My my, perhaps there is some slight hope for Charlotte after all. A majority of Charlotte City Council yesterday rejected City Manager Curt Walton’s proposal to hike property taxes by over 8 percent to pay for $926 million of stuff, most of which is best described as economic development spending based upon Richard Florida’s concept of the Creative Class. This is just a reprieve though, based upon the state of the local economy (still bad) not a rejection of the theory the spending is built upon or the scope of the spending envisioned. So expect, in the grand Charlotte tradition of the arena bundle referendum, for all of these projects to be built eventually, many sooner rather than later.
by Michael Lowrey