City Budget Bunglers
Residents of Charlotte’s southern suburbs could see fewer capital projects headed their way, and still end up paying a higher city tax rate, if discussions to reach consensus on a city budget stay one course set yesterday at an emergency meeting that was called after the full council earlier this week voted down the city manager’s spending plan for the coming fiscal year.
After two hours of at times tense and contentious negotiation, however, the council’s budget committee remained stalemated and failed to produce any formal recommendations to forward to the full council. Committee members were given until Monday afternoon to present any budget suggestions to city staff, while City Manager Curt Walton begins to prepare emergency interim measures to avert a city shutdown if a budget deal can’t be reached before a looming June 30 deadline. The council is slated for another budget vote on June 25.
One potential scenario that emerged from committee discussion points to a tax hike, but not as large as the 3.6-cent increase from the city manager’s plan that four Democrat and two Republican councilmembers rejected earlier this week.
Several committee members seemed agreeable to a budget that would include up to a 2.44-cent tax hike, which would be countered by the 2.44-cent tax cut passed in the county’s budget, leaving city taxpayers with what some councilmembers labeled “a wash” on their total tax bill. Walton’s original budget included an 8-percent tax increase, or 3.6 cents per $100 valuation. Trimming to a 2.44-cent increase would shrink the city’s capital plan from $926 million to a range between $650 million and $750 million, Walton said. What projects would be scuttled under such a plan, though, sparked heated debate between councilmembers.
On the potential chopping block: a streetcar that has long been championed by Mayor Anthony Foxx and other Democrat councilmembers. Walton’s original budget included $119 million to extend the streetcar project line by 2.5 miles. The initial 1.5-mile leg of the streetcar is scheduled to open in 2015. The whole 10-mile streetcar line would cost upward of $450 million to build and an estimated $1.5 million a year to operate.
“I don’t hear anybody really, really excited about the streetcar,” said Democrat Mayor Pro Tem Patrick Cannon, describing conversations he said he’s had with constituents from the Beatties Ford Road corridor, where one leg of the streetcar would run.
“The last thing we need is a tinker toy running up and down the street,” said Cannon, who has previously cast his support with the council’s Democrat majority in voting to accept a $25 million federal grant for the “tinker toy” project, matched by $12 million in local funding.
The notion of nixing the streetcar from any capital plan and budget, however, was met with strong pushback from councilmembers Patsy Kinsey and John Autry, two Democrats whose east Charlotte districts would benefit from the project and the potential for economic development they said it would bring.
One possible compromise floated during the budget committee meeting would leave the streetcar in the mix of capital projects, and let voters decide its fate as part of a bond referendum on November’s ballot. If voters shot down the streetcar, its funding capacity would remain part of the city’s overall capital plan and could be used for other projects, said Charlotte Chief Financial Officer Greg Gaskins.
Councilmember LaWana Mayfield, a Democrat who supported the original tax-hike budget, said the city has historically invested in outlying suburban areas at the expense of urban districts.
Foxx and Walton have previously argued a tax hike is needed to fund projects that would stimulate investment in low-income neighborhoods and bolster property values there, reversing what Walton has called an “unsustainable” trend that leeches about half of the city’s property tax base from its northern and southern suburbs.
Mayfield carried that argument forward on Thursday by suggesting there would be enough money to fund key projects targeted at helping struggling areas of the city, if councilmembers from suburban districts agreed to yank their projects from the plan originally presented by Walton.
In that vein, Cooksey said he would be agreeable to a plan that scuttled a proposed $9 million police station in south Charlotte, if it would help produce a budget with a tax increase of no more than 2.44 cents.
“Is that because you anticipate you won’t need the city of Charlotte to pay for it [the police station],” quipped Councilmember Michael Barnes, a Democrat who chairs the council’s budget committee, referring to a burgeoning movement that would have parts of south Charlotte break from the city and form their own town.
Dulin said he would consider pulling the $8 million South Park Drive extension project, if it helped produce a budget that a majority of council would approve and capped any tax hike at 2.44 cents.
“They’re all pretty good projects,” Dulin said of the original capital plan crafted by Walton. “My problem is that we can’t afford them all right now.”
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