Mecklenburg commissioners slam pitch to require Charlotte to repay I-77 toll costs
Mecklenburg County commissioners affirmed their opposition Tuesday to adding toll lanes to Interstate 77 South and called a plan floated in the state legislature to make local government pay up for work that’s already been done a “power grab.”
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County staff updated commissioners at their Tuesday meeting on the status of the project and what could happen next in the North Carolina General Assembly.
The state Department of Transportation planned to add toll lanes to an 11-mile stretch of I-77 from uptown to the South Carolina state line, and local officials approved a public-private partnership to pay for it in 2024. But the Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization voted in May to rescind support for the project after months of consternation in the community over the impacts of the new lanes on neighborhoods and the environment.
NCDOT had spent about $60 million on the project before CRTPO reversed its decision.
A potential amendment to a transportation bill in the state legislature that would make local governments who voted in favor of rescinding support to pay back the money began to circulate late last week. It also says the state wouldn’t start new transportation projects and would withhold money for road maintenance until the $60 million is paid back.
The amendment, proposed by Charlotte-area Sen. Vickie Sawyer, calls for local governments to divide the cost among themselves based on the value of their weighted CRTPO votes. Representatives of Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, Davidson, Monroe, Cornelius, Matthews, Mint Hill, Huntersville and the Metropolitan Transit Commission voted to rescind.
Sawyer’s amendment hasn’t officially been added to the legislation as of Tuesday night, but the Republican who represents parts of north Mecklenburg and Iredell County has expressed confidence in its chances.
“This has been vetted, supported, and will be in the budget. This is me actually being kind to the City of Charlotte, and to those communities who did vote to rescind,” Sawyer said on her weekly radio show on WAME in Statesville. “And I am communicating to you right now that this will happen. This is not a joke. You will lose this, and you will have to pay back the money to the state, and until you pay back the money from the state, your Powell Bill dollars will be frozen.”
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At Tuesday’s meeting, Mecklenburg commissioners questioned the legality of the potential amendment and accused legislators of trying to overrule the will of residents and their local representatives.
“This is retaliatory governance as opposed to representative governance,” District 6 Commissioner Susan Rodriguez-McDowell said.
At-large Commissioner Leigh Altman, who typically represents the county board on CRTPO, noted that the county commission voted against the toll lanes during the 2024 vote and the May vote to reverse CRTPO’s position.
“We have in no way changed the position of the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners vis-à-vis this project,” Altman said at Tuesday’s meeting.
Altman described the potential amendment as a “scare tactic” that “doesn’t make a lot of sense.”
“I call upon the Department of Transportation and Gov. Josh Stein to make clear that it would never hold hostage other unrelated projects because of this, frankly, illegal and unconstitutional power grab by the General Assembly,” she said.
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CRTPO is scheduled to talk about the project again at its Wednesday meeting.
Observer reporters Desiree Mathurin, Nick Sullivan and DJ Simmons contributed.
