I need to apologize to George Higgins. One of the first things the former Republican county commissioner told me when I moved back to Charlotte in 2003 about the local power structure, the Uptown Crowd and its various arms, was that it was impossible to shame or embarass them. I had my doubts about that. I was wrong.
The proof is in what has turned out to be a full-on government funded campaign to threaten Charlotte’s elderly with the loss of vital senior transportation services if the transit tax is repealed.
This flyer is being handed out across town with the express purpose of scaring seniors into voting to save the tax. Nothing on it is true. Everything on it comes from a Mecklenburg County DSS memo sent to the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce. The memo was sent following a meeting at the Chamber between DSS reps and consultants for the Save The Tax campaign. At that meeting the campaign reps were told they should interface with the county’s Council on Aging, a senior support group which receives county funding.
You’ll note that the scare-the-seniors flyer features the Council on Aging logo.
Here’s another interesting disconnect. Last night Charlotte city councilman Pat Mumford again said that no final decision has been made with regard to building the North line commuter rail. That is Pat’s way of defending a horrible plan to spend $470 million on a bad plan.
True enough no final decision has been, but the Metropolitan Transit Commission has approved a financing plan for the North line. Everything on the MTC is lined up to build the North line.
Contrast that with the fact that cutting off senior and paratransit services in the event of repeal has not even been discussed by the MTC, let alone any kind of vote taken on that. Of course, no vote of that kind will ever be taken with or without the half-cent because this community will always find $2 million to fund senior and paratransit services.
We found $7 million for IKEA, $7 million for the Carolina Theater, $3.6 million for county business incentives, $10 million for county building upkeep and on and on. Get the picture?
Yet seniors are not told that. Instead they are told that the $1 million Elderly General Transportation Fund would “disappear if the transit tax is repealed.” That is a lie. What’s more anyone who wrote, reviewed, and authorized that language knows that is a lie.
See? Shameless. I was wrong.
