Fiscal pullbacks continue. The N&O lays it all out very clearly:
Wake County will borrow $300 million from Bank of America to keep building projects on track despite the troubled economy, county commissioners decided today.
Commissioners voted 6-0 to secure a one-year bridge loan at an interest rate of 2 to 2.5 percent. The loan will allow projects currently under way to continue, including a new parking deck and new schools.
Meanwhile, commissioners may delay construction of a new courthouse downtown, an expansion of the Hammond Road detention facility and a library branch in northern Wake. County school officials are meeting this week to discuss what school projects to delay.
The county has canceled $454 million in bond sales because of a lack of a market for the instruments. The $300 million loan will allow it to continue some projects; county officials plan to cut or delay projects worth $154 million.
Raleigh City Manager Russell Allen said he expects to propose a similar short-term borrowing plan to the City Council next week.
Yet the Powers That Be in Charlotte respond to the same uncertainty by simply repeating that voters must approve almost $500m. in local bonds in November — or else. There is a serious disconnect here.
We need to hear from city of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County fiscal experts if it would even be possible to: 1) Issue the bonds given the current environment 2) Pay for the bonds in the current environment. These basics no “bond campaign” should obscure. But just as the transit tax fight showed, that is exactly what the Uptown crowd has in mind. Lie until the truth does not matter.