Speaker 1: What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to
this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon
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to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so
much for your support. I'd like to welcome to the program,
Eric Rowell and Robert Dawkins. We're going to be discussing
the Mecklenberg County referendum on the transit tax increase. Voters
are being asked to approve a one cent increase on
the sales tax to pay for a transit system plan
expansion along with road related projects. The vote is on
November fourth, and it's estimated to generate somewhere between I
don't know twenty twenty five billion dollars over thirty years,
with funds allocated supposedly for forty percent for road related projects,
forty percent for rail, and the remaining twenty percent for
buses and microtransit stuff. It would also create a new
twenty seven member Transit Authority to oversee the whole system.
Speaker 2: So.
Speaker 1: Eric Rawell is a native North Carolinian. He's lived in
Meckelberg County since twenty ten. Licensed the attorney, and he
lives in Huntersville and runs the Huntersville Politics group on
the Facebook. Eric welcome, Thanks Pete. And Robert Dawkins is
the political director for Action n C. Robert welcome, Hey,
how are you. I'm good? So tell us first, what
is Action and C.
Speaker 2: Sure? So, Action and C. We've been here representing load
of moderate income neighborhoods in Charlotte for the past fifteen years,
so you know, we work on issues like affordable housing,
upward mobility, economic impact of policy, owned load of moderate
income people, and normally we support tax increases, but on
this one we.
Speaker 1: Finally found a tax increase that you don't want. Okay,
So Eric, you are more on the right side of
the political spectrum. I'm assuming I think that's fair.
Speaker 3: Me and Robert were coming together as a bootleg or
Baptist coalition, if you will, and you know Robert was
really active on Twitter, and so I've been following this
issue from the right and as a Hunter's a resident
for a long time now, and this, you know, this
all started bubbling back up in late twenty three, and
then last year they started back with the quote unquote
informational meetings that cats were held. And of course, you know,
we now got the referendum from the state. And I
saw Action and See tweeting feverishly about this a few
weeks ago, and clearly it was coming from a place,
a different side, so to speak. But I reached out
to Action and See and was able to connect with Robert,
and you know, me and him hit it all right
away because we both see how bad this is. And
we've really been able to put together kind of a
disparate coalition of current and former electeds, grassroots folks, just
you know, folks like myself who or let's say, interested
residents or citizens, but we see how bad this is.
The Libertarians are involved, right, the Republicans, Democrats were all
opposed to this for different reasons, but we all want
to see a better plan put in place, and this
is not the right plan.
Speaker 1: So the folks on the other side that are in
support of the plan, the Carolina Association for Passenger Trains,
they've got a print out here. Well, I have their
print outs called support the Tax Amend the Plan, which
I thought was an interesting way to address the criticisms
raised by Action and see also the Charlotte Regional Business
Alliance Sustain Charlotte is also on board with this. So
you've got a lot of the local institutions, local government officials,
a lot of business leaders, boosters and stuff. So they're
all in support of all of this, and they're dumping
I think what two or three million dollars three million,
three million towards a pr campaign. We're going to probably
see a bunch of advertising and stuff. So you guys
are probably a master war chest of similar value, at
least unless Roberts holding.
Speaker 2: Back from I've got a copier and I got a
brand new pair of Adidas to go knock on doors
and nasty extent of it.
Speaker 1: Well, I will say, were either of you here in
two thousand when the arena referendum went down? Yeah, so
that I mean that, But that was that that referendum
was held in June. It was a standalone question, but
it was a similar dynamic. You had a lot of
the boosters that were in favor of it pushing for it,
and then you had ground swell of voters who were
like no for all these different reasons.
Speaker 2: I can't remember the name of the city councilwoman now,
Lyn Wheeler, Lynn Wheeler, and she got voted out over it,
well after we voted down the reference, they did it anyway,
And then she got voted out because a guy.
Speaker 1: Named Paul or yeah all ike, who was like a
retired mit professor or something, and he just on the
very last day of signing up to run for office,
he saw she wasn't being challenged in the GOP primary,
so he just threw his name in there and he
ended up beating her and she finished fourth. Right, Yeah,
so there are political repercussions to this. I mean that
was a different time, though, you know, twenty five years
in the city leadership looks a lot different. So do
you have any kind of are there any kind of
I don't know, optimistic signs that you're seeing from local
elected officials that would indicate that they're wary of this plan.
Speaker 2: So what I've seen now is in hindsight. So first
city council had to approve a proposal to go to
the General Assembly, right, so everybody on city council except
for Taric Bakar.
Speaker 1: He voted for it.
Speaker 2: Now since we have been able to raise some problems
and people are sitting back and looking at some of it.
Last week was when City Council was going to pass
their MoU the understanding piece for.
Speaker 4: The Authority Memorandum of Understanding Yes, And out of that
vote we had council Woman Brown, console Woman Johnson, and counsel.
Speaker 2: Woman Mayfield all vote against it for different reasons. And
we also saw Councilman Graham list a whole bunch of
issues that he saw as concerning him even though he
was going to vote for it. So it's starting to grow.
The bad thing is was the lack of transparency from
the beginning, if so so. Back when we first saw
this brewing back in like December, a lot of groups
and now just I said Action in Sea started putting
together questions that we had. The response that we were
getting was, look, you know, we've got to take what
the Journal Assembly will give us. We don't want to
raise any saying because then it won't get read into
being able to be read in. After this read then
we can work on it. So we kept raising issues. Well, Robert,
we're going to have Senator.
Speaker 1: I forgot what is her name, Vicky Sawyer. Senator Sawyers,
he's in charge of the transportation.
Speaker 2: Senator Sawyer is going to come up with the bill
and a lot of the things are going to be
addressed in it. And it addressed buses, but it didn't
address the authority of problems that we had there, didn't
address the regressiveness of the tax. We started complaining there,
and then it was like, well, don't worry, we'll fix
it in committee. We we know Representative Coatlain was going
to come out with her own.
Speaker 1: Bill on the House side.
Speaker 2: It came out it lacked the twenty percent commitment for buses,
and everything else was pretty much the same except for
adding and studying the Silver line. Once we saw the
study in the silver line, we said, old, on a minute.
Speaker 1: Some one that's going to run out to the airport
in about a mile.
Speaker 2: The airport and then go east Charlotte. So once they
were studying it, we were like, well, wait a minute.
Studying it, you were telling us we were going to
get the east, We're going to get this east west line.
And they're like, oh, don't worry, it's all formalody. So
finally we get to the bills being converged and put together, compiled.
Speaker 3: What's the word concurred in committee?
Speaker 1: Ye committeefence commit.
Speaker 2: When it was getting ready to come out, the twenties
percent buses had disappeared. So we ourself action and seeing
all of us started calling Trish, cop Hotham and Representative
do fighting to get the buses back in the city
was doing no lobbying. The city's whole point was we
will take whatever the General Assembly gives you.
Speaker 1: Which I can understand from a political perspective, because the
General Assembly, Republican led, they're not very interested all the
time in hearing what the Democrat led city council.
Speaker 2: Right, I give you that, but don't come back and
tell me at the end that you're representing me as
strong as you can. And all I'm going to do
is take what I can get. If that's the case,
get out of our way and just let us deal
with the General Assembly. Just give us a blank piece
of paper and we'll go up there and negotiate it
and come back. That's been our issue here the whole time.
The politicians in Charlotte now negotiate out a fear of
the General Assembly more than they do on our path,
to the point that it almost becomes an excuse not
to even move forward on stuff. Hey, can we get
five dollars for the parts? Oh no, the General Assembly
won't let us do it. Can we get mayonnaise served
in the cafeteria? Oh no, no, no, that Dylan rule
won't let us have it.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's that I know, Dylan. I don't
know if a mayo in the cafeteria. But your point
is taken. I understand you got it's a mother may
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in studio with me is Eric Rowell and Robert Dawkins.
We're talking about the Mecklenburg County transit tax vote that's
coming up in November. In the last segment we were
talking about the creation of this authority. It's got twenty
seven seats according to the legislation that was passed. So
who wants to take first stab at why this is not,
in your opinion, a good idea as constructed? Well, so, Pete.
Speaker 3: One of the many problems that you know, me as
a resident of Huntersville, has had with this bill is
the way it's outlined is one member appointed by the
governing body that has the larger second largest population, Right,
and they go through this list and then the third
largest population in the county. But each of those towns
outside of Charlotte, we all get one.
Speaker 1: So one of their six cities, six towns outside of
Charlotte in Mecklenburg County each get one, right, each.
Speaker 3: Get the same. So so Huntersville, where I reside, gets
the same apportionment as Davidson or Pineville, with much less
in the way of town owned roads and obviously much
smaller population. And clearly they're going to contribute smaller amounts
to the sales tax as well. So that's one of
the ways I look at this is we're going to
be stuck now in another authority with Charlotte that's going
to have veto proof majority almost right from the get go,
with twelve of the twenty seven members, and then you
add the city.
Speaker 1: Let's break that down. The city of Charlotte gets twelve votes.
Each of the towns or cities get get one, so
that's a total of six. Then you also have six
votes for the county Commission, that's correct, and then the
rest go to the legislature and the governor.
Speaker 3: On one member appointed by the governor, that's right. So
that's the corporation, right, and then and that's right, two
members appointed by the General Assembly, one upon the recommendation
of the President pro tem of the Senate, and one
upon the recommendation of the Speaker of the House.
Speaker 1: Okay, so what each of the bodies gets a vote,
the House gets a vote, or the governor gets a
member of the governor. Right, So there's three from them, right,
and then is there any other I've lost track? I
ran out of fense.
Speaker 2: So you've got so you have those those three from
the legislature, one for the governor, one for the speaker
at a house, one for the mayor pro tem. You've
got out of Charlotte's twelve. Three of those come off
that Charlotte doesn't decide on. Two of those are decided
on by the Charlott Regional Business Association. So two of
the twelve for Charlotte c RBA picks, one of the
ones from Charlotte Foundation for the Carolinas picks. Also, both
the city and the county have to appoint one small
business person. The city, excuse me, the county has to
appoint one person.
Speaker 1: How we used to live in the etoj etj Yah. Yeah,
et So all of.
Speaker 2: Those spots come off. Who doesn't have a direct tie
is the seventy percent of the people that ride the
bus on a regular There's nobody that's an active rider.
And when we say active rider, we don't mean just hey,
I'm a doctor that lives up in Hunter's Wool and
I ride the bus. We mean what we call a
captive rider. I ride the bus out of necessity. I
make thirty percent AMI or under and this is my
only form of.
Speaker 1: So you want a seat designated for a user of
the transit system out of necessity? Out of necessity And
so we were talking during the break, so is there
is how would you get that person on the board.
Speaker 2: So I think that there's different ways that the city
in the county because both of them have to appoint one,
which they're calling a rider. Because here's the whole point.
Speaker 1: So they do have to appoint a writer. Yeah, here's yes.
Speaker 2: So the legislature did not define a spot, so all
they could do is on a local level with another
memorandum of understanding, say we think this is important enough
that we will all agree that we will put a rider.
But they can't redefine what's required by the general Assembly.
So they can't forcibly go and say we want them
to be a captive rider, and for us that's problematic.
Speaker 3: Let me, did you want to add anything, Eric on Well,
the other thing too is this is going to be,
you know, as if in case anyone had any doubt,
purely a political appointee, because the legislation makes very clear
these members can be appointed at will. So if the
authority is not happy with the remember, the authority can
then remove that member. So if you decide to vote
against the best interests of Charlotte, for example, the authority
is going to be able to remove you for calls
or without calls.
Speaker 1: Right, So let's talk a little bit about your skepticism. Eric.
As a North mech resident, you came here in twenty ten.
So the plan the two thousand, that the Blue Line
was already under construction, right, All of that original fight
from the early two thousands was over and done. But
I'm old enough to remember when that plan was for
a much longer blue line, and there was supposed to
be some other trains involved, and none of that ever
got built, right, So you're worried about what broken promises.
Speaker 3: Yet again, this is this to me is a North
Mech resident is just another bait and switch. And you
know what I've kind of been saying is, look, you
know they I've tried to break it down real simply.
They lied to us in ninety eight. They're lying to
us again now and this is going to be another
bait and switch where they're dangling the care of the
red line to get the vote of the North Mech
residence when there's no guarantee that red line's ever going
to get built. And that's despite the promises of the
lobbyist and politicians that are pushing for this tax. So yeah,
I moved here, and I'm a North Carolina resident, but
moved to Mecklenburg in twenty ten, so I was in
Charlotte for the first three years, moved up to Huntersville
in twenty thirteen, and I've been hearing about the red
line ever since. But of course you've really not seen
any progress until Norfolk Southern had a catastrophe where that's
a lot of people speculate that that's kind of what
led to them saying we got to raise some revenue,
We've got to pay off what happened on the massive
disaster they had up in outside of Cleveland.
Speaker 1: Is that the East Palestine.
Speaker 3: So you had that and all of a sudden Norfolk
Southern comes to the table. But they keep their easement right,
they can continue to run freight on this line. So
I'm looking this as to me, I'm not a proponent
of the Red Line because I don't think there are
any there's no ridership estimate at all.
Speaker 1: Okay, you've got no call. Well, there was one from
years ago. That's correct, original plan.
Speaker 3: That's right, and I think the last one that came
out with somewhere in twenty eleven or twenty twelve. So
obviously well, pre COVID ridership numbers have plummeted on transit
across the country. Charlotte's not recovered. I think we're somewhere
at sixty five or seventy percent pre COVID pre levels
and we're probably unlikely to ever recover. So you're looking
at you want to talk about writers of necessity versus
luxury writers. People in North Mech and David's and Cornelius
and Huntersville, where our average median income is far greater
than Charlotte, and those people will ride the Red Line
to to you know, go seek a concert, right, this
is a it'll be a fun outing for the family. Meanwhile,
we're gonna have a red line that's gonna run. It's
only going to run every thirty minutes during the day, right,
Weekends will be every sixty minutes. So most people in Huntersville.
I live on the west side, you know, and I
thankfully work in Huntersville, But why would I ever use
the red line? Drive two or three miles over to it,
wait for it, hopefully I can't, you know, catch it
on time, take you know, thirty to forty five minutes
to even get to Charlotte, and then I have to
figure out, well, now that I'm there, how am I
getting around?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 3: So yeah, a lot of issues with the red Line.
But the biggest thing is it's just, you know, we
don't trust that it's ever going to happen.
Speaker 1: So when I was a kid, my grandpa died with Alzheimer's,
and before he died, my mom and my dad took
care of him as he got worse. Forty years ago,
there were no treatments and not much support for caregivers
and family. But things are different today because of the
work of so many people, including the Alzheimer's Association of
Western Carolina. It's a great organization with awesome people with
huge hearts. I've been a supporter for twenty five years.
This cause means a lot to me. I participate in
the annual walk to end Alzheimer's and I'm leading a
Charlotte team again this year, and it's called once again
Pete's Pack. You can sign up and you can join
the team and walk with us. It's on October eighteenth,
that truest field. Sign up at alz dot org slash
Walk and then you could search for my team name
Pete's Pack. There's also a link at the petepod dot com.
There's also a link in the description of this podcast. Also,
I'll be am seeing the Gastonia Walk on October eleventh then,
so you can make a team and join that one too,
or make a donation and help me hit my goal
of five thousand dollars. If you do, I really appreciate it.
There are a bunch of other walks all over the Carolinas.
You can go to alz dot org slash walk for
all the dates and locations. We're closer than ever to
stopping Alzheimer's. Can you help us get there. Will you
walk with me for a different future, for families, for
more time for treatments. This is why we walk. Eric
Rowel and Robert Dawkins are in studio with me. They
are opposed to the Mecklenburg County trans attacks increase. Eric,
I want to touch base with you now on the
contract language that's in the legislation regarding what's called force masure.
So you're an attorney, tell us what is the force masure?
Speaker 3: Right, Pete. So when I saw the draft legislation that
came out, I think maybe in November December started circulating,
that was one of the things that I keyed in
on right away because again, to me, this is just
another bait and switch. But what we've been hearing from
the PROTAC side is no, no, the red line has
to be done this time, right, Fifty percent of the
red line has to be done before we can divert
these funds to any other project, any other rail project,
because as you know, it's a forty forty twenty split, right,
So forty percent are going to roads, forty percent to transit,
and then twenty percent to buses.
Speaker 1: And I would also just point out that the forty
percent for quote, roads is also sidewalks, bus or bike lanes.
Speaker 3: Okay, it is not just dedicated to roads. But so
there is a section in the legislation right that that
to me as an attorney, I read this and it
gave me immediate pause because what it says is it
is that the authority shall complete at least fifty percent
of the red line as evidenced by a scope of
work schedule created and submitted by the GC, the general contractor.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 3: So this is not fifty percent of construction. We're not
talking about stations being built, shovels in the dirt. This
is fifty percent of a quote unquote scope of.
Speaker 1: Work, which is just basically an outline of what they
intend to do, timeline that sort of thing.
Speaker 3: Right, So, to me, there's no guarantee that any actual
work ever gets done. This could be a lot of planning,
a lot of consulting work, a lot of design work
that gets done. But then, if you have to you
read further, and it does have what I would consider
standard force masure language. But what it says is when
it talks about fifty percent has to be completed absent
the existence or occurrence of force measure events that delay
completion of the red line or make completion of the
red line inpracticable. Right, So to me, that's the key
word impracticable.
Speaker 1: What does that mean? Right? It could mean.
Speaker 3: Anything because it is not defined anywhere in this legislation.
So as an attorney, right, you read words, you look
at for the meaning that's in the bill. So that
to me immediately jumped out as the authority could find
almost anything as an excuse to say, hey, the red
line is no longer impracticable. Does that mean well, we
didn't get any federal funds?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 3: You've heard the Alliance folks run around touting six million.
My own town of Huntersville has put out a Facebook
post they refuse to correct where they have said we're
going to generate twenty five billion in funds from this,
which is not the correct number. That is the nineteen
plus six that a lot of the Alliance folks have
been putting out there. We're going to get six million
in federal funds. There's no basis for that. So what
happens when we don't get those funds? Does that now
say well, the revenue is not there, maybe we need
to divert this to the other line.
Speaker 1: It's no longer practicable. So we're going to divert away
from the red line project and funded in silverlaw.
Speaker 3: And that's the problem is it's always who decides, right,
So you've got the language, but then you have to ask, well,
who decides, and that's the authority, And we know the
authority is obviously weighted in favor of Charlotte in the county.
Speaker 1: So okay, So that's that's a problem. The scope of
work is not to find you're not satisfied with the language.
What of the argument that and I have it here
U Carolina Association for Passenger Trains They say, support the
tax amend the plan.
Speaker 3: So we've heard this. I think it was Nancy Pelosi.
It sounds like it sounds like some Nancy Pelos. You
got to pass the bill before you know what's in it.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: The idea is we're not going to get this shot
again with the legislature because it's a Republican controlled legislature.
They're not going to go along with light rail plans
and projects or commuter rail plans and projects. So just
do this now and we'll fix it after.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Charlotte's history is so bad that there's no way
that I would be voting and hoping that the legislature
that you're saying is so bad it's dealing with Charlotte
that they wouldn't give you power. They're going to just
automatically let you appeal it and amend it before you've
even shown them that there's a problem, and you to
show them a problem over time.
Speaker 1: Well, if they could move money like the street car.
I've railed against the street car ever since it was
a leap frogged over it project project. It has never
been a good project. And so like, maybe there's an
opportunity to move money around they and take it away
from the street car and send it to the red liners.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so the easiest thing to do is to wait
in one, hopefully this time getting more public input in
community input during the lobbying process before you take it
to the legislature.
Speaker 1: Didn't they hold a bunch of meetings and the hearings
and all this stuff.
Speaker 2: I think out of all of it, they had eighteen
hundred people out of one point two million people take
part in it. And you get the same people always
that can show up to be.
Speaker 3: Yeah, p'd I attended mine in Huntersville, or I think
technically it may have been on the Cornelias side last year.
Half the room is filled with politicians, the other halse
filled with Cats employees who are there to just basically
give you the talking points. And it's when I went
up afterwards and confronted the CATS representative, asked a lot
of questions about ridership. This was all, oh, early twenty five, right,
They kept saying, last year, in early twenty five, we're
gonna come out with the cost estimates and the ridership estimates.
So again we're still here. This is past early twenty
twenty five, and we still don't have any of that
for the Red line, which is one of the reasons
why I just feel like this is a just trust us, right, Well,
we don't neither one of us trust that Charlotte's going
to deliver on these promises.
Speaker 1: Well, and if you look at the history, like you
were saying, Robert, like in the initial construction of the
Blue line, they pegged the cost at one number and
it came in way over. They had to reduce the
length of the line, yet there was a lot of problems.
Speaker 2: And then I remember how they were asking specifically the
low income in African American community to help them fight
the repeal, and they went to the churches specific Oh sure,
and they were like, look, if y'all help us keep
this from getting repealed, we're going to part of it
was going to be on independence. It was going to
be this ho V lane. They were going to come
out with all these anti displacement measures. None of that
got done. In fact, they came back in twenty nineteen
and said, oh yeah, we didn't do much on displacement.
We're sorry when we're saying who gets hurt from this
the least amongas are the ones that get hurt the
most if we go and charge them this tax and
it fails. So let's not pass it in amend it.
Let's fix Let's come up with something that everybody can
agree upon a better plan and a better point.
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Ticket Slash terms Limited time offer. Eric Rowl and Robert
Dawkins talking about the Mecklelberg County transit tax increase. We
will be voting on a fourth. One of the things
I mentioned did earlier was this idea that like, if
we don't do this, it's better to just do it
now and fix it later because we won't get another
chance this now or never, which is a negotiation strategy, right,
put a deadline on people.
Speaker 3: That's right. It's an ultimatum, right, And this is a
scare tactic. And I've been trying to encourage people to
reject that. Right, you got to reject the premise. But
also before I forget Pete, thanks so much for having
us on today, because you know we're up against the
behemoth three million dollars in propaganda that they're buying out there.
And so this is important that people understand. We've got
a month and a half really to go. Early voting
starts pretty soon. So but look, I like what Commissioner
Susan McDowell said on this. She voted against us at
the county level, putting this on the on the referendum
on the ballot, and she said, look, we have to
say no now before we end up paying at tax
and perpetuity that does not solve our transportation issues and
merely buy some very expensive band aids. You deserve better,
We all deserve better. And that's the thing. This is
not an hour or ever there's I mean, we can
always go back to the legislature and amendous bill, make
it better, make it work, and make it solve the
actual problems that we have with transportation and congestion and
traffic in this in this county.
Speaker 1: One of the things I saw was that the amount
of increase to the average resident in Mecklenberg County would
be more per year than the county and city property
tax increases.
Speaker 2: Yes combine, Yes, when you go from seven point twenty
five percent to eight point twenty five percent. Putting that
all together as a whole, that's a fourteen percent increase
what we're looking at. And I think that was it
was one of the main stations here that put out
the cost per person per month in year two hundred
and forty bucks a month. To excuse me, two hundred
and forty bucks a year for for average citizen, eleven
bucks a month for load and moderate income people.
Speaker 1: That is huge.
Speaker 2: You can tell me, oh, it's not going to be
on prepared food, but I've got other expenses other than food.
Speaker 1: I've got a clothes. Well, it is on prepared food.
It's not on grocery.
Speaker 2: It's it's not on groceries exactly. What is so not
only not only that I still have to I have
to clothe my family, I have to clean my house.
I have to take care of loved ones. So eleven
bucks is still eleven bucks and four people. That's the
least among us. The folks that now are are forced
to live in hotels, they're already paying two percent texts
for on a user refee because they're living in a motel.
They don't have a kitchen. So everybody wants to take
this and go Oh, but it's not it's only on
prepared food, like it's just candy. It's more than just candy.
If you if you're living in a hotel, it's the
rotesserie chicken that you just paid for your kids to eat.
So folks need to look at that and just to say, well,
it's only eleven bucks, but it's not on necessities. You
don't get to determine to me what my necessity is.
Speaker 1: Is that eleven bucks a month.
Speaker 2: Eleven off, So you don't get to tell me what
my necessity.
Speaker 1: So it's over.
Speaker 2: It's one hundred and fifty bucks a year. One hundred
fifty bucks a year. But here's another point too, when
you're telling me one of the main things is going
to help poor people is micro transit, and a majority
of these poor people are having to go to crisis
assistance just to pay their their food, their regular bill,
and your phone bill if your phone's cut off. How
you're going to use micro transit. It's an app based system,
so when the phone's off, they can't even use the
service you're trying to sell.
Speaker 1: Them, which is part of the plan. Also, this concept
of the micro transit, which is essentially uber but government
run which government run uber.
Speaker 2: But instead of me being able to say, hey Pete,
take me, is hey Pete take me, and the four
people that called you before me in order of how
you called me to my destination.
Speaker 1: So it's a bus, but only a four seater.
Speaker 2: It's a four seed bus. So I need more four
seed buses because it's not scalable.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, So Eric, it's just you two in studio.
You guys are fighting the behemoth. As you said, are
you gaining traction?
Speaker 3: I think we are. You've got a growing coalition Democrats, Republicans,
libertarians coming together, current and former elected officials that are
publicly stating their opposition to this. The Huntersville candidate's running
right now, we've got you know, Frank Gammon and Jamie Widman.
Scott Cornett's even a Democrat, he's come out against this.
Dennis Biladuo running for mayor in Cornelia's very vocal advocate
or opponent of this as well. And you're starting to
see more of that. So I think that's a that's
a huge positive sign that we're seeing. And listen, I
think to sum it up right, this isn't going to
be a transit tax This is a train wreck, is
what this is. And so we need people to get
out to spread the word with their friends and neighbors.
This is a low turnout election, so we can beat
this thing, but you need to make sure your friends
and neighbors understand the implications of this. This is a
permanent tax. It's going to impact the lowest income residents
the most, and it's not going to make Cats any safer.
And I think that's something that obviously has taken a
lot of president Over the past few days, You're seeing
more and more people voice concerns about safety. So why
are we going to trust Cats with three to four
hundred million dollars a year extra when they haven't demonstrated
that they deserve our trust.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean they've had trains derail on the Blue Line.
They were not replacing the truck system for the wheels.
It's like the ball bearings. It's like, what this is
basic stuff. And so I mean I've been impressed with
the guy in the interim CEO, Brent Cagel, seems to
be doing a better job than the previous one, John Lewis.
But I mean that's lowballs, right, So there is that
all right? Well, thank you very much for coming in.
I do appreciate it and keep us posted as to
how it's how it's going. Did you got y'all have
a website or anything like that.
Speaker 3: No, just just just Facebook Roberts Roberts tweets.
Speaker 2: Really, when we say this is really here's the whole
point we were. We would have even had to have
come up with enough people to form an anti referendum
a committee and file reports. Yeah, come up with money
for yard signs. This is the first time you've seen
Democrats and Republicans all together on one thing, and it's
not in the best interest of the people and lust
Without money, we're just trying to fight it word of mouth.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, thank you guys, I appreciate it. News
is Next. All right, that'll do it for this episode.
Thank you so much for listening. I could not do
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