Pat Mumford has been put in an untenable situation with his campaign to Save The Transit Tax. Because there are no arguments in favor of our current $9 billion transit plan, the pro-tax camp has inevitably been forced to make stuff up.
Pat himself has strained not to make unsupportable claims and has largely succeeded. One noteworthy exception occurred last month at the GovCenter when former Charlotte City Councilman Mike Jackson corrected Mumford on the facts of the inflationary cost-overrun pressures on the South line. Mumford said not factoring inflation in was an oversight, but Jackson made clear it was intentional and had the effect of misleading the public on the total cost of light rail.
Meanwhile, however, the larger pro-tax campaign has not been so concerned with accuracy. Now Mumford is crying foul because these howlers have been called out. In an email sent out by the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce, Mumford tries to recover the high ground.
“The Vote Against Repeal campaign has made every effort to run a clean, ethical, and legal campaign. To say otherwise is a personal affront to my integrity which has been proven over six years of dedicated service on Charlotte’s City Council,” Mumford says. Be that as it may, Mumford then proceeds to claim something which is manifestly not true.
The Vote Against Repeal campaign has never said property taxes will be raised in 2007 as claimed by our opposition.
Quick! Dial 911! Pat Mumford has been kidnapped and forced to put up a billboard on 485 saying “Against higher property taxes? Vote Against Repeal.”
Then there is the mailing the pro-tax campaign sent out claiming that repeal means “increasing property taxes.” What am I missing here?
Pat similarly tries to recover the federal funding claim, the congestion claim, the air quality claim — and fails on all counts.
And what he does not address at all is his campaign’s involvement in the cynical scare the old folks operation mounted by two hired VAR consultants, the county DSS, and Charlotte Chamber. Nothing ethical about that gutless stunt, a real low-point in Charlotte’s recent political history.
But hey, facts don’t matter. Just winning.
