One of Pat McCrory's biggest accomplishments in office has been a transit tax.
In 1997, the longtime Charlotte mayor lobbied the legislature to allow Mecklenburg County to charge an additional half cent.
That August, the legislature approved a bill to allow a referendum on the sales tax, but only after adding a provision allowing 14 rural counties to charge a $5 vehicle registration fee.
McCrory was elected for a second term a few months later and staked his political reputation on passing the transit tax. In November of 1998, Mecklenburg voters approved it by 58 percent.
The money—which now amounts to about $77 million a year—is used to pay for buses and a recently opened light-rail line.
The tax was challenged in a repeal last November, but 70 percent of voters backed keeping it, with support especially high among black voters and newcomers to the city. The Lynx Blue Line rail line began serving riders two weeks later.
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