City Salary Disconnect
Thanks to the sound fiscal policies and stellar management of city government, Charlotte finds itself in the position of proposing pay hikes for its employees – oh, and eliminating funding for school crossing guards and security officers, cutting money for after-school programs, tinkering with police overtime schedules, jacking up bus fares for the elderly and infirm, delaying the installation of traffic lights, floating loans for an insanely expensive racing museum, multiple convention center upgrades, and myriad tax-increment financing schemes, and getting ready to soak residents with yet another utilities fee hike because the ongoing criminal enterprise that passes for the city’s water department is facing yet another multi-million-dollar budget shortfall.
Our $200,000-a-year city manager, Curt Walton, along with his bevy of more than a half-dozen $100,000-plus a year assistant city managers, contend that without the proposed 2 percent pay hikes, which will sock taxpayers for about $6 million, city government won’t be able to stay competitive with the private sector – in a region where unemployment still hovers around 12 percent and people are begging for work, slashing household expenses, and fighting off foreclosures.
“We have to focus on delivering our services,” says $150,000-a-year Budget Director Ruffin Hall.
Remember that the next time the city’s 311 call center sticks you on hold for 10 minutes when you’re trying to track down reasons for why your garbage never got picked-up or your water bill suddenly spiked 175 percent.
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