Anthony Foxx’s (Real) State Of The City
Recently, Anthony Foxx gave a speech about the state of the city (LINK) and stated that his concerns were about the city budget because the current budget is unsustainable without budget cut or tax increases.
Yeah, told you that a year ago, buddy.
Let’s be honest… Anthony Foxx has done little to nothing of value for this city since December 2009.
We have a streetcar project that’s violated a regional transportation plan, increased tensions with surrounding areas, has no revenue source to pay the operating cost when the 1.5 miles is built, and has no implementation plan to stretch across the 2030 projection – last month, the MTC and CATS said the streetcar project is dead to them. I really hope Foxx runs on the streetcar for his re-election campaign. A smart Republican Mayoral candidate would be wise to hang this around his neck at every turn. Even the Charlotte Observer’s Mark Washburn killed the streetcar in print, for goodness sakes.
On a professional level, the handling of the Warren Turner case could not have been done much worse than it was. For my money, it was an attempt to elevate fellow City Councilman Michael Barnes in his run for District Attorney, but it really backfired and Turner somehow became sympathetic. If Foxx had any real business experience, the matter would’ve been handled much, much differently – and handled more professionally.
Going back to the News 14 story, read this:
In the coming months, the council will also need to take a long hard look at how the city pays its police officers and firefighters after a task force found the current pay plan in place would run out of money by 2013 without budget cuts or a tax increase.
While lay-offs were not directly discussed, a reduction to their pay scale was put on the table as a possible option.
“I think they will understand the need to have this conversation and hopefully we can get to a point, where as much as possible, we get agreement,” said Foxx.
Here’s the problem: the current pay plan relies on federal money that will also evaporate. The current budget and the current spending is simply unsustainable. Foxx is directly responsible for the way the money is currently spent dating back to his time on the City Council. He campaigned on his work adding more Police and Fire using federal money that was limited in duration and knowing full well the city would be in this position now. Foxx is blowing $12 million of money that could be used for any number of items on streetcar plan that puts the city back in the transportation business after getting out of it years ago and leaves funding for someone else to deal with.
The question being asked right now is “where do we get the money to pay?” When instead, what we should be asking is “Is the current money being spent well?” To that point, I don’t think you can say the answer is yes. He simply doesn’t deserve another term as Mayor of this city.
Original post: http://charlotterepublican.blogspot.com/2010/12/anthony-foxxs-state-of-city.html
Sources:
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/07/13/1560648/time-to-get-aboard-these-rails.html
http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2010/11/17/mtc-considers-options-for-spurring.html
http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/print-edition/2010/12/03/streetcars-best-hope-is-now-uncle-sam.html
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=4574
