Jay Morrison

Jay Morrison, the man who instigated the anti-transit tax movement in Charlotte has a bit of a past according to the Charlotte Observer. This morning we in Charlotte were greeted with the news that Morrison was a party in 17 lawsuits he filed against his creditors and if the Observer is giving the full story, these are some stinky lawsuits.

Steve Harrison and Victoria Cherrie of the CharO tell it this way:

Jay Morrison, a key figure behind a November referendum to repeal Mecklenburg County's transit tax, had a "scheme to extort" money from a debt collector and bragged about his methods online, defendants say in court documents.

Darn, it's hard to get back in the blogging saddle. I feel like I've completely lost touch with what's going on. To ease back in, I thought I'd do a little roundup of what's going on in this area.

Some of you might remember when I mentioned the group that doesn't want Mecklenburg residents to have funds to provide adequate public transportation. They call themselves SCAT. Jay Morrison is the man who started the petition drive to repeal the half-cent transit sales tax by putting it on the ballot this fall. Repealing that tax would take money from all mass transit, not just the light rail system.