How We Got Here
Mecklenburg County is in a fiscal mess because of the leadership of various people in positions of influence and power whose ambitions were to spend the taxpayer’s money on their own projects with no consideration of the future.
The players were often led by Parks Helms. Helms was a member of the Board of County Commissioners for years, and usually the chairman. Under his leadership the county commission never saw a tax increase it didn’t like, a new program they disapproved of, land they didn’t want to buy, or a bigger building to build. The other listed characters in this play pale in comparison to Helms, although without their support and efforts, Helms wouldn’t have had the effect on our taxes he has had.
John Murphy and Eric Smith, two big spending CMS Superintendents, believed in bigger schools, rebuilding schools, building schools where they weren’t needed, staff, more staff and even more staff. Susan Burgess, Arthur Griffin, and Joe White (who prefers Coach as a tag, but whom has abused the title so much I refuse) have been chairs of the Charlotte Mecklenburg School Board. To a person they all followed the directions of the CMS superintendent, which would be to get the votes for spending on buildings and more staff.
Carroll Grey, a fine man, was the president of the Chamber of Commerce for years. As the membership of the chamber was getting rich off the spending of CMS and the County, his job was to direct the political efforts of the Chamber towards that end.
Harry Jones, the current county manager, does not lead so much as follow, but has been complicit in the raising of taxes and spending as his was a rise through the ranks to his current position, where one had to be careful to do nothing which might alienate those around him. His main concern has been his resume and his pay scale.
There are many others, and leaving them out means only that they are not so widely known as those listed, but they are important none the less. The process was relatively simple. While not limited to CMS expenditures, the problem started there and it was only later that the library system, courts, parks and recreation and the jails joined in.
Twenty five or more years ago, it all started. It started slowly but went like this.
CMS had a ten year plan for construction, ostensibly based on population growth, which would always include a wish list of projects, many of which no one ever expected to complete, but being a wish list, were added. Being careful not to be libelous, one can only guess as to why so many schools were in need of razing and rebuilding, or why so much money was spent on high ceilings, large foyers, and fancy exterior brick work and football stadiums. None the less, the superintendent, by way of his staff, after the course of a few short decades, recommended billions of dollars in construction to the School Board, which after some tweaking to make themselves look important, rubber stamped the proposals.
These proposals, if looked at in total, were enough to rebuild the entire school system with money left over. Concurrently, the superintendent would ask for more and more staff, and, of course higher pay scales for everyone. These proposals then went to the county commission. There, Parks Helms and the county manager would look at the proposal, find all well and good, and get Carroll Grey on board – who already knew everything about how much money his members were going to make off the capital expenditures and decide how best to get the voters to agree.
Yes, the voters too are complicit in this financial mess. For years a capital expenditure required their vote of approval, but of late the county commission decided not to ask them and went a different, more expensive funding route to accomplish the same end. But I digress. If the bond vote passed, the fix was in. If it failed, well the players would just bring it up again in another year or two. Nothing changed with a no vote. The process moved along.
CMS was on a roll. Time passed and each year brought larger and larger expenditures, more staff, a larger budget, bonuses and raises. Life was good. Building envy occurred. Pendergraph wanted his share at the jails. Parks and Recreation wanted more land. A new courthouse was increased in size over 50% of the initial proposal. The libraries begin building their own fancy buildings. Taxes went up, and up. Debt went up and up. The players said debt is not a problem. They misled. It wasn’t a problem to them, they weren’t paying it. The taxpayers were and are. But times were good. Prosperity would never end. This is Charlotte, home of the big banks – make that bank.
Leadership was actually lacking. As we all have been reminded, the good times don’t last, but debts do. Parks Helms is no longer in the public eye, but his legacy of profligacy lives on. Many of the others players, having been well paid to spend the taxpayers money, have moved on to other pastures. Theirs was what is all too often accepted as leadership. It is not leadership so much as a mentality of “me first”. There are so many of those in positions to take from the many for their personal gain that it appears as if it ‘must’ be the right thing to do if so many believe it. Perhaps this is the very reason to question that leadership.
There were those who opposed the directions these people led. They were called naysayers, they were derided and ignored. There was nothing in it for them, but doing the right thing and keeping taxes low for everyone. There was nothing in it for them except restraint on those who would enlarge government.
Our county government would have no financial problems now if the leaders had been concerned about the future and the good of the citizens of the county. But they weren’t and it was easy to see they weren’t. But they were the leaders and gathered about them were those with something to gain. Unfortunately this is a formula for using the force of government to abuse the people. Unfortunately, it will happen again.
We need your help! If you like PunditHouse, please consider donating to us. Even $5 a month can make a difference!
Short URL: https://pundithouse.com/?p=2146
