A regional vote on Wednesday, Sept. 23, will decide the fate of a $4.3 billion toll lane project on Interstate 77. Local governments that say no could owe the state $69.5 million.

The Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization (CRTPO), the planning board covering Iredell, Mecklenburg and Union counties, will vote on whether to restore support for the I-77 South project. The project would add two toll lanes in each direction along 11 miles from uptown Charlotte to the South Carolina line.

CRTPO voted to kill the project in May. Republican state lawmakers responded by passing a provision, signed into law in July by Gov. Josh Stein, requiring local governments that vote "no" to repay the state for design costs. The N.C. Department of Transportation (NCDOT) set that penalty at $69.5 million, WFAE reported. If CRTPO reverses course and approves the toll lanes, no government pays.

The pressure has already flipped votes. Cornelius, Huntersville and Monroe have announced they will switch from "no" to "yes" on Sept. 23, according to WFAE. Monroe, the Union County seat, cited the penalty threat in announcing its reversal.

Waxhaw's position unclear

At the Waxhaw Board of Commissioners meeting on Tuesday, July 28, Mayor Robert Murray asked the board for guidance before casting Waxhaw's CRTPO vote. Board members acknowledged toll lanes are far from ideal but recognized that losing the transportation investment could leave the region without improvements, according to The Waxhaw Wall. The board agreed to review a formal resolution at its next regular meeting.

No public record of a subsequent vote has surfaced. Waxhaw's position heading into Sept. 23 remains unconfirmed.

The math and the pressure

CRTPO uses a weighted-vote system tied to population. Charlotte holds 31 of the board's 74 total weighted votes. An item passes with a majority of weighted votes from members present, not a majority of all 74.

Charlotte City Council voted 6-5 in May to pull support. Charlotte and Mecklenburg County together hold 34 "no" votes. That is not enough to block the project if all members attend and other municipalities switch to "yes," but it could be enough if some members skip the meeting.

The math is tight.

Matthews, with two weighted votes, and Davidson, with one, could tip the outcome. Both towns are weighing the cost of opposing a project that does not run through their boundaries. Each faces a penalty of roughly $2 million if they vote "no," WFAE reported.

Matthews Mayor John Higdon has not said how his town will vote. In a written statement published Sept. 7, Higdon called on Charlotte to absorb the fines for smaller towns.

"Just like a regressive tax, those penalties hit the bottom lines of small towns far harder than they hit Charlotte," Higdon said.

The penalty breakdown

NCDOT spent $69,577,547.67 on the project between November 2018 and Aug. 31, according to Power 98. That includes roughly $59 million for engineers and consultants, close to $5 million in attorney fees and about $1.8 million in worker costs. Planning firm RS&H received nearly $28 million.

Sustain Charlotte founder Shannon Binns told WFAE he does not understand how the state spent $69.5 million to reach only a 10% to 15% design level. Sustain Charlotte plans to file a public records request with NCDOT for documentation of the spending, according to The Charlotte Post.

N.C. Board of Transportation member Stephen Rosenburgh warned at an August CRTPO meeting that a "no" vote would halt all NCDOT projects in opposing jurisdictions, not just I-77 work, according to QC News.

Small Union County municipalities including Weddington hold one weighted vote each on the CRTPO board. Their positions heading into the Sept. 23 vote have not been publicly announced.

CRTPO has until Oct. 5 to make its decision. If the board does not restore support by then, NCDOT Secretary Daniel Johnson said in a July letter that his department will remove the project from the State Transportation Improvement Plan. The Sept. 23 CRTPO meeting is open to the public; agendas and meeting details are posted at crtpo.org.