Charlotte NC - The Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) gave its story of doom and gloom to the public on the subject of the effort to repeal the half cent, transit dedicated, sales tax. The Charlotte Observer reports on this as well as the retort by critics.
CATS is threatening massive route cuts and higher property taxes if the half cent tax is repealed. The critics say this is simply scare tactics. The critics of CATS may have a big surprise coming.
The big problem here is that the rail line is almost complete so guess what, it has to run or a huge repayment of funds to the Feds will have to occur. If the line doesn't run, Charlotte is on the hook for over $300 million that must be repaid (the FTA requires immediate lump sum reimbursement) and I can guarantee you, that line is going to run and the bus service will ultimately suffer to keep the rail line running.
The critics waited way too long to try and do something to stop the line. Hell, many opposed to the rail line now were in favor of it initially. There are also questions about how the signatures on the petitions to repeal the sales tax were obtained which puts a cloud over the critics.
This situation wouldn't be occurring if CATS didn't just have to have expensive rail toys to play with. Now that they have their toys and have the pro-rail crowd wetting their pants in joy over a new rail operation starting up soon, it has to be paid for. The repeal of the dedicated transit tax is a stupid move by the opponents of the system and I truly question why they waited so long to act. They fail to understand that they'll just pay for the line through higher property taxes and higher rental payments for those that rent.
As far as the CATS proposals, they are putting forth the doomsday plans to the public. Yes, it is a scare tactic to a point but cuts will come if the dedicated funding source that provides 60% of it's operating money is taken away. Simply hiking fares won't cover the loss of the funding. Property owners will fight getting their taxes raised but the taxes will go up but not enough to cover the shortfall of repealing the dedicated tax. The critics of CATS are totally wrong to try and pull the funding from the transit system at this late date. It smacks of a child that wants his way throwing a temper tantrum.
What is needed is to pressure the politicians, the same ones that the critics most likely voted for, to stop CATS from continuing with the planning for the expansion of the rail line when the first line hasn't even proven itself yet. The critics that are claiming CATS is just using scare tactics and demand that the dedicated sales tax be repealed will be the first ones whining when cuts do happen and property taxes go up.
While I agree CATS needs to straighten itself out, especially in management, the critics are going about trying to correct the problems in completely the wrong way.
If the critics can get the dedicated sales tax reversed on the ballot, why didn't they just have a ballot initiative saying no more rail after this? After all, the planning of the expansion of the rail system is what got this tax revolt started in the first place.
What is happening is Charlotte is rather confusing and becoming more clouded as time moves on as more and more reasons are being tossed into the pot as to why the tax should be repealed. All I know from following this story for a while is that the critics blew it by waiting so long to do anything. Now it's too late and anything done will ultimately hurt the public. Not just those that depend on transit but all of the residents since repealing the tax at this time will put a stranglehold on a big part of Charlotte's economic engine.
I've been there and done that. Pittsburgh, after years of scare tactics to get money, is finally making massive service cuts (finalized and going into effect in June 2007). Those that say transit systems won't do massive cuts only need to look at Pittsburgh to see that times have changed. Transit systems can't just make threats of cuts anymore, they have to do it as money is tight. Charlotte residents appear to be on the verge of learning a new tactic in public transit, threats can be real.
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