Charlotte mayor candidates agree: It's the economy

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — They've argued over tax increases and streetcars. But Anthony Foxx and John Lassiter, candidates for mayor of North Carolina's largest city, agree on one thing: The new leader's priority should be turning around the faltering local economy.

Foxx, a Democrat,and Lassiter, a Republican, said in recent interviews that Charlotte has to move quickly to create and retain jobs.

"There's nothing more pressing," said Foxx, 38.

Said Lassiter: "The number one challenge — no matter who you talk to — is the economy and job creation. We've seen a significant hit to our financial services industry."

With the nation's banking meltdown, Charlotte has lost thousands of good-paying financial services jobs. Bank of America, one of the nation's largest banks, is headquartered in Charlotte. So was Wachovia, which was bought by Wells Fargo. For years, construction cranes symbolized the city's explosive growth. Now, many of the downtown projects have stalled.

Foxx and Lassiter, both lawyers and city council members, are competing in the Nov. 3 election to replace Mayor Pat McCrory, who is stepping down after 14 years.

Charlotte has a council-manager form of government, meaning the mayor and council make policy but a professional manager runs day-to-day operations. The mayor's post, considered a part-time position, pays $39,000 a year.

The city tends to lean Democratic, but has elected a Republican mayor for the past 21 years. No matter who's elected, Foxx and Lassiter said the next mayor will face a difficult economy that threatens the city's tax base.

"Obviously, we're going to have to work harder on retention than we ever had to," Foxx said. "We were humming for a while, but we can't ride a wave of prosperity anymore. We have to go back and redouble our efforts to keep existing employers here and keep those jobs here."

One way to do that: "Work more aggressively to recruit more companies that draw on these very same financial services workers that a company like Bank of America might be transitioning out," he said, noting that GMAC Financial recently announced plans to expand in Charlotte.

Lassiter agreed the city has to aggressively recruit and retain businesses. But he said the city also must diversify its economy.

"We have to expand our economy to include renewable energy and health care and biotechnology," said Lassiter, 55, who founded Carolina Legal Staffing.

The candidates acknowledge that economic issues are often driven on a national level, but both were optimistic there were steps a mayor can take to help. They include meeting with business leaders and marketing the city.

"I'm on a first-name basis with every major CEO in the region," Lassiter said. "You have to have the ability to talk honestly about what do you need to continue to remain here and invest here and keep the jobs here."

That, he said, has become increasingly critical.

"We need to be selling Charlotte. We have lower rent rates. We have an educated workforce in financial services that is unparalleled. We have access to an airport that will take you nonstop to any other city in the country. And we've got to market those strengths. That's exactly how we pitched that to GMAC," he said.

It's been a relatively low-key campaign in the city of nearly 687,000 people. The candidates have appeared at debates and agree on many issues.

They both voted for a 2 percent hotel tax increase to help build the NASCAR Hall of Fame, and support extending the city's light rail line to the northern part of the city and suburbs to reduce traffic.

However, Lassiter and Foxx took different positions on a 2006 budget vote that increased property taxes by 9 percent. Lassiter opposed it, but Foxx supported the measure because it allowed for the hiring of 70 police officers.

Their latest disagreement involves a proposed streetcar. Both candidates support it in principle, but last month Foxx voted to override McCrory's veto of a $4.5 million engineering studyfor the line. Lassiter supported the mayor's position, saying it made no sense to pay for a study when there's no budget for the project.

"We just don't have the funding source," Lassiter said.

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Oct 30, 2009 - 09:42 a.m. EDT

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