MATTHEWS, N.C. (WBTV) – Whether driving up Independence Boulevard or down I-77, drivers coming from north and south of Charlotte spend a lot of time stuck in traffic.
Leaders have plans to address it, in part by asking voters to approve a one-cent sales tax.
On Friday, leaders announced an agreement between the City of Charlotte, Mecklenburg County and five of the six towns in the county, to put the extra tax on the ballot in November 2025. If it passes, it would play for a transit plan and create a new board to oversee it.
Although Friday’s agreement did not lay out a specific plan, WBTV obtained a draft from July that indicates much of the money would go toward road projects and the Red Line, which is the commuter train that would run between Uptown and Mooresville. The silver line, which would run from Union County to Charlotte Douglas International Airport and into Gaston County, would not get funded – something that has leaders in Matthews upset.
Charlotte City Councilmember Ed Driggs said the plan is a compromise and will not make everyone happy.
“Charlotte City Council would say it’s not so much Red Line versus Silver Line. It is the fact that the legislature said you don’t have as much money as you thought you had,” Driggs said. “When we looked at that, especially with bus rapid transit going down to Matthews, it was pretty clear that when we needed to pare back the rail plan, that it couldn’t include the Matthews connection.”
In a statement, Matthews Mayor John Higdon said that on Monday night, the Board of Commissioners will consider a resolution detailing the town’s position on the sales tax legislation. He said he is “strongly opposed to it.”
“It will create drastic inequities by only funding the Silver Line East as Bus Rapid Transit while all other lines are built as rail,” his statement read in part. “This is not the ‘community consensus plan’ requested by North Carolina General Assembly leadership and I believe there are better and much more equitable regional transit solutions which would best serve our entire community.”
Monday’s meeting will be at the Matthews Town Hall and starts at 7 p.m.
Related: Local leaders propose a 1% sales tax increase
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