The long awaited petition to get an up-or-down vote on a repeal of the half-cent sales tax for transit is ready to drop — possibly this week. The goal is to get 48,000 signatures by August 2007. If so, the measure goes on the ballot in November 2007.
There will be all kinds of reasons given to oppose the petition, one of which Mayor Pat McCrory has already trotted out — repeal the sales tax for transit, and money to run the bus system will either dry up or require a hike in property taxes to replace. In fact, this is merely an argument for the Mecklenburg County commission to get out in front craft a less drastic measure that, say, forbids CATS from spending any of the $60 million per year raised by the tax on future choo-choo trains.
But that would require both guts and smarts, two qualities in short supply around here.
No two ways about it, 2007 is shaping up a vital year for Char-Meck.
