Provided it zeroes out other spending items. Looking at last year’s Mecklenburg County budget, the $26m. the public libraries received falls in the same spending category — wholly discretionary — as these line items:

  • BUSINESS INVESTMENT GRANT……………………4.35m.
  • CHARLOTTE REGIONAL PARTNERSHIP…………..149K
  • CIAA TOURNAMENT………………………………….200K
  • ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT………………………….124K
  • Minority Contractor Program………………………..138K
  • NEXTEL NASCAR ALLSTAR EVENT…………………..62K
  • CENTRALINA COUNCIL OF GOVTS………………..254K
  • ASC – Cultural Diversity Grant……………………..428K
  • NCCJ – EMPOWERED YOUTH INITIATIVE…………..98K
  • MI CASA SU CASA – YOUTH IN ACTION……………19K
  • LATIN AMERICAN COALITION………………………..95K
  • CHAR-MECK HISTORIC PRESERVATION……………86K
  • Lake Marine Commissions…………………………….68K

In addition, the county spends some $1.2m. on DSS transport services, part of the sprawling DSS operation. Some spending is mandated here, but the county’s own priority ranking system gives it a “5” compared to library funding of a “4.” And if we jump up the priority rankings in the wholly discretionary ladder, we find some pretty questionable higher seeds:

  • MI CASA SU CASA-PARENTING CLASSES……….19K
  • ASSOCIATION DUES…………………………………293K
  • CONTRACTED LOBBYING……………………………195K
  • 311 CALL CENTER…………………………………….2.1m.
  • DEPT. PUBLIC INFORMATION……………………….655K
  • TV PRODUCTION………………………………………..93K
  • WTVI-PUBLIC SQUARE……………………………….790K
  • CHA PILOT MATCH…………………………………….450K

I did not include any line items vaguely Park & Rec related as that seemed to be roughly equivalent to public library spending. Besides that department is in fact already slated to get hit, but there is a couple million rattling around there. Still, anyway you slice it there is at least $2m. which could have been spent on libraries instead of other stuff. In all likelihood, however, all this money has already been spent, which brings us to the core lunacy of the matter.

How county staff could have expected a sales tax revenue rebound in the second half of 2009 defies explanation — not with the chronic double-digit unemployment we’ve had for a year now in the Charlotte region. But assuming no growth in revenue would’ve meant starting the budget planning cycle with all the fluff and junk squarely in the crosshairs. And you can’t have that if you are trying to keep government — your employer — as large as possible.

Much better to risk the current hair-on-fire They are closing the libraries! drama than right-size government by ditching low-priority spending from the get-go.