I’ve only spent a few minutes with Mecklenburg County’s new tax-raising budget proposal (aside: why do PDF files never have descriptive descriptions of their contents?) but it is unmistakable that this is a budget for a bigger government.

Perhaps the most annoying part is no where that I can find does anyone spell out the fact that “other revenues” are coming in lighter due to being used to help a billionaire build a basketball arena. Some $14 million in hotel-motel taxes together with $27 million growth in (mostly) property tax revenue would just about pay for the envisioned gold-plated services without a tax hike.

Guess that isn’t the point, though.