North Carolina Senate candidate Tom Tillis, pushed through a deal, while Republcian leader of NC's House, to make lanes on I-77 near Charlotte into a toll road and use millions of state dollars added for this privatization project to reward campaign contributors. Developers of a large project had requested a new interchange to give interstate access to their development. Before this toll road deal went through they would have had to pay millions to the state to build the interchange. With the Tillis toll deal, the state will pay for the new interchange and the developers will save millions. The day after the deal went through Tillis' senate campaign received a large check from one of the developers. And then he got more through a developers front group. Christie had his bridegate, and Tillis has his tollgate.
Of course, local residents and Charlotte commuters hate this because they will have to pay tolls for an interstate that was already paid for by the federal government and state gas taxes or get stuck in very heavy traffic in the slow lanes. People living in lower cost housing in the exurbs have protested in public meetings. This just might stick a fork in Tillis' chances in November and Republican chances of taking the Senate. He already showed that he was a rude sexist jerk in his debate with Kay Hagan. Now he has shown Charlotte that he's a crook who raised tolls on them to benefit crooked developers. The U.S. Attorney needs to investigate this now. It appears to be bribery.
Hat tip to BlueNC