Consolidated Power Play
Mr. Anthony Foxx is the mayor of Charlotte. He tells the voters it is important to consolidate Charlotte and Mecklenburg County government. He is a lawyer. What is wrong with this picture?
Over the years Charlotte and Mecklenburg have consolidated a number of functions. Not all of them have been a great success, but for the most part they have seen reasonable changes reflected by increased effieciencies. Charlotte operates the police, fire, and downtown entertainment. Mecklenburg has parks, libraries, social services, the courts and jail system. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg School System stands separately, although local funding is through the county. There is little left to consolidate; yet the head politician of Charlotte demands it. Where would the savings come from? Previous studies show no more significant savings available. Ah, the answer is obvious – and the reason not to is subtle, yet of utmost importance.
We may easily guess Mr. Anthony Foxx wants the job of mayor to be fulltime and thus paid as fulltime. As it is, his assistants make more than he does and he doesn’t have Mayor Pat’s (almost for life) luxury of a company to pay him fulltime, even if he doesn’t show up for work. So Foxx, being a typical lawyer, seeks a way to change the system to suit himself. He would be the first mayor of Char/Meck. What other reason could there be?
The current system is, so far as political situations can be, reasonable. Mecklenburg is responsible for programs throughout the entire county; Charlotte for those things necessary only to the city itself. The smaller, surrounding towns do the same for their residents as Charlotte does, which brings us to the major reasons not to consolidate:
1. Currently elected representatives are barely able to keep up with the requirements of their jobs. With consolidation they would demand to be full-time employees, with the associated staff. Here lies increased costs and decreased responsiveness to the voters.
2. Being consolidated, Char/Meck would increasingly infringe on the autonomy of the towns.
3. Consolidation would bring another level of bureaucracy. Not a large one immediately, but another layer of high paid bureaucrats.
4. The tax change. Follow me here. Currently Charlotte residents pay their taxes for services Charlotte provides. The town residents pay for the services the towns provide. Each is separate even though similar. As all residents share the services of the county, they all pay county taxes. So far so good.
In addition, residents of Mecklenburg County who do not reside in a town or Charlotte pay a higher county tax rate to pay for the police services Charlotte provides them. Center City property taxes are higher also, to help pay for some of the amenities of downtown.
If Charlotte and Mecklenburg are consolidated the tax burden of Charlotte will be spread across the entire county. Residents of Pineville will pay Pineville taxes and Charlotte taxes, yet only get the services of Pineville. The proponents will say this is not true. Trust them at your peril. The point is that consolidation will bring an intermingling of costs and a corresponding confusion of taxes. Being able to spread its costs over the entire county will allow Charlotte to lower its tax rate while increasing the taxes on the citizens of the towns. Ah, so here we have a way to reward the voters who vote for the wily Foxx while punishing those who can’t even vote against him.
It seems obvious the only benefit here is to Anthony Foxx. Everyone else will suffer.
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