“Isley wants to shift TTA funds –
The Raleigh councilman says the money should go toward roads and schools.”

Wake up, Raleigh Democrats. This should be OUR issue.

The N&O reported:

City Council member Philip Isley wants to cut off local funding for the Triangle Transit Authority rail project so local governments will have a few million dollars more to spend for roads and schools.

Read the full story:

Two other City Council members have hit this chord before: Democrat Jessie Taliaferro and Republican Tommy Craven.

With Isley chiming in, the Republicans are now beating us 2-to-1.

I repeat: Wake up, Democrats.

Mayor Meeker did talk about schools’ needs in his State of the City speech.

But he missed the point: The voters are not going to vote for a billion-dollar school bond package when they think the City of Raleigh is wasting money on a $40 million underground parking garages, a $20 million tax subsidy to the Marriott family for a downtown hotel and a billion-dollar light rail system that even Washington thinks is wasteful. Not to mention mounting cost overruns on the civic center.

Now I will promptly get a lecture from all the smart people explaining to me that schools are the county commissioners’ responsibility, not the City Council’s.

Sorry, but it’s all the taxpayers’ money. They don’t think in terms of one pot for county money and another for city money.

Let me explain something: If Democrats let Republicans steal this issue, we deserve to lose.