Mecklenburg County Voters Green-Light Sales Tax Increase

This story is republished from The Charlotte Ledger.

On Tuesday, Mecklenburg County voters gave a thumbs-up to a sweeping transportation plan that aims to spend $25 billion over 30 years in perhaps the biggest public works initiative in state history.

But to get relief from the traffic congestion that supporters put at the center of the vote-yes campaign, drivers will have to wait at least a few more years.

By a close but not nailbiting 52 percent-48 percent margin, voters approved a plan that would add rail, improve bus service, and expand roads, sidewalks, and bike lanes, to be paid for by an increase in the sales tax that’s estimated to cost the typical household $240 a year.

During a Tuesday evening party hosted by Yes for Meck, the campaign that promoted the sales-tax referendum, backers said they needed to work to restore trust among the 48 percent of voters who voted against the referendum.

“For those folks [who voted against it], a lot of it is around a lack of trust—we don’t trust that the people who will be on this board will do what has been promised,” said Ned Curran, a former member of the N.C. Board of Transportation who was appointed to a 27-member transit authority that will make decisions on the transit piece of the plan.

“It’s demonstrating to them what we intend to do, and saying to them, ‘Hold us accountable,’” he said. “It’s the public’s money, so there’s a fiduciary duty. It’s a public authority. You can’t hide the ball on what you’re planning to do. Hopefully with time, they see what we say is what we’re going to do.”

Traffic Jam

In interviews at the polls on Tuesday, some voters said that they think the Charlotte area needs better infrastructure and that the plan represented the best way to pay for more roads and transit.

Sandeep Mawalker, 55, who works in the banking industry, said he uses public transit often, especially buses, and that he’d like more streetlights and other pedestrian-friendly features because he walks a lot.

“The roads are terrible and need a lot of improvement,” he said in an interview outside his polling place, Greater Mount Moriah Baptist Church on West Trade Street in uptown. “This is a low-tax city and state, so there’s not much funding for the roads.”

After emerging from Huntersville United Methodist Church, Brian White, who works in public relations, said he voted yes because the plan serves the public good. Since moving here in 2013, he has been “appalled at how underdeveloped the transportation system is here” and said he liked the idea of the planned Red Line, a commuter rail line that would link northern Mecklenburg to uptown Charlotte.

“I think we need to develop, but everything is just gridlock,” he said. “I think the [commuter line] will take a big load off the traffic.”

Some who came out against the referendum cited concerns about displacement and the ramifications of growth, especially around the region’s transit corridors.

Former Mecklenburg County commissioner and school board member Wilhelmenia Rembert, who said she’s been doing community engagement around the transit referendum, said during Tuesday’s Yes for Meck party that affordable housing continues to be brought up as a concern.

“That will continue to be an area that we will need to focus on and address,” she said. “I think, as quickly as tomorrow, we should continue having these discussions about how we remedy those issues in our community, because they are very important.”

She added it will be important to consider feedback from those in a “decision-making capacity” as well as people living in the communities being impacted.

Shannon Binns of Sustain Charlotte, a vocal supporter of the referendum, said displacement has occurred because of the Blue Line and remains a valid concern when considering future transit and transportation investments.

He said he’d like to see an anti-displacement plan for each of the rail corridors, as those are the most vulnerable for displacement.

Hurry Up and Wait

Supporters of the transit referendum, led by the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance and affiliated groups, strongly pushed the message that a yes vote meant taking steps toward easing traffic congestion. Mailers said it would mean “more green lights & less traffic” and would be a “solution” to traffic.

If those promises materialize, they will be years away.

The next steps will be choosing the members of the 27-member transit authority. The city, county, and Mecklenburg’s towns will appoint members. Over the next year, the authority will take over the assets and employees of the Charlotte Area Transit System, which is now run by the city.

Mecklenburg commissioners could vote as soon as this month to levy the additional sales tax, which will rise to 8.25 percent from 7.25 percent. It will probably take effect next summer or fall.

The first improvements that residents will notice will be buses, which the authority could start buying in 2027 or 2028. The plan calls for buses to run more frequently and for there to be new Uber-like services called microtransit in about 20 areas of the county.

Planning will continue for the rail lines, but the first one to be completed—the Red Line—will probably take about 10 years.

“Rail systems are so capital-intensive that planning with those can take some time,” Curran said.

Closer Than Expected

The final vote tally was closer than some supporters had predicted, and tighter than internal polling had suggested. The measure won by about 7,500 votes out of about 177,000 cast.

Turnout for Tuesday’s election was more robust than in the most recent municipal elections. This year, about 22 percent of eligible Mecklenburg voters cast ballots, up from about 16 percent in 2023.

Support for the transit tax wasn’t spread evenly across the county, and it broke down over some predictable lines. Voters in precincts in the area around the center city, west Charlotte, the SouthPark area, Steele Creek, and University City tended to support the plan, according to a map from the State Board of Elections.

But areas where there was known to be opposition—such as Matthews and east Charlotte, which had raised concerns about the Silver Line light rail not extending to those areas as originally envisioned—tended to vote against the plan, as did Ballantyne, Mint Hill, the Mountain Island Lake area, and parts of Cornelius and Huntersville, the map showed.

Voters’ approval of the plan caps a years-long effort to find a way to pay for major transit and transportation upgrades, which backers said were sorely needed because of Mecklenburg County’s rapid growth. Opponents had said raising the sales tax would fall too harshly on low-income households and predicted that the plan would fail to achieve its goals.

Tuesday’s result is also a victory for Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles, one of its biggest backers. Local political watchers widely believe that Tuesday’s election will be Lyles’ last and that securing passage of the transit tax could be a crowning achievement of her years of public service.

Just two months after Lyles was blasted nationally on cable TV and social media for her initially tepid response to the light rail stabbing death of Iryna Zarutska, she was re-elected Tuesday to a fifth term with 70 percent of the vote.

Ashley Fahey is the managing editor of The Charlotte Ledger.

Rachel Black is a freelance writer based in the Charlotte area.

Tony Mecia is the executive editor of The Charlotte Ledger.