CHARLOTTE — Charlotte city officials will vote next week on an Interstate 77 toll lane project south of Uptown.
City leaders met Monday night and learned about the plan’s financial impact if the project dies.
If the project dies, all the communities that voted against it will have to team up to pay the state back nearly $70 million.
Charlotte’s chief financial officer says the city may have to raise property taxes to cover Charlotte’s share.
Depending on the outcome of the Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization vote, city staff says the city of Charlotte may have to pay between $59 million and $69 million if the I-77 toll lane project is killed.
The city says the money would come from the Municipal Debt Service Fund. Revenues are provided primarily through property tax and non-PAVE Act sales taxes.
In order to pay this, city staff says Charlotte City Council would either need to hike property taxes, reallocate funding, or reduce debt capacity in future bond referenda. They also could do a combination.
City staff says state law prohibits Charlotte from picking up another town’s tab. So, a town can’t vote no and expect Charlotte to pay its share for them in exchange.
The budget says the state can withhold transportation funding from towns that vote against the project until the state is repaid.
Charlotte City Council will take a vote on whether they want to endorse the project on Sept. 21.
It will be a pivotal one.
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Charlotte controls a plurality of the votes on the CRTPO, meaning how they vote will likely be the way the board goes.
Council opposed the project in a vote earlier this year, saying it would hurt the community.
“I was a no vote for I-77 for all the same reasons,” said President of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg NAACP, Rev. Corine Mack.
What the vote outcome will be remains unclear.
While she doesn’t have a vote on council, Mack flipped how she felt about the project. She says she flipped because the $300 million in proposed community benefits from the NCDOT would be massive for communities that deeply need them.
“What can we do to elevate the community that’s going to be directly impacted? Because I believe if they’re supported and they’re getting a better quality of life, that betters the entire county of Mecklenburg,” Mack said.
She says that support comes with a requirement. Mack wants to see some sort of contract that would legally require the state to pay for those benefits.
Several council members echoed that, saying they need to see that for a yes.
“Doing nothing is not an option for me,” said Mayor Pro Tem James “Smuggie” Mitchell. “We know we’ve got a traffic problem, we know we’re a growing city. The methods we for here I know have been troubling to all of us.”
There are still some definite noes on council as well.
Councilmember Reneé Johnson says supporting the project at this point would give a win to the General Assembly, something she says they don’t deserve.
“I just think that we must carefully stand firm and be brave enough to ask tough questions and be strong enough to protect our citizens who entrusted us with their tax dollar,” Johnson said.
There weren’t enough definite yes or no votes from council to be able to predict the outcome next week.
But it is clear it could go either way.