The Friends of Durham, the ostensible “business friendly” PAC among left-wing and socialist PACS that dominate the Friendly City of Business and Commerce, jumped in bed with the snake-oil sellers recently to endorse the transit tax. Even the mainstream media was shocked:
When the transit skeptics at a conservative, anti-tax business group speak up in favor of increasing the sales tax to expand transit service, I feel the earth move under my feet.
Durham County voters will decide Nov. 8 whether to increase the local sales tax by a half penny to pay for beefed-up bus service and to start work on rail transit connections into neighboring Orange and Wake counties.
The transit tax proposal was blessed by two influential groups that tend toward the left end of the political spectrum, and whose votes were pretty much expected: the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People and the People’s Alliance.
But some folks were surprised to see the Bull City’s third big political organization add its cautious voice to the yes-chorus for a transit tax: the Friends of Durham.
Seemingly impressed by the “booming” construction along the transit line in Charlotte, the FOD has fallen for the unicorn-like promise of a rail project that doesn’t have the inevitable description of boondoggle in its future.
With most of the Triangle’s “progressive” elements advocating for increased spending on buses that already have few riders and the shiny object that is light rail, can huge cost overruns and wasted tax dollars be far behind? Thanks, FOD. You once were the “loyal opposition” in Durham. Now you’ve just joined the tax-and-waste crowd.
