Any county budget with $6.2m. in corporate pork is $6.2m. too large — or spending money that could be much better used elsewhere. Any budget with $200K for the CIAA, $62K for NASCAR (!?!), and $149K for the Charlotte Regional Partnership is not serious about confronting Mecklenburg County’s new revenue trajectory.
This is not a “new path” or a “new reality” — it is temporary diversion until the property tax reval can ride in next year with more cash for the county to spend. At the same time, as jobs uptick in the county and region, the sales tax numbers should improve as well. Then it will be right back to spend, spend, spend.
Put another way, the county’s proposed budget is 5.7 percent smaller than current year spending. Next year’s budget needs to shrink another 5 to 6 percent for Harry Jones’ florid fiscal prose to have any real meaning.
Besides, check this reality check from WBTV:
One thing that won’t be cut will be funding to the Wells Fargo cultural campus which the county has committed to spending $3 million a year for over five years.
That $3 million could have been used to save roughly 60 teacher jobs.
Some new path, huh? Uptown bankers get whatever they want, the rest of us get the shaft.
