Charlotte and other local governments could be required to repay millions of dollars already spent designing the Interstate 77 toll lanes after Charlotte led the push to cancel the project last month.
Republican State Sen. Vickie Sawyer introduced the amendment to a bill in the General Assembly on Thursday. The legislation, if approved, could force local elected officials to bring the toll lanes back to life.
Sawyer’s amendment would require Charlotte and other local governments to repay the money, which the North Carolina Department of Transportation has estimated to be $60 million. The amount the local governments owe would be based on their share of the weighted vote at the Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization.
Charlotte would be responsible for almost all of the $60 million.
The amendment to a DOT omnibus bill says that the governments can’t use money from the new transportation sales tax for the payment. The tax was approved by Mecklenburg voters in November, and is expected to generate nearly $20 billion over the next 30 years. Forty percent of that money is dedicated to roads.
The amendment also says that the DOT shall withhold state funds for new highway projects in the area until it's paid back.
That could cause Charlotte City Council members and other elected officials to change their minds again. The City Council rescinded its support in a 6-5 vote last month.
After that, the CRTPO narrowly voted to rescind its support for the project.
Charlotte City Council member Malcolm Graham said Thursday he is going to wait and review the amendment before he makes a decision. He voted in favor of rescinding support for the public-private partnership the DOT said is necessary to widen the highway.
Democratic Gov. Josh Stein was non-committal about how he might respond to the amendment.
“Our office will thoroughly review any legislation that comes to the Governor’s desk,” said a spokesperson for Stein. “Local and community leaders have decisions to make about how to ensure the city’s infrastructure can safely keep pace with Charlotte’s growth while honoring their commitments to the communities that have been established there for generations.”
The project would add four toll lanes in each direction to I-77 from uptown to the South Carolina state line. When the DOT released early designs in November, many residents of historically Black neighborhoods near uptown said the wider highway would further remove them from center city.
The DOT has proposed elevating the toll lanes through the area, and even building a concrete cap over part of the highway. Many residents still oppose the project.
Raki McGregor of the Black Political Caucus said he hopes the City Council doesn’t vote to bring the toll lanes back. He said the $60 million is a much smaller amount of money than the $3 billion that will be collected from tolls.
“The economics don’t make sense for Charlotte,” McGregor said.
Republican City Council member Ed Driggs has been the council’s biggest toll lane supporter.
“I would prefer that Council recognized the many benefits from the I-77 proposal, including for the African-American community, and did not decide only on the basis of the cost of rescinding,” Driggs said in a statement. “That being said, the possibility that the city ends up being liable for tens of millions of dollars should not be ignored.”
