Saluda’s town commissioners approved spending $488,750 for monument-building. Actually, they just want to renovate city hall. It’s not that they’re confiscating The Wee People’s home improvement budgets for conspicuous consumption. No! They’re using funds for an historic preservation project. Based on the behavior of local governments for the past decade or so, had they met any resistance, one would expect them to launch an outreach and education campaign about how the upgrades are necessary to help the children. That failing, the codes could always be upgraded to make the building noncompliant. You know, non-skid gold-paved floors help ground lightning bolts and create jobs for polishers.
I’m only being mean because not too far away, the Tryon town council is considering rescinding a 2.5-cent tax increase that was passed to protect the town against uncertainties in the General Assembly’s budget decisions last year. Now that the town has a healthy fund balance, Roy Miller would like the board to reconsider a motion made by former councilman Wim Woody. The board voted 3-1 to direct the town manager to find $45,000 in new, non-tax revenue and cut $90,000 in existing expenditures. If he can’t find enough, the tax will stand.
