Quite full of myself, I had supposed there would be an opportunity to gloat. The City of Asheville was going to ram the SOB‘s (That’s what they’re called.) down our necks with a public hearing preceding the four weeks requisite for public review of the reports. That is what I referred to as being up my sleevie yesterday, but somebody caught it. Since government is infallible, the error is written off as “delays in processing.” The reports must be made available for public review at the clerk’s office, so we should be grateful that our kindly city will make the effort to notify residents when they are available. I would like to thank local character Christopher Chiaromonte for being right once in awhile and calling the public’s attention to what almost went down.
By the way, for those new to the scene, the city wants to make use of Special Obligation Bonds to create special taxing districts. The revenue stream was discovered after serious protestation by property owners who did not want an extra level of government with taxing authority in the form of the Business Improvement District and its various aliases. Now, the little puppy of a tax increase is sneaking around the back alleys all cute and adorable.
