — while planning a train system it could not possibly afford to build and operate. Some of us said CATS was CERTAIN to come asking for additional sources of dedicated revenue if the 2006 plan was not jettisoned and a new plan adopted that could live within the half-cent.

Now that we critics have been proven to be absolutely correct about the 2006 transit plan, your response is to disdain “outrage” — and ready plans to throw yet more tax revenue at CATS and hope for the best.

Isn’t that embarrassing?

Besides, you had your chance to educate local voters on the facts of transit and failed spectacularly. Our community cannot afford anymore propaganda on behalf of special interests.

Maybe shame and guilt will find traction where logic and facts did not.