Tuesday, Asheville City Council held a budget worksession. The city is now only about $750,000 short of budget for FY 08-09. It will have to take serious measures to close next year’s budget gap. Proposals included layoffs and no pay raises. Historically, Asheville has had difficulty retaining staff due to below-market pay. It has become infamous as a training ground for other jurisdictions’ police officers. Councilmen Bill Russell and Kelly Miller cautioned against demoralizing staff.

Following the worksession, only Dr. Carl Mumpower voted against a $1,889,029 federal grant for general aviation expansion at the Asheville Regional Airport. The expansion is interesting since private jets are out-of-vogue and civilians don’t have much flying-around money these days. Mumpower predictably reiterated precautionary remarks about foreign nations holding $3.1 trillion of the country’s $10.8 trillion national debt, China holding $700 billion. With respect to grants totaling $893,412 for pedestrian and transit infrastructure, Mumpower said, “We’d better teach our kids to walk and ride bicycles, because that’s all they’re gonna be able to afford when they grow up.”

Miller then urged citizens to read the staff reports online. They reveal that the city is not going to be firing civil servants to fund projects. Instead, it will be using magic dollars generated from income and sales taxes. Bellamy chided Mumpower as well, because federal dollars are in pots. That is, walls stronger than the people who made them prevent FAA dollars from being applied to debt reduction rather than category-appropriate waste.