Leake Blames Bush For County Crisis

Mecklenburg County commissioners will have to wield a double-edge sword as they carve their way through the budget process. First they need to trim about $20 million in cuts from the current-year budget to bring it in line with tumbling revenues; then turn around and plan for hacking up to $95 million in targeted cuts to bridge a projected shortfall for the new fiscal year.

Immediate impacts would snatch $6.3 million from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, about $1.3 million from the Department of Social Services, $1 million from parks and recreation, $1 million from libraries, and $500,000 from Central Piedmont Community College. The mid-year cuts would eliminate 45 code enforcement jobs, and potentially force some library branches to either close or reduce their hours of operation and number of employees.

The situation grows even bleaker for the looming fiscal year, when targeted cuts could mean upwards of 500 county employees losing their jobs and some county departments facing cuts of up to 50 percent: parks and recreation is targeted to lose $18 million; libraries, $17 million; the Sheriff’s Office, $9 million; and DSS, $4 million. CMS is targeted for $21 million in cuts, while outside agencies funded by the county would see their budgets slashed up to 75 percent, about $2.7 million. Public television station WTVI would lose all of its $790,000 funding.

While most of the blame for the budget mess currently vexing the county can be attributed to years of wild spending that produced skyrocketing debt and threatened Mecklenburg’s coveted AAA bond rating, Commissioner Vilma Leake, a Democrat, fingered a more convenient culprit: George Bush and evil bankers.

“For eight years, we worked up on this process; not last year, not the year before last,” Leake said. “This has been coming and it has gotten worse over the eight years due to the leadership that we’ve had – and I have to say this and I don’t apologize for it – in Washington, DC, and banks contributing to the economic position we’re in.”

Commissioner Karen Bentley, a Republican, offered a more plausible and reasoned explanation, pointing out that over the last six years inflation had ticked up 13.7 percent while county spending had ballooned by 39 percent.

“Times were good for a long time and we increased spending significantly, and now we’re forced to contract,” Bentley said. “It’s not going to be easy for anyone, but I think our time has come to really dig deep and become efficient.”

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