NC: Have Mecklenburg’s transit bills stalled? Here’s what top GOP lawmakers say

A top Republican lawmaker trying to build support for Mecklenburg County’s long-sought tax bill to revamp the region’s transportation system said this week the bill’s chances remain “50-50.”

Those were the odds Sen. Vickie Sawyer gave the bill, which she filed in January with other top GOP Sens. Bill Rabon and David Craven at the start of the year. Four months into the legislative session, Senate Bill 145 has yet to move forward.

Speaking with The Charlotte Observer on Wednesday, Sawyer said transportation needs are the “No. 1 issue” for lawmakers not only in Mecklenburg County, but all over the state. GOP lawmakers are aware of the need to balance everyone’s needs and avoid “picking winners and losers,” she said.

“I’ve said this from the very beginning, we have to look at a statewide approach to transportation funding,” Sawyer said. “And if Mecklenburg County should get this, then every county should have the same opportunity, right?”

Sawyer, a chair of the Senate Transportation Committee who represents part of northern Mecklenburg County, and Iredell County, said lawmakers need to provide counties and municipalities across the state with “more tools in their toolbox, in order to meet the demands, because right now, it’s simply just not being met.”

“I see a statewide approach as an ability to do that, and it doesn’t mean the one-size-fits-all,” Sawyer said.

As an example, she said that Charlotte has a clear need for public transit and Iredell County could use funding to address so-called orphan roads that were never transferred to the state or a municipality for maintenance. Iredell County also needs funding to complete the Exit 38 interchange on Interstate 77 “that’s been promised for the last 20 years.”

Berger and Hall think bill can move forward

Sawyer’s bill would allow Mecklenburg County to put a sales tax referendum on the ballot asking voters if a 1-cent sales tax should be added to pay for roads and public transportation. The bill would require 40% of that tax revenue to go to road projects and 60% to fund public transportation.

Senate leader Phil Berger, the top Republican in the upper chamber, said last week that he was optimistic the bill would ultimately move forward.

“I think it’s still something that folks are interested in getting across the finish line,” Berger told reporters. “We’ve just continued to have conversations, and I’m still of the opinion that it’s something that we will see pass.”

When asked for clarification, he said, “this session.”

House Speaker Destin Hall, speaking with reporters Wednesday night after the first vote on the House’s budget proposal, also said he thinks the General Assembly is “on track to try to get something on that issue done.” Hall said House Republicans hadn’t discussed the bill in caucus yet, and said he didn’t know where the votes are right now.

A separate transit bill was filed in the House in April by Rep. Tricia Cotham that would also allow for a referendum to go on the ballot asking voters if the same sales tax increase should be adopted. Unlike the Senate’s bill, the House bill filed by Cotham doesn’t include a cap on rail spending. House Bill 948 has also not received any committee hearings so far.

GOP wants to avoid ‘picking winners and losers’

Sawyer said Wednesday it continues to be difficult to find support for a tax increase of any kind among Senate Republicans.

Sen. Todd Johnson, a Union County Republican who serves in Senate leadership as a whip, told the Observer he thinks the bill doesn’t have any chance unless it is made a part of a statewide legislative solution that addresses needs across North Carolina.

“The only way to appropriately address the issue would either be one of two things, do nothing, or a statewide approach, because when you’re cherry-picking one particular county, municipality, any subdivision of government, then there’s obviously going to be winners and losers from that,” Johnson said.

Johnson said that with the Mecklenburg transit bill in its current form, Union and Iredell counties “would be the losers in this situation, based on the way we fund roads and transportation projects.”

The southern edge of Mooresville in Iredell County has been included in previous plans for the Red Line, which is first on Charlotte’s project list. But some Iredell County officials have expressed reluctance about allowing the Red Line to extend into Iredell County.

Johnson said he thinks the bill requires too much work for it to be readied in time for the referendum to be placed on this year’s ballot.

Sawyer, meanwhile, said the question of timing depends on how the rest of session goes with budget talks between both chambers now that the Senate and House have each passed their own spending plans for the next two years.

She said she would prefer to move the bill, if it is ready to advance this session, through the full committee process as a standalone piece of legislation, in order to “iron out any of the issues that people continue to bring up, and hear from the community.”

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