Well. So the Martin commission has ever so tentatively suggested that Mecklenburg County wait until May 2007 to put another bond package before voters and immediately fund some $150 million in high-priority construction projects.
You mean someone on planet Earth besides CMS board member Larry Gauvreau thinks that approach is a good idea? Cmon! We know that Gauvreau is mean, divisive, crazed, and out to destroy the public schools. Or least that is how Gauvreau’s repeated attempts to get CMS moving on high-priority projects has been portrayed, both by obstructionsists on the school board who have stubbornly refused to build and repair schools ever since the November school bond went down and by the local dominant media outlets.
Wow, talk about getting the story wrong.
Moving to the big picture, a May vote will give incoming CMS chief Peter Gorman a chance to prove that he really is reforming CMS. Make no mistake, CMS’ dysfunctional culture still remains the biggest stumbling block to public approval of more money for CMS. And, frankly, moving the vote to May instead of this November removes CMS as a partisan political issue for both sides — no doubt some are unhappy about that.
Pulling back further, spending $150 million now would seem to indicate that the May package may only need to be in the $300 million range. That would be good news from an ongoing debt cost perspective if the Mecklenburg County Commission had passed a responsible budget on Tuesday night. Instead, the board majority took County Manager Harry Jones’ attempt at some fiscal restraint and gutted it, producing a ticking time-bomb of a budget that could explode with the addition of any more debt.
Update: I’m hearing from multiple sources that there is little sign of fiscal restraint being one of the guideposts of this process. Believe it or not another $400 million bond — strike that, not bond, Christmas wish list — still has much support. There is also little stomach for reducing the baseline per school expenditures growing forward.
Detroit-on-the-Catawba here we come.
