Charlotte City Council’s expected vote Monday night on a $50 million contract to start work on a new light rail line was delayed amid questions about its cost and funding sources.
The vote was moved to Nov. 12, a week after the Nov. 5 referendum on a quarter-cent increase in the local sales tax to benefit arts programs and parks. The Charlotte Area Transit System is also funded by a half-cent sales tax, and the possibility of raising it to pay for the Silver Line has been floated.
The outcome of the arts referendum, planning director Taiwo Jaiyeoba told council’s transportation committee Monday morning, “would really help us (know) how you address the sources of funding” for the Silver Line.
“On Nov. 12 we will have a contract in front of you and an opportunity to see what this funding will look like. What’s happening Nov. 5 will impact how we tell that story.”
The Silver Line is the biggest of several transit projects, expected to cost $6 billion to $8 billion in all, that CATS wants to complete by 2030. The new line alone could cost roughly $3 billion to $4 billion, CATS chief executive John Lewis told the committee Monday. The preliminary work to be voted on by council would produce a firm estimate.
Whether or not the arts vote succeeds, Lewis told The Observer last week, the city would have to ask state legislators for permission to ask voters to raise the transit tax.
Federal and state grants paid about 75% of CATS’ now-operating Blue Line and its extension, which opened in 2007 and 2018. But both levels of government have ratcheted back their transit grants in recent years and would potentially pay only about half the cost of the Silver Line.
That would leave a larger share on local government. Republican City Council members Ed Driggs and Tariq Bokhari have questioned not only the ultimate cost of the Silver Line but where the local money would come from.
Mayor pro tem Julie Eiselt, the Democrat who chairs council’s transportation committee, repeated that question Monday.
Eiselt said she supported the $50 million contract to begin work on the line, but added: “Is it not worthy of a conversation of how we’re going to pay for things? I don’t think there’s anything wrong in asking, how are we going to pay for a regional transportation system?”
Lewis has said the financing plan is likely to include “a buffet of options” instead of a single funding source.
Among those: Dedicating a portion of property tax revenue from the new development that a rail line would attract; creating public-private partnerships; taking on debt; and contributions from Gaston and Union counties or the towns within them that might connect to the Silver Line.
Lewis, on Monday, called the line’s financing plan a “chicken and egg” conundrum that can’t clearly be answered without the preliminary work that council has been asked to approve.
Council member Greg Phipps, a Democrat, said questions about costs at this early stage could sow public doubt about the project.
“Either we’re going to do it or not, that’s the thing,” he told the transportation committee. “I guess I’m really confused about the direction we’re going in. I’m not all that confident now, that are we going to see another line other than the Blue Line? The way the tenor of the discussion has gone, I’m doubtful on it.”
Democrat Braxton Winston urged his colleagues to commit to the Silver Line, saying it would help low-income residents connect to growth areas and jobs in the city. Council has previously voiced support for more light rail, he said.
Council member Dimple Ajmera added that council regularly approves beginning work on capital projects before knowing their full costs.
“This is important that we show the commitment to transportation,” she said, “because if we’re worried about just $50 million, we might as well say that we’re not going to do the line because it’s going to cost billions of dollars to do this.”
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October 28, 2019 at 02:47PM
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Charlotte council delays Silver Line vote as funding questions linger - Charlotte Observer
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