The Charlotte Observer jumped into the ongoing controversy regarding a UNC-Charlotte Center for Transportation Policy Studies that was seen as favorable to the Charlotte Area Transit System. The controversy is centered on UNC-Charlotte’s relationship with the Charlotte Chamber and if taxpayer funds were used to help the private organization.
The report details email communications between UNC-Charlotte Chancellor Phil Dubois and the Charlotte Chamber on the presentation of the study. Dubois is included in emails that question who should say initiated the study. Other emails talk about how the study would help the chamber build support for the transit tax. Charlotte voters, in November, will decide on whether to keep a half cent tax dedicated to mass transit.
Jeff Taylor is right by calling the study a fraud saying, “If the Chamber had gone out and hired Edd Hauser to do a study
on CATS, fine. Great. No problem. Everybody would know the score. The
report could?ve made the best possible case for CATS and for keeping
the half-cent tax.”
Dubois, according to the article, has initiated an investigation in “response to allegations that UNC-Charlotte employees skewed the study to boost support for light rail,” the report says. Perhaps UNC President Erskine Bowles should launch his own investigation.
