Beyond The Blueprint | Brad Howard joined by Rep. Beth Helfrich

Good afternoon.

I want to take you on a drive with me from exit 23 to exit 50.

So it's a 27-mile corridor.

You get on at Huntersville, and it's a city, 68,000 people, one of the 20 largest cities in North Carolina, a nuclear station, a business park the size of a small town.

This spring, its manager proposed a $139 million budget with no tax increase.

And Tuesday night, the board passed an e-bike ordinance because that's what a city does now.

Five minutes later, you're at exit 28, and it's Cornelius, the lake town, 35,000 people, the marinas, the water on both sides of the road.

This year, it decided to pay its police officers, firefighters, and dispatchers more, and it's putting real money with the county into Smithville, one of the oldest neighborhoods in the town, east of the interstate, starting with the water lines because it's decided that neighborhood is part of what Cornelius is.

And while we're on the lake, the lake is a business.

Visitors spent $429 million in Iredell County last year, an increase of about 12% in one year.

One of the fastest climbs of any county in the state.

About 2,500 jobs, $14 million in local taxes that somebody's property tax bill did not have to cover.

On the Mecklenburg side, $6.4 billion more than any county in North Carolina.

And most of that's Charlotte, but nobody's published how much of it is dedicated to the shoreline of Lake Norman.

The water isn't scenery, it's a payroll.

Two more exits, Davidson, 17,000 people, a college with 2,000 students that study the college commission says puts about $430 million a year into the local economy.

And three corporate headquarters, Train, Ingersoll, Rand, MSC, publicly traded all three in a town of 17,000.

This spring, one of them opened what it calls the largest HVAC training center in the world on Beatty Street.

Now turn east, Davidson Concord Road, Highway 73 toward Cabarrus County.

And in about a minute, it's fields and trees.

It's like a crossroads, and it's not an accident.

About 10 years ago, the town wrote a plan for that side that keeps most of it open permanently and won planning awards from three different organizations for it.

A headquarters town on the interstate and farmland 10 minutes east.

And then you cross the County line and it's Morrisville, 55,000 people inside the town limits up about 11% over the last five years, but better than 90,000 people have a Morrisville address because a whole lot of the Lake is Morrisville by mail and County by law, the working town on the Lake, the employment center on the corridor.

That's the differentiator.

Good afternoon.

I want to take you on a drive with me from exit 23 to exit 50.

So it's a 27-mile corridor.

You get on at Huntersville, and it's a city, 68,000 people, one of the 20 largest cities in North Carolina, a nuclear station, a business park the size of a small town.

This spring, its manager proposed a $139 million budget with no tax increase.

And Tuesday night, the board passed an e-bike ordinance because that's what a city does now.

Five minutes later, you're at exit 28, and it's Cornelius, the lake town, 35,000 people, the marinas, the water on both sides of the road.

This year, it decided to pay its police officers, firefighters, and dispatchers more, and it's putting real money with the county into Smithville, one of the oldest neighborhoods in the town, east of the interstate, starting with the water lines because it's decided that neighborhood is part of what Cornelius is.

And while we're on the lake, the lake is a business.

Visitors spent $429 million in Iredell County last year, an increase of about 12% in one year.

One of the fastest climbs of any county in the state.

About 2,500 jobs, $14 million in local taxes that somebody's property tax bill did not have to cover.

On the Mecklenburg side, $6.4 billion more than any county in North Carolina.

And most of that's Charlotte, but nobody's published how much of it is dedicated to the shoreline of Lake Norman.

The water isn't scenery, it's a payroll.

Two more exits, Davidson, 17,000 people, a college with 2,000 students that study the college commission says puts about $430 million a year into the local economy.

And three corporate headquarters, Train, Ingersoll, Rand, MSC, publicly traded all three in a town of 17,000.

This spring, one of them opened what it calls the largest HVAC training center in the world on Beatty Street.

Now turn east, Davidson Concord Road, Highway 73 toward Cabarrus County.

And in about a minute, it's fields and trees.

It's like a crossroads, and it's not an accident.

About 10 years ago, the town wrote a plan for that side that keeps most of it open permanently and won planning awards from three different organizations for it.

A headquarters town on the interstate and farmland 10 minutes east.

And then you cross the County line and it's Morrisville, 55,000 people inside the town limits up about 11% over the last five years, but better than 90,000 people have a Morrisville address because a whole lot of the Lake is Morrisville by mail and County by law, the working town on the Lake, the employment center on the corridor.

That's the differentiator.