Mecklenburg County voters will decide in November whether to increase the sales tax by one cent, to 8.25%, to pay for a multibillion-dollar roads and transit plan. With three months until the referendum, the tax has so far produced some unusual political alliances.
WFAE Morning Edition host Marshall Terry spoke with WFAE’s Steve Harrison about who is and isn’t supporting the tax.
Marshall Terry: Steve, before we get to who is on which team, tell me briefly about the plan.
Steve Harrison: The plan calls for 40% of new sales tax money to go for roads. Forty percent would go to rail transit, most notably the Red Line commuter rail line to Lake Norman. And 20% would go to buses and a new on-demand service called “microtransit,” which is like Uber.
The city of Charlotte has estimated the tax would cost the average household in the county about $240 a year. The city says low-income residents would pay about $130 a year,
Terry: OK, let’s start with the people who are in support of the tax. Who’s on that team?
Harrison: Marshall, last week Mecklenburg commissioners voted 8-1 to place the tax on the November ballot, and supporters packed the Government center. Many were wearing white T-shirts that said “YES FOR MECK.”
And they came from a pretty wide cross section of the county: you had activists, political leaders, religious leaders and people from the nonprofit world.
Here’s Sherry Chisholm from the group Leading on Opportunity.
“Tonight, I ask you to let voters decide whether they want to invest just a little more at the register to build a region where their children’s children thrive, where we can continue improving.”