Charlotte Bets $19.4 Billion Tax Haul on Free Small-Business Training

Charlotte expects roughly $19.4 billion from a 1% sales tax increase to fund road and transit work — and its own officials project the city will only manage to build about half of the estimated projects when construction demand peaks around 2040. That gap is why the city is launching Skilled to Build, a free course designed to prepare small businesses to compete for big contracts.

The stakes are straightforward. In an early 2026 report, officials found that demand for construction jobs will exceed the current labor force by 2030. The tax took effect July 1, 2026, after Mecklenburg County voters passed it in 2025. Money is coming. The workforce to spend it isn't.

"When small businesses are successful, Charlotte's economy is successful," Alban Burney, the Skilled to Build program manager, said in The Charlotte Observer.

What does Skilled to Build actually offer?

The City of Charlotte built the program in partnership with Charlotte Economic Development, the Office of Workforce Development, and the Contracting and Procurement Department. It creates workforce grants and provides training tools and education on how to bid for both small- and large-scale construction jobs.

The city hired Growmetix, a coaching firm, to design the course plan. Six courses are in development, focused on running a business. Lessons cover everything from funding to handling legal hurdles.

Each course includes a two-hour in-person core session plus a one-hour bonus session tailored to a business's size and stage, said Nikita Allen, a small business coach and founder of Growmetix.

Allen's teaching philosophy is unapologetically hands-on. "They're doing. We want them hands-on. We want them laughing, engaging with each other, learning, walking out with something that's real," Allen told The Charlotte Observer. "It's not just about sitting and listening to a lecture because nobody learns that way."

The bonding and insurance course, for example, trains students using modern techniques — swiping left or right to find the certification they need and learn how to qualify for it. Think of it as dating-app mechanics applied to contractor credentials.

How Growmetix is building the curriculum

Growmetix consults subject experts and small business owners as it builds each lesson, then tests the material on small groups. The results feed back into lesson plans and teaching styles.

"We do a lot of brainstorming and a lot of goofballing around and playing around and throwing spaghetti on the board to figure out what our process looks like," Allen said in The Charlotte Observer. "It has been, fingers crossed, knock on some wood somewhere, it has been pretty seamless."

What does this change for Charlotte business owners?

For practitioners, the program lowers the barrier to entry on contracts that small firms typically lose to bigger competitors. Bonding, insurance, bidding mechanics — the administrative machinery that sidelines smaller players — are exactly what the courses teach.

The timeline matters. Skilled to Build launches in 2027, and Growmetix is still working through details such as registration limits. Owners who want early training can sign up through an online form from Growmetix. Applications for the first official group open early next year.

Growmetix sees this as a long-term coaching play, not a one-off. "Raising kids, and putting them through college, and having freedom and flexibility to take fun vacations … I really want others to have that opportunity," Allen said in the News Break Charlotte article. "That starts with skills. It starts with having what you need to grow your business and to make it give you what you hoped it would when you started that business."

With construction demand projected to outstrip labor within roughly four years, the city is effectively racing to expand its contractor base before the money outpaces the crews. Whether six courses can move that needle by 2040 is the question Charlotte's $19.4 billion bet now rides on.