5 years of planning and still no answers!
When you're asking the people with the least to pay the most, you better have your answers ready.
But when Mecklenburg County Commission Chair Mark Jerrell recently asked a basic question, something fundamental about the proposed 1-cent transit sales tax hike, the response wasn’t clarity, evidence, or even spin.
It was silence.
Crickets.
Five Years of “Work,” and This Is Where We Are?
According to city officials and transit advocates, this plan has been “in development” for five years. That’s half a decade of meetings, studies, slide decks, community listening sessions, and glossy mailers.
So why can’t the Chair of the County Commission get a simple answer to a simple question in public?
Why, after all this time, do supporters still fumble the most basic accountability metrics, like who benefits, who pays, and how we’ll prevent another decade of cost overruns and unmet promises?
$25 Billion Isn’t a Plan, It’s a Power Grab
This isn’t just about one awkward moment in a meeting. This is about a $25 billion tax-and-spend scheme with no enforceable protections for working families. No serious commitments to minority contracting. No guarantees for bus riders. No built-in audit schedule or spending cap. And certainly no equity impact statement.
Yet despite all that, the burden of this plan is being squarely placed on working-class residents and fixed-income seniors, not the developers, not the lobbyists, not the corporate real estate machine.
Silence Is Not Neutral. It’s a Red Flag.
When one of the most powerful elected officials in Mecklenburg County can’t, or won’t, get an answer a basic question, that’s not just a political misstep. It’s a warning.
It tells us that what’s being sold as a “transformative investment” might just be another blank check signed by the people who can least afford it.
We’ve seen this play before. Shiny renderings, lofty goals, and glowing testimonials. But once the tax is locked in, the dollars go elsewhere, and the promises fade.
Join the NO’alition. Demand Accountability.
Voting NO is not voting against transit. It’s voting for transparency, for priorities, and for working families who deserve more than silence in exchange for their hard-earned money.
Vote AGAINST between October 16 and November 1, or on Election Day, November 4.