The Rhino’s John Hammer has a detailed article on the City of Greensboro’s budget negotiations, with council members Mike Barber and Tom Phillips pushing for cuts:
Barber is a former Guilford County commissioner and evidently didn’t get the memo that councilmembers were only suposed to discuss what City Manager Mitch Johnson told them to discuss. Following Brber’s lead, the council reduced the proposed tax increase to 2 cents, for a grand total of .6350 cents on $100 valuation of property…..
Phillips suggested cutting 10 percent from the Greensboro Partneship, Downtown Greensboro Inc., the Sports Commission and Piedmont Triad Partnership. He also noted that the city was putting $200,000 a year into Center City Park and was tired of hearing about it being a privately funded park.
Phillips’ suggestion was to cut those organizations each by 10 percent and use the money to reopen the marinas at Lake Higgins and Lake Brandt on a full-time basis.
In the end after the council “strawed” it all, Phillips got the funding for the lakes but didn’t get the cuts to the organizations.
Somebody needs to tell me what those organizations have done that’s so important that they can’t bear a 10 percent cut to their budgets. But while Barber and Phillips should be commended for their efforts, we’re still talking tens of thousands of dollars in a $395 million budget. Not exactly significant reductions.
