Buried in this long-overdue survey of the massive — and growing — debt burden on local government is the revelation that the interest rate on $718m. worth of Mecklenburg County debt jumped by 238 percent last week.
The house of cards may be collapsing, folks.
If you budget for 1.8 percent interest rates and have to pay 6.1 percent, you are sunk. Or rather taxpayers are sunk. And you cannot possibly consider putting a $250m. parks and rec bond in the hopper as well. Ooops, the county has already done that.
And has already tried to pretend that using certificates of participation to build $360m. worth of county jail would not have higher interest costs than taxpayer-approved bonded debt. Guess that little stunt, wholly stage-managed by the Charlotte Chamber in order to remove the jail from the November ballot, lest voters judge it a higher priority than the giant parks bond and/or the city’s $227m. streets and sidewalks bond, was a complete was of time. The entire county debt load going forward should be recalculated given the new market realities.
In fact, we should be reducing county spending and debt, not increasing the amounts we borrow. Unless we really want to be “forced” to increase taxes. Hey, wait a second. That’s right. Paying more in tax is the moral thing to do — at least according to Obama-Biden-Edwards-Roberts. So it is actually responsible to spend beyond a government’s means because that mandates higher taxes, which is the moral thing to do.
And if don’t think that is the justification rattling around some brain-pans around town I have some Mecklenburg County debt I’d like to sell you.
