This is not quite what I asked for last week. In fact, Charlotte City Manager Curt Walton is a little too cute in separating the approval of bonds by the public from city council voting to issue the bonds while ducking the question of whether the city can afford the bonds. Still keep this rattling around your head:

City officials point out that the bonds’ passage will not mean an increase in taxes. City staff has set an overall borrowing capacity based on the current tax rate, and $227.2 million stays under that ceiling, officials have said.

In a recent memo to City Council members, City Manager Curt Walton outlined the effects of the economy on the current budget. He described a hiring freeze and other measures the city is taking to save money. He also noted that if the voters approve the bonds, City Council still has to decide what to do.

“While there is no reason at this point to assume we could not afford to issue this debt if the voters approve,” Walton wrote, “additional Council action would be required … to move ahead with the projects.”

Couple things. City officials point out that the bonds’ passage will not mean an increase in taxes. This is simply bullcrap. An honest statement would be that city officials simply do not know if issuing the bonds would require a tax hike to pay for them. Again, voters are not voting for the bonds to have the city not issue them. In fact, they are plainly being told that a Yes vote gets them all kinds of goodies.

And two, there absolutely is reason at this point to assume we could not afford to issue this debt if the voters approve. Rates are up, revenue is down, and Mecklenburg County along with municipalities across the state and the nation have delayed and/or reduced bond issues precisely over the affordability issue. Walton is simply not being forthcoming on this point, there is no other way to say it.

What I have yet to see is what would happen with, say, a 3 to 5 percent contraction in city General Fund revenues coupled with a 50 basis point increase in the interest rate of the bonds. Could Charlotte still afford to issue the bonds? This is the fundamental issue we should be talking about.

One more time, the grand plan is/was to have the property reval deliver a sack of cash to help pay for almost $500m. in city/county bonds. Now that outcome might be off the table. Let’s be honest for a change.

Bonus Observation: Waaa! The Chamber has “only” raised $190K to flog the bonds, compared to $270K for last year’s pro-CMS bond campaign, the Uptown paper relates. Two points, that is $190K more than any anti-bond campaign and check the year-end filing, I bet this year’s number will hit $250K when all is said and done.