What next for Mecklenburg transit sales tax partners? (Charlotte Post)
Mecklenburg County’s municipal governments are a step closer to collaborating on legislation that would fund a 1-cent transit sales tax.
The City of Charlotte, Mecklenburg County managers, and five of six towns have met to prepare draft legislation calling for county referendum on the tax, which would pay for mobility initiatives countywide, and establish a regional transit authority. Matthews’ town council on Monday voted down the proposal.
Charlotte leaders have long called for greater investment in transit equity as a civil right that can improve economic mobility along with backing a 1-cent mobility sales tax referendum. Another benefit of mass transit, advocates say, is the mitigation of pollution by transitioning commuters away from automobiles to buses and trains.
“The simple truth is that many of us rely on public transit every day to get to work, school, the grocery store or wherever it is we need to go,” Shannon Binns, founder and director of Sustain Charlotte, told The Post in 2022. “And if our teachers, nurses, grocery store clerks and other frontline workers can’t get where they need to be, that’s a problem for all of us.”