More on Transit issues...

City staff predicts deep cuts if tax goes
Budget director says without half-cent tax, police and fire services could decrease
VICTORIA CHERRIE

Charlotte's budget director Monday night presented a grim picture of the City Council's options if the half-cent sales tax that pays for it gets repealed by voters in November. The scenarios include raising property taxes and cutting police, fire, solid waste services and road improvement projects. The options also include major job layoffs and requiring the incorporated towns in Mecklenburg County to pay for their own bus and rail services.

"Every single one of these scenarios puts the Charlotte taxpayer in a worse position," councilwoman Susan Burgess said. "We're better off just staying the course." The half-cent sales tax generates about $77 million in annual revenue. About 68 percent of that pays for bus operations. The severity of cuts would depend on whether the city chooses to totally cut bus service, rail service or a combination of both. If the city doesn't operate its future rail corridors as promised when it borrowed the money to build them, it would be on the hook for about $300 million, officials said.

"We can't absorb the half-cent sales tax," City Manager Pam Syfert said Monday during her last meeting before she retires. "This will require fairly draconian cuts in the general fund budget."
Light-rail opponents say the city is using scare tactics to influence voters into supporting the tax.

"I don't think the people who sold us the tax in 1998 were completely forthcoming, and we can't trust what they say today," said Tom Ashcraft, a local attorney who is opposed to the half-cent sales tax.

The mass transit dispute has put the city in an unusual position: in the middle of a heated political debate. It's being accused of spinning data in favor of the half-cent sales tax and presenting scare-tactics to voters.

Syfert said her staff was simply presenting options the council can decide to carry out. After the November referendum the council will have about seven months to decide what to do. Monday, light-rail opponents accused Mayor Pat McCrory of using his monthly program "Agenda Charlotte," on Charlotte/Mecklenburg Government Access, Channel 16, to spin the message in favor of keeping the half-cent sales tax. The program, which covers a range of topics, focused most recently on the city's transportation plan. It aired weekly through June 6, station officials said. It is now off the air, but still can be watched on the city-county Web site.

"The mayor has every right to defend the city's position on any number of issues at the same level as any citizen," said Jim Puckett, an opponent of the half-cent sales tax. "It is when he takes advantage of the airwaves paid by the public that I have a problem with it." State law prohibits the use of tax money for political purposes. But it's hard to say that discussing issues on a program is a platform, said David Lawrence, a professor at the UNC Chapel Hill School of Government.

He said he didn't know enough about the show to comment further. "The opponents of mass transit do not get to muzzle the mayor and elected officials during this referendum campaign," City Attorney Mac McCarley said. "The mayor is doing what mayors do. He is articulating and defending council policy. There is absolutely no prohibition against him doing that." The City Council will discuss light rail again Wednesday in Cornelius with the Metropolitan Transit Commission. MTC Meeting June 27, 2007 4:30 pm - 8:00 pm Cornelius Town Hall First Floor Training Room 21445 Catawba Avenue Cornelius, NC 28031

Agenda