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CHARLOTTE – Mecklenburg County Commission members said they will consider adding a half cent sales tax to help fund light rail construction, adding to the current 7.25 percent.

Commission Chairman Jennifer Roberts said that right now, the light rail won’t be finished until 2035, but the extra tax would help drastically cut down on that time.

Roberts is among the Mecklenburg County commissioners who want to lobby the General Assembly to include Mecklenburg in a bill that just passed through the house. It would allow counties to levy a half cent tax for transit, though Mecklenburg isn’t in the current bill.

If the county is added, it would require voter approval.

Roberts said if it’s passed, it will allow crews to finish the light rail by about 2020.

But some said sales taxes are high enough.

“We’re talking about a massive increase of the tax burden on local tax payers,” Jeff Taylor, of the John Locke Foundation, said.

Robert said the recession is at least partly responsible for the funding shortfall, but Taylor remained unconvinced.

“I think if you look at this remotely seriously, we cannot afford a $9 billion transit plan,” he said. “And it doesn’t do any good to say, ‘Well if we just had more money.’ No, that’s not responsible.”

Still, some city and county leaders said they’re worried that without some kind of extra funding, the project could soon be knocked off track.

The two transit projects combined could cost more than $1.3 billion. Mecklenburg County commissioners will talk about the proposal at Tuesday’s meeting.