One more time: If the Charlotte city council votes tonight to raise your property tax rate, it will not be to fund police and roads. Instead the tax hike will go to fund low-priority items City Manager-for-Life Pam Syfert does not like to talk about.
Things like the $4.5 million 311 service she is running out of her office. In other words, the city’s information service — which was supposed to save the city money — will cost almost as much as the new police officers Syfert wants, a $4.7 million item. But also tucked away in the city manager’s fiefdom is $2 million in economic development and small business development programs. Worse, Syfert is also incubating tax-increment financing plans for various West side development schemes. Call it the gift that keeps on giving.
So just in the the city manager’s sprawling budget of $12.3 million one could find money for a high-priority item like police officers. But of course there is more sprinkled around the General Fund.
Little honey pots like $1.8 million for Center City Partners, $3 million for the Regional Visitors Authority, $200,000 for the CIAA basketball tourney — and is $3 million in city funding for the Arts & Sciences council really a higher priority than police officers? It is right now in Charlotte.
Back to the 311 service and we’ll let you go. The city manager’s own “services assessment” ranking places government communication and information at #37 out of 39. Yet as of this morning, 311 has funding and the #1 ranked service — police — has none.
Have a nice day.
