OK, now that Charlotte city council has officially been told that a streetcar line will “create” hundreds of millions of dollars in “free” money watch how we will be told that we will “lose” that money unless we build it.

Councilman Anthony Foxx, bless his heart, is already sounding the alarm bell, warning that unless we rush to build it now, the streetcar may be “out of reach.” Ahem. It is out of reach now.

But to Foxx’s credit he makes clear that West side voters were told that a vote to save the transit tax in 2007 was a vote for a fast-tracked streetcar. Nice to get that little quid pro quo on the record.

As a result, watch the stacked “streetcar advisory committee” steer towards Beatties Ford first. But where I once thought it would be possible to get this thing rolling with additional revenue via municipal service district property tax revenue, I now doubt that will be enough. Look for a “menu” of new city-wide taxes to be floated like parking surcharges — just like Portland! Yippee!

And remember, if we don’t pay up a few extra cents, we’ll lose all those millions.