CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Mecklenburg County commissioners are set to vote on a resolution next week to ask Governor Pat McCrory to delay signing a contract to add toll lanes to I-77.
"It's akin to a person who was falsely put on death row," Mecklenburg County Commissioner Jim Puckett said. "This is my appeal to the governor for a pardon at the last minute."
Puckett is at the forefront of the push to delay adding toll lanes on I-77.
He says he's exhausted almost all of his options to stop the contract from moving forward.
"Our process has been cut off. The only process I have now is the governor."
The contract with project developer Cintra would mean the state couldn't add extra lanes to I-77 for 50 years.
But Puckett believes those extra lanes are exactly what's needed.
"We should at least get the infrastructure that we planned 25 years ago, and then if we want to start talking about tolls on a statewide basis, let's have that debate."
According to the group "Widen I-77," toll revenues for 2018 are projected to hit $5 million.
By 2019, it jumps to $24.6 million.
And by 2020 -- $34.5 million.
Opponents of the contract say if not enough people use the toll road, the burden will fall on taxpayers, who have already been paying for the road to be widened for the past 25 years.
"Now 25 years later, 5 years after it should have been done, we're told not only is that not going to happen, if we're going to widen the road we have to pay an additional tax for it," Puckett said.
With the fight over toll lanes apparently far from over, Puckett and others are counting on the governor to step in.
"I hope politically he understands that there are a million people here who aren't happy with it, and there's an election coming."
Puckett wants to put the resolution up for a vote during next week's commission meeting.
Leaders in Iredell County are in the early stages of considering a similar resolution. Cornelius leaders passed a resolution asking for a 90 day delay in the contract this week.
