By now the majority of readers who choose to visit this blog have realized my communication style.
I use articles from various publications to educate others.
Sometimes I choose to add a personal perspective to spice things up, however my true purpose is to expose hidden agendas or dirt that other news publications might be afraid to address.
Today's Charlotte Observer, which by the way is one of North Carolina's most Partisan, Racist Newspapers to ever exist even by historical Southern standards, published an article about Charlotte's so-called future "Leadership".
This article was supposed to highlight the city's local "Powers That Be" and how their influence is helping to mold Charlotte into a World Class city.
It would have been a Pulitzer Prize worthy, winning story if the article's contents were accurate but its mostly a HUGE lie!
Let's take a brief look at the list of "Leaders" mentioned:
Newly elected Mayor: Anthony Foxx
Charlotte-Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners Chairperson: Jennifer Roberts
Foundation of the Carolinas President: Michael Marsicano
Former Bank of America CEO: Hugh McColl Jr.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Public Schools Superintendent: Dr. Peter Gorman
United Way of the Central Carolinas Executive Director: Jane McIntyre
Now let's evaluate these so-called Charlotte "Leaders" shall we?
1) Anthony Foxx appears to be a "Yes" man with NO unique or original ideas of his own.
In other words if Foxx doesn't get a backbone and stop being phony just to remain on Gov. Bev. Perdue's good side, the only Mayoral Legacy he will leave behind is: "Token Leader". (Sell-out)
The Charlotte Observer has tried desperately to compare Foxx to Pres. Barack Obama.
Wrong!
Although I no longer agree with all of Pres. Obama's Policies I can still respect Obama because he isn't a "Yes Man" with a weak spine, he's capable of bringing Unique, Sensible Ideas to the roundtable, doesn't mind inviting Republican Leaders to share their efforts and knows how to give an Inspirational Speech, which of course demonstrates Confidence in his Leadership Abilities.
Anthony Foxx does not! Or should I say he hasn't displayed any of those qualities yet.
Just because Foxx has a Law Degree, passed the NC Bar and served 4 years on Charlotte's City Council doesn't mean he has the Vision needed to move Charlotte forward successfully.
For example what's Anthony Foxx's plan for:
a) Bringing New Jobs to the Charlotte Region? (Anthony please don't give us that fake "Green Jobs" Rhetoric),
b) Creating New Revenue other than increasing Property Taxes for Charlotte's Middle Class and Low Income citizens? (Charlotte's Wealthy Citizens aren't made to pay taxes and they're NEVER hit with Property Tax increases),
c) Expanding Mass Transportation (Not Stupid Luxury Streetcars in a Recession!) like extending the Light Rail line to UNCC and improving Charlotte's City Buses for Low Income neighborhoods, (better scheduling, cleaner, functioning buses instead of the raggedy ones currently being used),
d) Public Safety and City Services (why is that Charlotte's Wealthiest Citizens are receiving Excellent Police Protection and City Services while Middle Class and Low Income Constituents get Third World crap?)
e) Programs to help Charlotte's Youth become productive, successful citizens, especially the Minority Youth.
Well Foxx? What's your Unique agenda or solutions for those issues?
How was Foxx elected Mayor you ask?
Via Straight Ticket Voting from Low Income, Minority Charlotte constituents who weren't quite sure of what they were casting their ballots for.
Sorry folks, just being honest.
2) Next there's Jennifer Roberts.
Wait a minute!
Isn't she the person partially responsible for NOT straightening out Charlotte-Mecklenburg's DSS Mess?
Isn't Jennifer Roberts also the person who gave Harry Jones (re: DSS Mess Leader) a $38,000 Bonus in a Recession AFTER it was recently discovered DSS Employees embezzled and wasted more than $162,000??
Yes, the same Charlotte-Meck. DSS that's currently being investigated by a Federal Grand Jury.
Jennifer Roberts. Need I say more?
3) Michael Marsicano: Oh yeah, this is the guy who pretends to want "a more Diverse Charlotte" however ONLY if the Diverse populations agree with Charlotte's current Status Quo, Corrupt Leadership and ONLY if Charlotte's Minority Citizens continue to keep their mouths shut while voting Straight Ticket (Democrat) during each Political Election.
In other words if your a Minority Citizen who resides in Charlotte, remember to "stay in your place" or "play along to get along" like Anthony Foxx has done if you want to get ahead.
4) Hugh McColl Jr: He's part of Charlotte's old Banking Industry.
You know, the same Banking Industry that's made negative National headlines.
Enough said on that issue.
5) Dr. Peter Gorman: Superintendent of Charlotte's Racially Segregated Public School System, with Minority Students falling wayyyyyyy behind White Students.
6) Jane McIntyre: Head of Charlotte-Mecklenburg's United Way, a Charitable Organization so screwed up and riddled with Scandal local citizens are afraid to donate one penny for fear the money will end up in the wrong hands.
So Foxx, Roberts, Marsicano & McColl Jr., Gorman and McIntyre have been crowned Charlotte-Mecklenburg's "New Leaders" by the Partisan, Racist Charlotte Observer.
How many Charlotteans can honestly say we're in trouble and are going to miss former Mayor Pat McCrory's Bold, Bi-Partisan, Progressive, Innovative Leadership?
McCrory a Republican was Bold, Innovative, Progressive, had a backbone, wasn't afraid to "call a spade a spade", demonstrated outstanding Business Acumen, fought for Charlotte's Future and Well-being, Founded a Mayor's Mentoring Program which helped thousands of Low Income & Minority kids during his reign, worked diligently day & night to put Charlotte on the International Map, was able to work across party lines with Democrats, was an Inspirational Speaker, wasn't a Token "Yes Man", nor was he a sell-out!
Did I fail to mention he also bought the first Light Rail System to North Carolina?
As it currently stands Charlotte is still the ONLY NC city with a Light Rail System. (It was McCrory's Unique Idea.)
Most Important of all Pat McCrory served 20+ years in Public Service (14 years undefeated as Mayor), growing Charlotte from a small town into a large Metropolitan City without being involved in ANY Political or Public Corruption scandal ever!
That is Amazing and practically unheard of in today's Political arena!
Yet...
The Charlotte Observer cared NOT to list McCrory as a Leader still capable of successfully helping to pull Charlotte out its current Financial Recession.
What's my take on this sad, disturbing situation?
Just think of Detroit, Atlanta, some parts of Chicago and Los Angeles
As it relates to Mayor Anthony Foxx, please, please watch his actions, more than listen to his words.
Think I'm picking on Foxx or being too cynical?
Watch his actions more than listen to his words, you'll see.
The more you watch his actions, you will see his true agenda and his true motive for wanting to become Charlotte's Mayor come forth.
Trust me it most certainly wasn't for the Constituents' best interest.
In fact instead of moving forward, within 2 years Charlotte is going back to the 1970's.
Low Income Blacks on one side of Charlotte and Wealthy Whites on the other.
Pat McCrory's leadership bought Charlotte together because he wasn't a "Yes Man".
Anthony Foxx's leadership? Well....
Just because Foxx is an African-American doesn't necessarily mean he is going to help Charlotte's Black Community, Charlotte's Middle Class, Senior Citizens or Low Income Voters.
(Hint, Hint for the White House)
Prior to being elected Mayor, Anthony Foxx didn't help pull up Charlotte's Black Community, Charlotte's Middle Class, Senior Citizens or Low Income Voters.
He appeared to be ONLY interested in supporting Charlotte's Wealthy Bankers. That's it!
So why would Foxx suddenly change his spots, excuse me his agenda now?
Of course he wanted their votes but as far as reaching back to help these people, forget it!
Yes Charlotte, NC is definitely in trouble!!
Let us pray.
NOTE:
For those of you who think I'm exaggerating, please take a few minutes to peruse the articles I have posted below to support my commentary. Thanks
Who will "Lead" Charlotte now?
It was an old-school meeting - very Charlotte old school. Forty or so attendees, each with a significant bottom line, gathered in an uptown room to hear about and presumably solve a crisis facing Charlotte's charities. The affluent cavalry, ready to rescue its city, again.
It was April, in the teeth of the recession. Michael Marsicano, president of Foundation For The Carolinas, had suggested the meeting to retired Bank of America CEO Hugh McColl Jr., who put out the word. That word, even now, carries great weight: The room was jammed with corporate executives and philanthropic giants. "I've never seen a meeting that was so filled by the players here," says one such player.
It has been, for decades, how much was accomplished in Charlotte - small groups of business leaders charting visions, fashioning solutions, launching arts efforts, sports franchises, city facilities. For better or worse, leading.
But perhaps, some worried at that April meeting, this was a last hurrah. Not a month before, while accepting a 2009 Vision award from Charlotte Center City Partners, McColl had jarred another uptown gathering by saying of Charlotte's big banks: "We no longer have two rich uncles we can turn to. It's time to let those days go - completely."
The "two uncles" line has since been on lips throughout the city - part rallying cry and part fret about the future. If those uncles won't be there for Charlotte, then who will?
"This is being talked about everywhere," says Marsicano.
The questions come as Charlotte welcomes its first new mayor in 14 years - and as the city adjusts to losing the headquarters of one of its two big banks, Wachovia. The other, Bank of America, is looking for a new CEO, prompting fears that it, too, might find a new home. All this has happened against the backdrop of the recession and devastation of the financial sector, which has drained significant income and wealth from the city.
Charlotte's leadership, however, had been changing long before this difficult year. Its once-local corporate giants had become global institutions, with far-flung interests demanding the attention of executives here. Its power structure - once a handful of business leaders - evolved into a diverse group of ethnic, religious and neighborhood voices that didn't always appreciate the benevolent attention of an uptown few.
All of which is what happens, experts say, when a big Southern town becomes a mid-sized American city. And so, at that April meeting, the 40 or so were grappling not only with the urgency of a nonprofit crisis, but the larger issue of how Charlotte will go about solving its problems. How would we move on from the rich uncles?
Because, says Marsicano: "Nothing has really replaced what was."
The Group
They were called The Titans or The White Guys or, simply, The Group. Two decades ago, they met outside uptown at the Lance snack food plant, where they would go through the cafeteria line, plot their city's future, then head out to bend the necessary ears and write the necessary checks to make it happen. Or so the legend goes.
Except, says the group's most prominent member, "There wasn't any damned group, truthfully."
That would be Hugh McColl, 74, who spends more time outside uptown now, including here, in a second-floor room at his Dilworth art gallery. He is, still, the name that's in the first breath of stories about how Charlotte was built - the bank exec who thought big picture but also walked the streets, thinking about details.
Son of a South Carolina farmer and banker, McColl took a bank trainee job here in 1959. It was, he says, "the most boring town. That was the first thing I wanted for Charlotte - whiskey by the drink." That didn't happen until 1978, when McColl was president of North Carolina National Bank.
Within a decade he was CEO and a member of The Group, which had first formed in the 1980s after First Union chairman Cliff Cameron saw a similar collection of elites on a trip to Pittsburgh. Such groups were not uncommon in post-World War II America, where business leaders in cities like St. Louis, Baltimore - and Charlotte - concluded that the old industrial focus on rail-centered transportation was not the path to prosperity.
Those leaders usually came from the cities' biggest businesses, like banks and power companies, says Clarence Stone, an author on city power structures. Often, there was a big department store in the mix, and bringing business to downtown was in the best interest of all.
In Charlotte, by the 1980s, the banks were on their way to becoming regional powers, and the city had entered a true boom. The Group first included McColl and First Union's Ed Crutchfield, along with Duke Energy CEO Bill Lee, Charlotte Observer publisher Rolfe Neill and others.
Memories differ now on exactly how often The Group met, or for how many years, but there's agreement that little actually was decided at Lance. What happened more often was that one member would call another with an idea to launch or problem to solve, and the pair would take a walk downtown for coffee and strategy. "We'd see something that needed to be done and, hell, we'd do it," McColl says.
When downtown railroad tracks needed to be abandoned so a convention center could be built, Duke's Lee made the calls. When the call went out to finance a possible NBA team or get a land deal done for an NFL team, McColl took the ball and ran. It was efficient, if not inclusive. "They ruled by money and insider influence," says Robert FitzPatrick, a Charlotte native and community organizer. "It was not by public participation. They didn't encourage that and they didn't respond to it very much."
Neill is unapologetic: "By having the top decision makers, you get instant decisions. Nobody goes to a committee. Nobody has to ask anybody's permission.... I don't think anybody could cite anything that we worked on that was malevolent or not in the public's interest."
It helped that a member of the group, department store magnate John Belk, also happened to be mayor of Charlotte from 1969 to 1977. Subsequent administrations also understood the value of working with the second decision-making body in town. Harvey Gantt, mayor from 1983 to 1987, remembers projects commonly being discussed at dinners and awards banquets. Richard Vinroot, who served from 1991-1995, remembers one cocktail party at the Charlotte City Club. McColl was there, and he expressed impatience about the city's lack of a transportation center.
"I said, 'Well, we've got some land to do it. We don't have the money to do it. We don't have the political will to do it.'" Vinroot remembers. "He said, 'Well, if you furnish the land, I'll furnish the money and we'll build it.'"
The extraordinary result: A $10million, privately constructed transit center on a $7 million piece of uptown public land.
Time of Transition
For decades, such public-private collaboration was made easier by Charlotte's at-large municipal elections, with no district representation to pull in perspectives from the edges of the growing city. "The political players came out of the same socio-economic group as the business leaders," says Schley Lyons, a longtime UNC Charlotte political science professor and dean. "The power was concentrated in Myers Park."
But as the banks and businesses grew - and Charlotte along with them - so did the divergence of voices that wanted to be included. In 1977, a referendum divided city council representation into seven districts, with four at-large seats. "When they did that, the governing body got a lot more diverse," says Lyons.
In turn, getting things done became more challenging for the business elite. Voters initially rejected bonds to expand the Mint Museum, start a coliseum project and, later, efforts to build an arena uptown. Charlotte began to wonder if power was shifting; after the first arena debate in 1997, county commissioner Hoyle Martin boasted that the uptown crowd failed because of its "bully tactics."
Still, what business wanted, business usually got. The Mint Museum expansion, coliseum project and uptown arena all eventually came to be, despite some continued public opposition. By the turn of the century, however, The Group was aging and retiring. At the banks, Ken Lewis emerged at Bank of America, Ken Thompson at Wachovia. They were not seen as the paternal leaders McColl and Crutchfield were, but Lewis was the force behind the Arts & Science Council and ImaginOn campaigns, and Wachovia brought a heralded PGA tournament and launched the new office and cultural complex on South Tryon.
Charlotte also was blooming with mid- to large-sized business successes, and those executives sometimes joined the bigger hitters at a still-exclusive leadership table. Allen Tate CEO Pat Riley remembers one meeting of 35 businessmen at the Park Hotel in the early 1990s. "It was something about schools, maybe bonds," he says. "It was, 'Who's in?'" He makes the motion of writing a check. "$10,000," he says. "The decision was made in 30 minutes, and we were out the door."
Business, however, was changing. Banks and other corporations had outgrown their local and regional footprints, becoming national and global institutions that commanded the attention of their executives. Nonprofit boards, which once boasted the presence of the McColls and Crutchfields, now settled more often for someone further down the flowchart.
The city, too, had changed - not only growing in population, but spreading that population into well-to-do neighborhoods away from uptown. Unlike northern cities, where suburbs tend to be outside the city limits, Charlotte developed Ballantyne and SouthPark and other communities that pulled power away from the central business district.
Those newcomers, and those neighborhoods, also had different ideas about how cities should operate, including an aversion to crosstown busing to achieve racial balances in schools. "These people were used to sending their kids to school around the corner or up the block," says Gantt. "And that caused a change ultimately in how we send our kids to school."
It is, say power structure experts, a natural phenomenon. Cities grow. People bring new ideas, different voices. Leadership fragments. "You don't have the same kind of very powerful, high-cohesion groups you had earlier," says Stone.
Many voices in the future
The windows, says Pat McCrory, might be what he'll miss most about the office. His was a corner view - south and southwest - from the 15th floor of the Government Center. For 14 years, Charlotte's mayor looked out at an uptown changing in subtle and visible ways.
What hasn't changed? People are still worrying about leadership, he says. When he took office in 1995, Bill Lee had retired at Duke Power. The other business titans were aging. The uptown crowd wondered: Who will lead?
Now, McCrory says, he hears the same wistfulness, the same worries about a future that is already here.
His advice: "Get your head out of the '70s."
For more than a decade, most major initiatives in Charlotte - including Johnson and Wales and the NASCAR museum - have been accomplished not only with the nods of the corporate leaders, but from teams of people tackling important issues and projects, he says. Those teams were small - usually 5-10 people - with interchangeable parts, sometimes clergy or legislators or, yes, someone from uptown.
This, says McCrory and others, is how Charlotte will inevitably move forward - not with one small table for the powerful to sit at, and not even with a larger table that invites others to the discussion, but with several tables - urban, suburban, faith, ethnic - that have a voice in Charlotte's future.
"The leadership of Charlotte entering the first decade of the 21st century will have to find additional partners within the private sector," says Clifford Jones Sr., pastor of Friendship Missionary Baptist, whose members include Gantt and Mayor Anthony Foxx.
Those partnerships will likely include the faith community, which historically helps combat the social ills facing growing cities - especially in a difficult economy. Neighborhood groups and grassroots organizations also will need a greater voice in decisions, most say, for those decisions to be sellable across the city.
"I think it's going to be less efficient," Marsicano says. But: "It's worth the price, because politically today we have to get a large majority of people on board."
But such consensus is difficult these days, many say, given how power in Charlotte has fragmented into islands of self-interest. "What seemed to happen was there was a pull-up-the-drawbridge mentality," says Mary Hopper, executive director of University City Partners. "It's almost as if the communities and the neighborhoods have become silos, taking care of their own areas."
Others despair at a more partisan political climate that hasn't spared Charlotte. "It astounds me that we can part along party lines on mass transit," says Loy McKeithen, a Charlotte attorney active in several initiatives since the 1980s. "Until Charlotte fixes that, we will suffer for it."
Who can bring the disparate interests together? Many point a hopeful finger toward Foxx, the leader most often cited in a recent Charlotte Observer survey about the future. Says Gantt: "As a city gets much more diverse, with all these different voices out there, we need - I don't want to call him a consensus builder, but somebody who can hear all those voices and fashion a political solution."
Says Foxx: "I think we're seeing Charlotte shift from a top-down style to a bottom-up approach in which the voices in the community will be strongly encouraged to be at the table."
Others point to a different kind of convener - one who can match vision with money, problems with problem solvers. Such leaders might naturally emerge from Charlotte's nonprofits, and at the top of several leadership wish lists is the head of Foundation For The Carolinas and its $725 million in assets.
Marsicano, the second most popular choice in the leadership survey, says bringing all the voices together will be difficult for any individual to do. "That's where the community foundation comes in," he says.
"Grassroots leadership doesn't have access to resources to make it happen. Corporate leadership can't do it alone in a politically viable way now. They need each other. The question people are asking is, how is this all going to come together?"
McCrory, at his 15th floor window late last month, says it's already happening. For decades, Charlotte has embraced and wrestled with newcomers, new ideas, new energy. When has the city not worried about what was next? "It's always," he says, "been a transitional time."
The money problem
A few miles away from that window, just outside uptown, Hugh McColl is doing business on his mobile phone. "I don't talk to anyone during Panther games," he instructs the caller. He hangs up. "It never stops, you know - raising money," he says.
And money, he says, is a problem now for Charlotte. The recession has taken a disproportionate amount of wealth from a city built on banking money. Everyone lost net worth, he says, including him. "By some staggering margin...," he says. "I don't have as much money to give away."
In the Observer survey of city leaders, McColl didn't make the top 10 of people expected to lead Charlotte in the next 10 years. But power, he told someone recently, is how many people show up at a meeting you call. In April, at the Foundation For The Carolinas, everyone showed.
McColl ran the event, but not "Marine style," he says. He wanted input from everyone on what could be done to stave a collapse of nonprofits, prompted by a United Way scandal and the recession. It's how solutions will have to come for Charlotte, he and others say.
"We can't look to those parent figures," says Emily Zimmern, president of Levine Museum of the New South. "We have to figure it out collectively."
Some are heartened by Charlotte's history of citizen activism - the revitalization of Fourth Ward began in the mid-1970s with the Junior League - and that Charlotte Memorial Hospital and the Mint Museum were built in the last great financial calamity, the Depression. "Innovation often emerges in a time of crisis," Zimmern says. "Somebody said that crisis is a valuable thing to waste."
As is the business crowd - says the business crowd. Just last week, Wells Fargo announced a $6million donation to help some struggling Mecklenburg charities. "These business leaders in the past, whether you liked them or not, whether they were a bunch of uptown white guys or not, they were committed, they led and they were effective," says Carroll Gray, president of the Chamber of Commerce from 1984 to 2005. "And somehow that capacity has to be reloaded."
McColl is encouraged by the emergence of the Levine family, Family Dollar store founders, who made sizable donations this year to rescue and sustain Mecklenburg's nonprofits. "That inspires other people to play," McColl says. It is, McColl knows, an old-school Charlotte solution - the affluent cavalry - and not long ago, that's what might have come out of a meeting like April's. But instead of a checkbook altar call, the group decided to form a committee, and out of that committee came the Community Catalyst Fund, which rewards nonprofits that come up with innovative ways to save themselves.
The fund has swelled thanks to gifts from the Levines and the Spangler Foundation, but decisions on distribution will be made by a group of diverse voices.
An old-school meeting, nods McColl. But: "The solution - totally new."
And messy, he acknowledges. And difficult. For at least 30 years, Charlotte largely looked to him and the business elite for its vision, its swagger, its emergency half-million dollars, its answers. Now, in this room, old and new leaders were discussing and disagreeing and, ultimately, deciding they wanted others to help, too. And in that, Charlotte was possibly forming another answer.
Who might replace the two rich uncles? No one. And everyone.
Anthony Foxx expects plan for I-485 will Proceed
Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx and two top state officials said Tuesday they don't expect questions about financing to detour the start of work on the last stretch of Interstate 485.
"I really think this is overblown," Foxx said of the controversy. "I feel very strongly that the timeline set out by the governor is going to be met."
Foxx's comments were echoed by House Speaker Joe Hackney at a joint news conference in the government center.
And N.C. Transportation Secretary Gene Conti, who met earlier with Foxx and city transportation officials, said the department will start soliciting building proposals for the road in February.
Their comments came the same day Attorney General Roy Cooper said his office never issued a formal opinion on whether the state can use a new financing plan proposed by Gov. Bev Perdue to pay for finishing I-485.
Perdue has said the administration worked with Cooper's office before announcing the plan and that the office indicated the plan was legal.
Her plan calls for a private contractor to finance $50 million of the $340 million project, with the state paying that back over 10 years.
The state would guarantee the debt when the contractor initially borrows the $50 million somewhere else. The road could be finished in 2015.
Cooper said his office "provided advice as this process went along" to both DOT and the office of State Treasurer Janet Cowell, who has questioned whether the transportation department has authority to add to the state's debt.
Cooper won't disclose what advice his lawyers provided, but he made clear his office was never asked for a formal opinion on a plan for 485.
"If we are given a specific plan for a written legal opinion," Cooper said, "then obviously we will do it and that opinion will be made public."
Poor communication blamed in I-485 flap
NC Secretary of Transportation Gene Conti today said his agency has not communicated well on the new financing plan for the I-485 loop around Charlotte.
The plan calls for the contractor to front $50 million of the $340 million cost. Conti emphasized that, if the contractor borrows its $50 million from a bank, the state will not back that loan.
Conti also said that the state will pay the contractor its $50 million over ten years with no interest - "an extended payment plan," Conti said in a meeting today with reporters and editors from the News & Observer and Charlotte Observer.
Conti emphasized those points in the aftermath of questions raised by State Treasurer Janet Cowell over whether the Transportation Department has the authority to add to the state's debt load.
"We just haven't communicated very well," Conti said.
Plan to finish I-485 loop hits speed bump
N.C. State Treasurer Janet Cowell raised a possible hindrance Tuesday to plans for speeding completion of I-485 in northern Mecklenburg County.
Cowell's office issued a statement late Tuesday expressing uncertainty about the funding mechanism to finish the unlinked loop - a plan that was announced with great ceremony by Gov. Bev Perdue two weeks ago.
"In the absence of contracts specifying terms and conditions of the 485 project, we are unable to determine if there are issues or concerns," said Melissa Waller, Cowell's spokeswoman, in a prepared statement. "We continue to advise the Governor's office and the Department of Transportation on the various options available for this important project."
Perdue responded two hours later with a statement saying the financing plan had been vetted.
"Prior to announcing the plan, we worked with (Attorney General Roy Cooper's) office as we developed the design-build-finance program for completing I-485," Perdue said in the statement. "During this process, the Attorney General's office indicated that our plan was legal."
Cooper's spokeswoman, Noelle Talley, said their office does not discuss its legal advice. Cowell, Perdue and Cooper are all Democrats.
Perdue's statement suggested she wasn't about to put on the brakes.
"We are excited to see contractors express interest for this project that will save taxpayer dollars and complete the loop as quickly as possible," she said.
Cowell may not have authority to stop the plan, but her approval matters because she issues the state's debt and oversees the state's debt load, determining how much it can afford to borrow.
The unfinished highway has long generated tension between Raleigh and Charlotte. Construction was supposed to finish by 2003 but was delayed as Charlotte's population and traffic mushroomed, infuriating drivers and feeding a lingering sense that the city gets shortchanged by state leaders in Raleigh.
Any glitch in the I-485 plan would create difficulty for Perdue, who has already had to back away once this year from a promise to accelerate work on closing the loop.
Contractor financing
Perdue's plan for finishing the last five miles of the highway, estimated to cost $340 million, calls for the private contractors to finance $50 million of the construction on their own, but with the state backing the debt and paying the companies back over 10 years.
Cowell is the only one who can issue debt, in the form of bonds, for the state. What's unclear is whether Cowell would have authority over the state vouching for the debt of a private contractor when they borrow money to finance the highway.
An additional question: whether the state guaranteeing a contractor's loan would be counted against the state's debt capacity. That's something that could affect how much it costs the state to borrow money, because national rating agencies look at the debt load when they decide how to rate the state's bonds. Those ratings help determine the interest rate on the bonds.
Rep. Becky Carney, a Charlotte Democrat and chair of the House Transportation Committee, said she heard rumblings over the weekend about concerns for financing the road.
"Obviously we're hoping this will work, not just from the standpoint that I'm from Charlotte," Carney said. "But we have to be creative in how we finance our infrastructure. The needs are great across the state."
Predictable squabble
Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory, Perdue's Republican opponent in last year's campaign, said the squabble over the highway was predictable.
"This should come as no surprise," said McCrory, who leaves office in two weeks. "No one knew the details when it was announced and no one knew who had the authority when it was announced. It's something I've been trying to determine since then to make sure it's not another false call."
Perdue, a Democrat from the coastal city of New Bern, pledged during her campaign last year to develop a closer relationship with Charlotte. She visited in February, promising to start construction on the last leg of the loop by year's end.
Then the economy tanked, state revenue plummeted and the promise withered. Furthering the bitter sentiment in Charlotte, state officials in May proposed paying for I-485 by sacrificing money for Independence Boulevard. Local officials sharply rejected that plan.
Perdue repeatedly emphasized that she was pushing her transportation department to craft an agreeable plan to finish the loop.
(Oct. 02, 2009) Anthony Foxx: No Property Tax hike for Streetcar
Democratic mayoral candidate Anthony Foxx said Thursday he wouldn't raise property taxes to pay for a streetcar, despite his vote to move ahead with the project and suggestions from city staff that a hike may be needed.
"We aren't proposing or considering any increase in property taxes, and now would be a terrible time to think of that," he told the Observer. "I will not raise property taxes for the streetcar."
The streetcar and property tax issues came up when Foxx and Republican John Lassiter spoke to a luncheon of the Charlotte Regional Mortgage Lenders Association at the Myers Park Country Club.
Lassiter has also opposed Property Tax increases.
The rivals, both at-large city council members, were on opposite sides last month when council Democrats overrode Mayor Pat McCrory's veto of $4.5 million to start design work on the line.
The project, which would run from Johnson C. Smith University through uptown to Eastland Mall, would cost over $450 million. It's unclear where the money would come from.
"I could not promise to build something I didn't know how to pay for," Lassiter told the mortgage group.
Foxx defended his vote. He said the line would bring economic development to neighborhoods that need it. One study showed new development could generate $112million in new property taxes over 20 years.
"The future of our city is dependent on making every part ... a great place to live in," he told the group.
On Monday the city staff outlined ways to pay for the line to the council's Transportation Committee, which Foxx chairs. One option called for creating a special taxing district along the line and enacting a 4-cent tax hike for every $100 of taxable value. Another called for a citywide tax increase of 2 cents.
The city's current tax rate is 45.86cents.
"By supporting the streetcar, I'm not committing myself to a property tax increase," Foxx said later.
During the meeting, he defended his vote for a 2006 city budget that raised property taxes 9 percent - the first increase in at least a decade. Lassiter voted against the budget.
Foxx said the tax hike helped pay for the 70 new officers the police chief requested, more than in the no-new-tax budget supported by Lassiter and McCrory. It also brought in money for new roads and neighborhood improvements.
He suggested that without the tax hike, Charlotte's crime rate might not have gone down. Police say it's down 20percent from a year ago.
"You can't out a price on (a) family's sense of safety, put a value on the life saved because we had the additional police officers," he told the group.
Lassiter has criticized "unnecessary and unmanaged government spending" that he says had nothing to do with police, roads or neighborhoods.
Thursday he alluded to this year's General Assembly actions that raised the state sales tax by a penny and enacted surcharges of 2 percent or 3percent on some taxpayers. He told the mortgage lenders that he'll keep taxes down.
"We're in a high-taxed city in a high-taxed state," he said. "We've got to right the ship."
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Sources: McClatchy Newspapers, Charlotte Observer, The Meck Deck Blog, John Locke Foundation, Charmeck.org, Anthony Foxx.com, ehow, Youtube, Google Maps
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