Seventeen items are on the consent agenda for tonight’s meeting of Asheville City Council. If things go as usual, the mayor will ask if any member of the public wishes to comment on any item, and then people will be allowed to speak for three minutes (per person, not per item, although the good-natured mayor is often lenient). I’m tempted.
City staff has a way of framing things so it never sounds like government is wasting taxpayer dollars. For example, the city is going to issue about $18 million in debt for “new” money. “As the number of the projects, vehicles, and equipment are bid, the actual size of the new money financing can be further refined.” The city will “refinance some existing debt to achieve financial savings.” If that doesn’t make sense, the report later clarifies, “A refunding of this debt, at current market rates, [might possibly] could potentially produce about $1 million in cash flow savings through 2021.” The funds will “enable the city to begin spending money on the council’s approved capital projects, . . .”
The city, which has been scrambling for partnerships to maintain the post-stimulus budget, intends to spend $57,150 on a short-term lease for golf carts and maintenance equipment for the Asheville Municipal Golf Course. The items will be used for “core facility maintenance services.” The short-term lease, we are told, will buy time for the city to consider privatizing the course.
$775,746 will be spent on new risers for the Civic Center arena. The expenditure comes as part of the deal the city swung to win the Southern Conference games for 2012-2015. We are told, “This action complies with the City Council Strategic Operating Plan’s Fiscal Responsibility goal of developing strategic partnerships to leverage resources for infrastructure and Capital Improvement Plan projects.” The city will be “partnering” with Irwin Telescopic Seating Co. of Illinois.
Then, the city will approve a public hearing date for awarding Linamar $2,200,000, payable as a five-year, 90% waiver on the machinery and equipment tax. The funds will go toward the county as reimbursement for its upfront purchase of the property to keep it off the market and tax rolls until Linamar is ready to buy it.
The city will also receive $30,000 from the teacher-firing state for recycling receptacles for its parks.
To its credit: (1) The city negotiated a 15.74% discount on liquid oxygen for its water plant. Unfortunately, ozonation of water is deemed Cadillac water-treatment in some circles. (2) The city is buying its own milling machine to net savings of $900,000 over the next five years. The logic is good until it is claimed that this will create a job. (3) The city is getting a gift of property for a greenway from the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church. It is generous of the church, but, like everything else, it grows government.
