Thom Tillis: After 8 Years, Only Tholl Roads
Last week John Rhodes, the former state representative from North Mecklenburg, held a press conference during which he urged an investigation into Thom Tillis’ “pay-for-play” tactics. To break nearly eight years of silence, Rhodes’ reasons must have been pretty compelling, and you can read about the” why” of it here. With Senate Candidate Tillis touting his record of legislative achievement, we thought it appropriate to remind you of the promises Representative Candidate Tillis made eight long years ago.
In 2006, former Cornelius Commissioner Thom Tillis ran a spirited primary campaign against Rhodes. Rhodes made a name for himself by challenging Speaker Jim Black on corruption charges. Black, you may remember, accepted bags of campaign cash in a restaurant bathroom. He was an easy target, and Rhodes made bales of political hay. Rhodes was the 2005 Americans for Prosperity Legislator of the Year. Black served prison time.
A pro-business publication gushed Tillis was a more thoughtful, analytical candidate, and the style of his campaign- “unemotional and spreadsheet methodical” -proved it.
The reality was a bit different. Tillis ran this ad, accusing Rhodes of 
not getting the results we needed to improve traffic congestion. Tillis promised he would work with state and local officials to
drive results. We just needed to remove “Road Block Rhodes.”
Friends, that was way back in 2006. Since then there have been two major road improvements in Tillis’s district: widening Sam Furr from 21 to 115, and widening Catawba from I-77 to Jetton. Both were in the works before he took office. What has Tillis done about widening the region’s most important road, I-77? Let’s look at the last eight years.
In 2007 the freshman legislator perhaps needed a year or two to get some wind beneath his wings, especially for something as complex as widening an interstate. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, let’s say Tillis spent his first term getting to know the “inner workings of Raleigh” because we can find no record of him advocating widening I-77.
That brings us to 2008, and another election. Tillis ran unopposed. The solution for widening I-77 then was Augustalee, a half-billion dollar mixed-use project in Cornelius. Under terms approved by the Cornelius Town Board, the developer would loan up to $90M to widen I-77 from exit 23 to exit 28. Back then there was no discussion of “HOT lanes” or “managed lanes” or “alternatives to congestion,” so all parties- even the LNTC, Davidson Town Board and NCDOT- gave unanimous approval. (That was ~5 years ago. In an ironic twist, that same NCDOT now says if we widen I-77 with general purpose lanes they’ll be re-congested in ~5 years. )
I remember speaking with Tillis about the possibility of widening the interstate within the next two or three years, and he mentioned the “half-billion dollar Augustalee hammer” he was swinging back in Raleigh. Of course, that project went into foreclosure and Tillis went back to Raleigh after being re-elected in 2010.
He assumed the Speakership in 2011 and what followed was a period of silence regarding widening I-77. While Tillis’ opposition to tolling I-95 is well-documented, he said little about I-77 beyond what we could find in this video clip. And the ‘road block’ promise faded into memory.
The bottom line is, after four terms in the House and now hot on the campaign trail for the U.S. Senate, Tillis has yet to bring any type of road funding to our area besides having you pay directly for it via tolls. In fact, one could make the opposite argument: Tillis has used the full force and power of his speakership against building anything but toll lanes. He’s thwarted every attempt at either developing general purpose lane alternatives or bringing up I-77 toll lanes for a vote by the legislature. (Remember him stomping out of the NC GOP Convention over tolls?)
Friends, a plan that has you paying taxes and then additional tolls is not a legislative accomplishment. With eight years in the legislature and only toll lanes to show for it, Tillis’ commitment to roads in our area deserves serious skepticism.
Looking back, we’re miles down the highway from that hopeful candidate who made heady promises about getting things done and removing “Rhode blocks.” The toll lane proposals are due at the end of this month, the contract is supposed to be signed in June, and nobody has looked at the general purpose alternative.
The tragedy of all this is we’ve long lamented our road issues are the result of a lack of clout in Raleigh. But with the Speaker of the House, the Governor and a Senator all hailing from our neck of the woods, our influence has never been greater than it is right now. Yet that clout is being used not to re-invest our tax dollars here, but rather to have us cough up even more for roads.
More puzzling, in 2013 the legislature passed the Strategic Mobility Fund law which prioritizes projects based on merit instead of political patronage. We talked with NCDOT Division 10 and they said a general purpose lane project on I-77 would score “extremely well” under the new system. Yet Tillis refuses to call for ranking such a project under the new rubric, instead preferring to rush headlong into signing a 50 year contract.
Forget where you stand on the toll lanes for a moment- that’s just poor management.
Perhaps, as Rhodes suggested, Tillis is in tow with some powerful, pro-toll business interests. After he assumed the Speakership, Tillis became a fundraising juggernaut, raising nearly $1.7M since he was handed the Speaker’s gavel. (By comparison, he raised $72K for his 2006 campaign.) Cash for his Senate campaign rolls in from “super PACs”, those opaque entities designed to let donors give unlimited amounts while keeping their identities secret.*
We could speculate, but the bottom line is this: Tillis is just fine with giving all of our remaining public right-of-way to a private company so they can profit from our congestion misery for the next 50 years.
If this is how Tillis represents his constituents in Lake Norman, what can we expect if he represents North Carolina as Senator?
*Example: Grow NC Strong is a super PAC formed to support Tillis. You’ll never find it on the internet and will never find a public statement of why it exists. One donor, Dawn Properties, gave $25,000 last year. Who the heck is Dawn Properties? You won’t find much on the internet, but a search of NC incorporation records shows Dawn Properties owns properties where car dealerships are located… in fact where all of Randy Marion’s dealerships are. I’m sure $25K is a drop in the bucket for Mr. Marion, but why go to such lengths to conceal it? 
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