More Examples of violating our trust
While Charlotte residents are being told to wait for their chance to weigh in on the $19.5 billion transit tax referendum, a shadow authority is already moving full steam ahead. A new article in The Charlotte Observer makes clear what opponents have long suspected: this whole process is a rigged production, and the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance is holding the reins.
Despite no public vote, no real accountability, and a growing outcry over affordability and displacement, the so-called “Metropolitan Planning and Transit Authority” is already being built behind closed doors. The Observer article confirms that the MPTA board, with corporate real estate executives at the helm, is already at work, staffed, structured, and strategizing. Their budget? Confidential. Their authority? Unelected. Their allegiance? To development and speculation.
And yet, Mecklenburg County residents are being asked to trust this machine with 1 cent on every taxable dollar, for decades. A regressive tax with no clear guardrails. No displacement protections. No binding community guarantees. No seat at the table.
This is not democratic planning. This is dog-and-pony theater, performed by the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance and blessed by the very politicians who should be safeguarding public interest.
The Audacity: Planning Before Permission
The ink isn’t even dry on the ballot language, and already the MPTA has an executive director, a strategic roadmap, and a trajectory. That trajectory doesn’t point toward serving Charlotte’s working-class riders, it points to speculative land deals, elite business lobbying, and the continued sidelining of bus riders who have waited years for basic, reliable service.
Why should residents vote to tax themselves when the deals have already been cut? Why is there more urgency around forming a board of powerbrokers than around protecting residents from gentrification and fare hikes?
The Real Transit Crisis: Trust
The public isn’t just skeptical, it’s exhausted. We’ve heard the same promises before: more buses, more access, more equity. Instead, we've watched projects fall behind, federal dollars get clawed back, and working families pushed further out while developers push further in.
Now, the same insiders are asking for our trust, and our tax dollars, without even pretending to wait for voter input. This isn’t “visionary planning.” It’s a hostile takeover of public infrastructure by private interests.
Demand Transparency Before Taxes
Charlotte doesn’t need another authority. It needs accountability. Before one penny is collected, the public deserves:
- Full transparency on MPTA operations, salaries, contracts, and planning documents
- Legal guarantees against displacement, fare hikes, and service neglect
- A clear and binding commitment to bus riders, not developers
Until then, the only vote the public should cast is NO.