Curt:
Congratulations on your new position. Unfortunately you don’t have much time to enjoy it.
I’ll be brief and blunt. CATS’ spending is driving this community off a cliff. Just yesterday we learned that CATS intends local taxpayers to spend $358 million for the North commuter line. And that is just Phase I. Total cost to achieve the goal of 4600 riders a day: $470 million, up from $373 million.
We cannot afford that.
Your alternative funding tool-kit in the event of the half-cent repeal must be equipped with a notion that the repeal effort is a natural reaction to precisely this out-of-control spending. The city, the county, and the MTC have shown absolutely no ability to constrain CATS in any way.
You need to change that.
Best of luck of in the endeavor we all share — keeping Charlotte the Queen City, not just another common, bankrupt burgh.
Sincerely,
Jeff A. Taylor
PS — Stay far, far away from that Hauser study. It. Is. Junk.
