Carolina Journal’s Dan Way reports on the efforts by Democratically controlled Durham and Orange counties to push ahead with the ill-advised, costly plan for light rail. Only the Republican controlled Wake County commission has the foresight to fully analyze the plan’s costs and benefits before jumping aboard the utopian dream of having a train in the Triangle. Even Durham County Manager Mike Ruffin believes the Wake commissioners are proceeding correctly.
Ruffin supported Wake County’s desire to study the transit plan further.
“What I see going on in Wake is very healthy” with bipartisan debate because the plan is very complex, he said.
Even with an all-Democrat board, “It still had a lot of debate here before it saw the light of day, and, I think, deservedly so,” Ruffin said.
Before the Wake commission’s vote, Wake County Director of Elections Cherie Poucher told Carolina Journal she had cautioned commissioners against placing the referendum on the ballot.
“We don’t have room on the ballot spacewise … because of the number of contests that are on the general election ballot,” Poucher said.
