For the third week this month, the Buncombe County Commissioners and Asheville City Council met so as to create scheduling conflicts for any reporters that cover both meetings. Seeking reasons, it could have been the commissioners needed to work around vacations to Disneyland with their grandchildren. Maybe Project X wanted it that way. One or the other body was having a weird public acceptance dog and pony show about Project X each night, and both bodies are honoring Project X’s request to withhold its true identity from its taxpaying subsidizers until all contracts are signed. Then, maybe the third meeting was called so both bodies could present their budgets at the same time.
Asheville normally makes a nice budget book available for interested members of the public. It is also available online. I like to have a hard copy so I can mark it up. This year’s version is about half as thick as usual, and has the appearance of multigenerational Xeroxes on recycled paper. I would expect nothing less. The mayor invited members of the public to pick up a copy, so I asked City Clerk Maggie Burleson if I could have one. They were locked up, so she gave me Councilman Jan Davis’ copy.
So while I was burdened by the mortal constraints that make possible the concept of alibi, in another building a city block away, the Buncombe County Commissioners released an eye-curdling, ear-crossing budget calling for a 15% increase in property taxes. The county has held its tax rate at 52.5 cents for awhile, but following the recent reval, it must increase the rate to 57.83 cents to remain revenue neutral. On top of that, the ooey-gooey, lovey-dovey Culture and Recreation Authority proposed by House Bill 252 418 and embraced by both the city and county, would kindly like a 3.5 cent tax.
If the Senate fails to act, Greene maintains that the 3.5 cent tax would need to be added to the 56.9 cent tax to balance the books, effectively making the new rate for county property owners 60.4 cents per $100 of value regardless of what the state does. That calculates to about a 15 percent rate increase from the current tax of 52.5 cents.
Property values on the richest of the rich homes went down, and so the tax burden will be greater on the poor people. What’s more, the city is going to increase its tax rate, and its garbage pickup rate, and its water rates. To its credit, the city is soliciting public input on the budget. They want ideas so badly, they’ve designed their web site so just about anybody can get to the input intake from the home page in about four seconds. They even provide a Plan B for glitch computers.
