qqAll:

Congratulations. You are in the stretch run of very time consuming and — for some — expensive process. Your willingness to serve your community is commendable. But a final question looms.

Given that you all — except Raphael Basisa — support the continuation of the half-cent transit tax and, by extension, the $9 billion Destination 2030 plan the Metropolitan Transit Commission adopted last November, what is your vision for the future funding of the that plan?

As you are no doubt aware, the official MTC-approved financing plan for the $470 million North line commuter rail project includes no Federal Transit Administration funding and about $70 million in debt financed by future local property taxes.

Do you support the continued use of local property taxes for rail project construction? Some other dedicated tax in addition to the half-cent?

What do you plan to do if — some would say when — the current $9 billion plan requires addition funding? Do you support cutting current bus services in order to build and operate future rail lines? At what price point would you demand a new transit plan — $10 billion? $12 billion? $15 billion? Or — as some in the community have suggested — are you willing to pay any price for five or six corridors of rail in Charlotte-Mecklenburg?

Take your time in answering. This is only the single most important fiscal question facing the city. You certainly want to get it right. But at least you will not be blindslided by city staff when these issues come up in the coming years.

Thanks for listening.

Your pal,
JAT

Update: At-Large candidate Ed Peacock writes — repeatedly — to say that contrary to his answer to the Observer, fellow at-large candidate Raphael Basisa actually supports the transit tax and possibly misunderstood the question.

While we try to sort that out, let’s note that unaminity among candidates on the transit tax question would only make it more important that voters get answers on these basic transit fiscal questions in order to draw distinctions between the various candidates going forward.

Thus far, only Tariq Bokhari has answered the questions posed in the post. His response is here.