Charlotte City Council may reverse itself on I-77 toll lanes today, under threat of a state penalty

Charlotte City Council is expected to consider reversing its earlier vote against the I-77 South toll lane project today, Monday, September 21. The shift follows a provision in the state budget passed in July that threatened to make any local government that voted against the project repay the state for tens of millions of dollars in design costs.

The project would extend the express toll lanes that currently stop near Uptown south to the South Carolina state line. Charlotte and several neighboring towns previously voted through the regional transportation planning body to rescind their support, citing concerns about the route and about tolls in general.

Here is where things stand going into the meeting.

• A provision in the July state budget threatens any jurisdiction that voted against the project with repaying the state for design costs.
• Cornelius, Huntersville and Monroe have already said they will switch their votes from no to yes.
• Charlotte holds 31 of the 74 weighted votes on the regional planning body, which is not a majority on its own.
• The state has offered up to $300 million in community benefits for Charlotte, a pledge that is not binding.

How the vote works

The decision runs through the Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization, known as CRTPO. It has 27 voting members representing jurisdictions across the region, with votes weighted by population. Charlotte holds 31 of the 74 weighted votes, roughly 41 percent, and Mecklenburg County holds three, according to reporting from WFAE.

That weighting matters for the arithmetic. Charlotte and the county together hold 34 votes, which is not a majority if every voting member attends. So the outcome depends on how the smaller towns vote as well as on Charlotte, and several of those towns have already moved.

Where the other towns stand

The smaller jurisdictions have split, and several have already moved.

• Cornelius will switch from no to yes. Mayor Denis Bilodeau told WCNC the town was in favor only to avoid a very steep penalty, not because it supports tolls.
• Huntersville and Monroe have also announced they will switch their votes to yes.
• Davidson had not decided as of the most recent reporting. Its commissioners criticized the project sharply but said the penalty would be hard for a town its size to absorb.
• Matthews asked Charlotte to cover its penalty so it could keep voting no. City Attorney Andrea Leslie-Fite said Charlotte cannot legally do that, and council members said it was not the city’s responsibility.

That distinction runs through the whole story. Most of the jurisdictions changing their votes are not saying they now support toll lanes. They are saying they cannot afford to keep opposing them.

What repaying would cost Charlotte

For Charlotte itself the stakes are larger. Repaying the design costs could mean raising property taxes, shrinking the city’s affordable housing bond package, or both, according to The Charlotte Observer.

District 5 Council member JD Mazuera Arias, one of the leading voices against the project, said at a meeting last week that it very much seemed the city would rescind its rescission. Council member Malcolm Graham indicated he would vote to support the project. Other council members described the state as a bad faith partner while acknowledging the financial pressure may be impossible to resist.

The sweetener

The North Carolina Department of Transportation has pledged up to an additional $300 million toward community benefits for Charlotte, such as workforce development or a grocery store, according to the Observer. That promise is currently nonbinding, which is the detail council members opposed to the project have focused on.

A grocery store is not a random example. WFAE has reported on a west Charlotte grocery project that stalled despite $12 million in federal grants, and food access in the neighborhoods along the proposed route has been part of the argument over what the city should get in return.

Why the route matters

Charlotte’s objection was never only about tolls. City leaders raised concerns about the project’s impact on neighborhoods in its path, several of which have large minority populations. Those concerns are why the city voted to rescind in the first place, and they have not been resolved by the budget provision. The provision changed the cost of opposing the project, not the project.

What happens next

If Charlotte and enough of the smaller towns reverse their votes, the project moves forward again after an earlier vote that appeared to end it. If the council holds its position and the towns do not provide enough votes to carry it, the jurisdictions that voted no face the repayment the legislature set out.

Our read: this is less a vote on toll lanes than a vote on whether local governments can say no to the state. Several of the officials changing their votes have said so directly. Whatever the council decides, the precedent the budget provision sets will outlast this particular road.

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