Multiple reports of Huntersville city-planner types trying to talk people out of signing the transit tax-repeal petition. Hmm, why would that be?
Well, for one, Huntersville and most of the Northern part of the county seem to be enthralled by the idea of “Smart Growth” developers saving the day. Recall that Cherokee Investment Partners is pitching a tax-increment financing scheme for the $250 million commuter rail line to points north.
Huntersville Mayor Kim Phillips has already been sucked in, calling the idea “creative” and “out of the box.” It is, of course, neither. Just another horrible plan to suck tax revenues away from schools, roads, and safety and toward a choo-choo train.
Of course, the plan is DOA if CATS loses the $60 million a year it gets from the county-wide half-cent sales tax.
Now you understand why officials in Huntersville, in Charlotte, all across the county, in fact, are very worried about a transit tax repeal. They should be.
Update: WBT’s Keith Larson related this AM that Mayor Pat will use his weekend radio show to also tell people not to sign the petition. Bad move Pat. Larson also reports that multiple civic-group meetings around the area including warnings about the transit tax repeal.
In retrospect, it is clear that the clumsy CATS editorial last Friday from Ron Tober — CATS moves ahead on transit — was the kick-off to this anti-petition campaign. You’ll note that eight of Tober’s nine bullet-points deal with the bus system.
That tells you how badly CATS and the Uptown crowd do not want to talk about the half-billion CATS has spent on trains and the untold billions more CATS will spend unless the transit tax it repealed. Suddenly, all anyone wants to talk about is Charlotte’s great bus system.
Remind me again, why are we building trains?
