Money’s gotten tight again for the city of Charlotte. Thanks to a re-evaluation of property values and state tax changes, officials expect a $15.6 million budget shortfall for the next fiscal year. As a result, city manager Ron Carlee is expected to institute a salary and hiring freeze. According to the Charlotte Business Journal: “At one point during Tuesday’s meeting, sifting through the financial wreckage, Mayor Dan Clodfelter said, ‘The state has basically gutted the revenue system of North Carolina.'”
According to WCNC, UNC Charlotte “quietly” updated bathroom policies to allow faculty, staff and students to use the facilities of that match their gender identity.
The smoking ban in Mecklenburg County kicks off today.
The Presbyterians get it. They’ve updated their constitution to redefine marriage: “Marriage involves a unique commitment between two people, traditionally a man and a woman, to love and support each other for the rest of their lives.”
This article appears in Mar 18-24, 2015.
‘The state has basically gutted the revenue system of North Carolina.’
Hey Dan, why is it always someone else’s fault when Democrats run out of money?
In a city the size of Charlotte, $15 mil is damn near pocket change. How about taking a hard look at the budget and consider trimming out a bunch of perks and non-critical items like art work, government vehicles for people who don’t need them, etc. Look at all your social programs that are hemorrhaging money and can show no results.
As for hiring freezes, look at all the departments and find out if any are overstaffed.Those are the ones who should have a hiring freeze. As for pay freezes….big whoop. Plenty of us have survived the past several years without pay raises. In fact, I will bet there are more than a few of us who have been getting by on less.
So Dan, stop your whining, put on your big boy underoos and deal with it. It’s called “Leadership”.
It must be the Democrats’ spending on social programs. It couldn’t possibly be the massive tax cuts the Republicans passed for their rich friends, or the numerous tax exemptions and incentive payments that both parties have showered on highly profitable businesses.
Incentive payments do not cause businesses to hire people. They cause businesses to move jobs from one state to another. Politicians are being played by corporations and the taxpayers are paying the price.
DLP: IT ISN’T THEIR MONEY!!!! Every time we turn around Democrats say “We don’t have enough. We want more”.
In fact, when has a Democrat ever said “We have more than enough”?
NEVER.
@DLP – Charlotte is looking at a $2.1 BILLION operating budget for 2015.
Lots of us are dealing with a lot more than a 7.5% cut in our income.
Trimming back is hard when dealing with an entitled workforce and population but taking the funding away and sitting back to see what happens is an unimaginative approach no matter which party is on top. For that matter, not much thought goes into throwing up your hands and blaming others. Inn my opinion, it’s time to change the monopoly pieces, or at least the cards on the board.
Monopoly is the perfect metaphor. That is the game that ends when one player has all the money and everyone else is broke.
I love people who scream constantly about the “entitlement mentality” of the people who are living hand to mouth and barely scraping by while supporting millions of dollars in government gifts to highly profitable companies if they will build something in our community and close something in someone else’s community.