Vi Lyles repaired Charlotte’s relationship with Raleigh. I-77 toll fight risks it | Opinion
North Carolina lawmakers are considering a proposal that would require Charlotte to reimburse the Department of Transportation for the $60 million it already spent on the suspended I-77 toll lane project. Funding for new highway projects in the region would be withheld until the money is paid back. The goal seems to be to force Charlotte to revive the controversial project that city leaders abruptly killed last month.
It’s the kind of Charlotte vs. Raleigh standoff that Mayor Vi Lyles would typically try to avoid — or at least mitigate. Throughout her time in office, Lyles has been an effective bridge between city government and Republicans in Raleigh. When Lyles took office, that relationship was broken, but she helped repair it, and earned lawmakers’ respect. She has also had a strong relationship with Charlotte’s business community, which supports the toll lane project.
But since announcing her plans to resign at the end of the month, Lyles seems to have taken more of a backseat role in city business. The mayor does not vote on motions unless there is a tie, but she does hold veto power and technically could have stopped the rescission from happening, if she had wanted to. Or she could have at least tried to steer council members away from a hasty decision that could have unintended consequences, as she has often done throughout her tenure as mayor.
But she didn’t, and now the General Assembly has backed the Charlotte region into an uncomfortable corner. The city will either have to cough up the money, revive the project or try to find a compromise despite blowing the negotiating table to smithereens.
This doesn’t mean that the city should have allowed the I-77 toll lanes project to continue as planned. It was a flawed plan that lacked community support, and it probably would have done more harm than good. But it does mean that the decision to kill the project so abruptly might have been a risky one. They should have expected this kind of reaction from the legislature, and they should have expected it could affect other highway projects. (After all, NCDOT warned them about that beforehand.)
To be fair, at least some council members were wary of this outcome, because they were split on rescinding approval for the project in the first place. It was a 6-5 vote in favor of rescission, but several council members who voted against it have said that they did so because they didn’t want to burn any bridges, not because they supported toll lanes. Just before voting to rescind approval for the project, council members unanimously approved a separate motion that would have paused the project in order to further evaluate alternatives and potential impacts.
State Sen. Vickie Sawyer, who is behind the repayment proposal, recently said on her radio show that the threat should be taken seriously.
“This has been vetted, supported, and will be in the budget. This is me actually being kind to the City of Charlotte, and to those communities who did vote to rescind,” Sawyer said. “And I am communicating to you right now that this will happen. This is not a joke. You will lose this, and you will have to pay back the money to the state, and until you pay back the money from the state, your Powell Bill dollars will be frozen.”
Let’s be clear: The legislature should not be inserting itself into Charlotte’s business or trying to force the city and county to revive a project that its residents clearly don’t want. But that’s what the General Assembly often does with local governments, and it’s a dynamic that Charlotte has to take into account when making decisions, particularly ones that involve collaboration with state entities.
Lyles understood that, and the fact that her resignation coincides with another Raleigh standoff underscores the void that her departure will leave behind. The best thing that the Charlotte City Council could do now is appoint an interim mayor who can preserve the coalitions — and the goodwill — that Lyles carefully built.
Charlotte is a progressive city, but it’s located in a Dillon’s Rule state whose conservative legislators like to tell local governments what they can and can’t do. Pragmatism isn’t always popular, but it’s often necessary. Charlotte’s next leader will likely inherit the I-77 problem, so it needs to be someone who can truly help solve it.
Deputy Opinion Editor Paige Masten covers politics and the 2026 elections for The Charlotte Observer and The News & Observer.
This story was originally published June 17, 2026 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Vi Lyles repaired Charlotte’s relationship with Raleigh. I-77 toll fight risks it | Opinion."
