Predictably, Chapel Hill/Carrboro School Superintendent Neil Pedersen is 100 percent supportive of the 9.2 percent property tax hike recommended by Orange County Manager Laura Blackmon. Interesting, however, is what Pedersen reveals in this News & Observer story about the amount he and his board requested, versus the amount his district may receive from the county: (emphasis is mine)

All told, Blackmon’s budget recommended an additional $5.3 million for the city school district, Pedersen said. That was about $1.5 million less than the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education requested.

“Although this falls short of our request, I believe that this is a fair, reasonable and responsible recommendation,” Pedersen said in a written response to the manager’s budget Thursday.

“If this, ultimately, is the amount of increase that the commissioners approve, I believe that we can reduce our request in a manner that would not have a major detrimental impact on our students or staff,” he wrote.

Question: If $5.3 milion is “fair, reasonable and responsible,” and it “would not have a major detrimental impact,” then why did Chapel Hill request $1.5 million more than that?

Answer: Too many public officials believe they’re entitled to an ever-growing stream of taxpayer money and, sadly, show little regard for the people who are forced to pay for their insatiable fiscal appetites. That $1.5 million doesn’t grow on a tree. It would be taken from the household budgets of Orange County families.