Big surprise.
Charlotte city manager Pam Syfert is once again calling a tax-raising budget a “budget of basics.” Um, no. Charlotte spends certainly millions, and quite possibly tens of millions, on items far removed from basics — things like economic development, various marketing efforts, and city-owned, unproductive real estate.
Then we have Syfert’s stated intention of spending millions raised by the tax hike on bike lanes and wider sidewalks. Again, no. Nothing basic there, just trying in enforce a city planner’s aesthetic vision with other people’s money. And what exactly are “neighborhood improvements”? I was not aware that was a basic city service, either.
But in even in the very sketchy details Syfert has released so far we do find some smaller surprises — unpleasant ones. One is yet another hike in storm water and sewer fees — an underground tax hike if there ever was one. The 7 percent and 6.5 percent hikes in these rates will help make the cost of living in Charlotte higher still.
More ominous — and downright baffling — is the contention that property taxes must go up because, in part, fee collections have gone down. But the city just raised the business privilege license tax last year with the expectation that revenue would go up after years of stagnating around $8-9 million a year. If, in fact, revenues are coming in lower after the tax hike — well, friends that means trouble.
It would mean that Charlotte has already reached the point where the city’s tax burden is discouraging economic activity. Frankly, I thought we were still several years out from that tipping point, but perhaps not.
As always, stay tuned for more. This is just starting to get interesting.
Update: The Charlotte Capitalist recalls that Syfert said pretty much the same thing last year, too. City council rejected the property tax hike idea. It was an election year.
