Don’t know why we are marching straight towards another CMS bond defeat in the fall, but we are all the same.
Loading up the bond package with millions in renovations and lower-priority projects is not going guarantee the approval of voters — just the opposite. People know that CMS still spends like a drunken sailor — and the money that it spends out of a massive $500 million plus bond package will likely mandate a county property tax increase.
The mega-bond package push is coming from Charlotte Chamber types like Bob Morgan who look at Wake County’s big $970 million bond passed last year and wonder if Mecklenburg should do the same. Well, Wake is not Mecklenburg ladies and gentlemen. Let’s leave it at that.
CMS under Peter Gorman has yet to show it has mastered the basics of financial accountability. A $400 or $450 million bond tightly focused on acutal needs — primarily new schools in high growth areas — would begin to show that CMS is serious about its mission.
Bonus Observation: Building schools without sports facilities is stupid on toast. It only saves a little bit of money up-front — especially compared to reducing the acreage of school sites — and will be a bone of contention in the community for years to come. In fact, here’s betting that sooner or later, CMS will end up building those facilities at a much high cost.
