Uptown Paper Errors In Email Edits
Interesting, but not entirely surprising, how the uptown paper chose to parse snippets of an e-mail exchange between Mecklenburg Commissioner Bill James and Board of Education member Trent Merchant.
Even more interesting is the perspective pitched by former Mecklenburg Commissioner Dan Bishop, which wasn’t included in the uptown paper’s account. Bishop was copied on the original exchange between Merchant and James, and weighed in on Merchant’s and school board colleague Tim Morgan’s votes to seek an additional $50 million in county funding for CMS.
The full exchange is worth a read, if for no other reason than to lend some important context. It began with a letter – headlined “CMS Nightmare tax increase” – that James posted on his website:
CMS Nightmare tax increase
5-4 school board vote would force tax increases on 144,00 additional Meck citizens
Citizens already receiving tax increase at ‘revenue neutral’ will be hammered harder
CMS district 6 rep Tim Morgan is swing vote for increase
District 6 received most tax increase of all County Commission district
For some time, there has been a push to ‘leave the tax rate the same’ (at 83.87 cents).
Chairman Roberts and other D’s have pushed for it but for the most part there has not been any hard evidence of the pain it would inflict on citizens here in Mecklenburg.
Yesterday, at my request from several months back, County staff outlined how many people would be hammered if the tax rate stayed the same (sometimes called ‘rate’ neutral).
To begin with, even at ‘revenue neutral’ 157,966 households would have a tax increase (‘revenue neutral’ is dropping the rate to 78.83 cents). I think that rate is too high and believe we need a ‘revenue negative budget’.
As bad as raising taxes on 157,966 households (630,000 people approx), IF the rate stayed the same (at 83.87 cents) an additional 36,128 households (aboutr 144,000 more people) would receive a tax increase.
On top of that, the folks who received a ‘moderate’ tax increase (if there is such an animal) at ‘revenue neutral’ would be hammered into Mecklenburg’s red clay dirt.
A 5% tax hike would turn into a 27% tax hike. If at revenue neutral your tax hike is already 30%…. well, you can do the math.
It would be brutal. Revenue Neutral is already a brutal tax increase which is why I believe the Commission needs a revenue negative budget to lower the extreme tax increases within that pool of 157,966 households (630,000 people).
I am still waiting on that report to come in.
The school board voted to ask for $50 million with the District 6 Republican Tim Morgan (brother of Charlotte Chamber head honcho Bob Morgan) casting the deciding vote for this tsunami of a tax increase.
I note that in terms of the number households with a tax increase by District the order is (at revenue neutral):
District 6 38,074 REPUBLICAN
District 5 36,599 REPUBLICAN
District 1 34,813 REPUBLICAN
District 2 17,594 DEMOCRAT
District 3 15,909 DEMOCRAT
District 4 14,953 DEMOCRAT
It makes me wonder why the Republican from District 6 (which already will have the MOST tax increases in the whole county) would vote to make the matter worse for those in his district when almost all of the money raised by giving CMS $50 million more would benefit people in other districts.
There will be those that say he is looking at the bigger picture or helping out the less fortunate. All good qualities but in the end I think it is because the Chamber wants the increase.
Ultimately, Mecklenburg County citizens can not afford what Tim Morgan, the CMS school board majority and the power elite in Charlotte are dishing out.
If you sit on your hands next week at the public hearing (19th) don’t be surprised if your property taxes go up 50%.
The link below is a PDF posted on my web site of the info from the County.
Merchant responded with an e-mail to James:
Bill – I want to thank you for your hard work and for yet another installment of your hard-hitting analyses on vital topics via e-blast. And thank you for reminding me to focus on those things that are most dangerous to my quality of life, rather than simply enjoying said quality of life. Based on your previous missives, I have spent many hours in recent years watching my back, lest African-Americans emerging from the depths of the moral sewer might try to harm me – and watching my backside when I take my children to local parks, certain that I will accosted by marauding packs of gays.
Now I realize that our greatest threat has been right under our noses all along – and its name is Tim Morgan. To think that I believed all of his corn-pone talk about fishing, camping, Boy Scouts, his faith, and his children… Morgan the Megalomaniac has deceived us all as he has found a way to single-handedly raise my taxes, despite the fact that the School Board has no taxing authority. How dare he!
My feeble memory of last night’s meeting was that, after 7 months of discussion, a majority of the board voted on an initial budget request to reduce overall funding to CMS by about $64 million. And I could have sworn that when he made the budget motion, Tim Morgan specifically called on state legislators to do their part in protecting funding for public education. And I thought that when he called on the county to restore a significant amount of funding, he was thinking about the schools in the district that you share with him – you know the one where class sizes are already large and will get even larger next year – where your constituents will lose 2/3 of the elementary teaching assistants, many of whom have masters degrees, who have all the qualifications to be teachers except for formal certification – and where 1 key staff member will be cut from every school.
But after reading your clarifying missive, I realize that everything was up in the air until Tim cast his dramatic vote. And I see that Tim has been little more than a sinister puppet controlled by elitists like his big brother. How could I have missed all the signs of the intra-family psychological beat-down that has surely been decades in the making? When Bob Morgan went to head the Gastonia Chamber of Commerce some years ago, we should have recognized that he was going big-time on us… why didn’t you warn us then, Bill?
Bill – I understand that before becoming a full-time local politician whose livelihood depends on being re-elected every 2 years, you were a CPA with a reputable firm – so maybe you can help me with a potential cash flow problem that I see developing at home. The recent reval increased the tax value of my modest middle class home by 36%. If the County Commission leaves the tax rate the same, I will pay $108.86 more per year in property taxes than I would if you went to a revenue neutral rate – that is more than $9.07 per month! Sir, this is an outrage! How will we make ends meet in my home? I understand that my children and their peers are important, and that strong public schools lead to a more viable workforce, stronger tax base, and lower crime rate over time – but at what cost? Surely not $108.86.
I look forward to your continuing insight on this and related matters. And if you do not have insight to share, I remain confident that you will continue to weigh in on other topics on which you feel the urge to incite and inflame. We are all counting on you.
In humble gratitude,
Trent Merchant CMS Board of Education, At Large
Trailed by the following exchanges of e-mails, with Bishop joining the thread.
James writes:
Trent –
I think if the guy representing the folks bearing the brunt of most of the tax increases in Mecklenburg wants to vote for that tax increase it is between him and the voters. Who am I to get in the middle of that except to point out that it occurred and he was the lone Republican doing so.
As for your $108.86 potential tax increase – glad you think it is paltry.
I wonder if the public agrees. Using your logic all 194,000 should be pleased with your decision last night.
I got a call from someone in Plaza-Midwood. They had a 117% increase in the value of their house. They are not the only ones.
I think your deficit problem is not with your cash flow.
Tim can defend himself even if his vote isn’t particularly defensible.
Bishop weighs in:
Got it, Trent. Just another few Chick-fil-a sandwiches and cups of slaw on top of my 40% reval hike. And desperately needed to save, say, pre-K. Still going strong despite endless years of research data of its ineffectiveness. At least you were forced to consolidate a couple of the unnecessary schools you swore were essential.
I was told by endorsement-seekers last election that accountability would visit CMS. Not yet, apparently. My bad.
What I should have been doing was figuring out how to give a hand to the last local politician — full-time or otherwise — who will raise the slightest bit of hell for taxpayers.
But keep it up fellas. You’ve got everything moving in exactly the right direction.
Merchant responds:
Good to hear from you Dan. I hope you are well and that your family and business are doing well. I have always thought that we probably had more in common than we knew, outside of some key differences on school funding.
I remembered the sandwich and slaw example, and wondered how long it would be before it was served to me.
It’s all a process – before the vote last night I discussed it with Neil Cooksey – told him that we were going to make it clear that it was a request, that we knew the county was getting hammered, etc – that we appreciated whatever they could do, if anything. This is different than the brinkmanship of several years back. I still don’t understand how it is egregious to ask.
Thanks – take care,
Trent Merchant CMS Board of Education, At Large
And Bishop replies:
Trent, my friend. It’s egregious to push people harder in these times to pay for a lot of crap that does not work.
Another friend and neighbor, Nancy Falls, is using her AG PTA chairmanship to organize letter-writing parties advocating for your $50 million or “whatever” hike. Being Jim Babb’s daughter, she doesn’t appear to worry about the Chick-fil-a sandwiches and has some time on her hands. I do think, however, that some of her girlfriends in the neighborhood might have a second thought when their mortgage escrow adjusts next January.
I don’t quite have the time for letter writing. Business is easy as ever. Working on a brief at 11:52 p.m. so I can meet all my tax obligations. Wonder if Kojo is working right now.
And I’ll appreciate whatever you can cut, if anything. I mean anything that isn’t showing results. Or at least well-intentioned. Right? Please cut all bad-intentioned and wasteful stuff.
Best.
J. Daniel Bishop
Make of all that what you will. To me the most revealing is Merchant’s belief that, “I still don’t understand how it is egregious to ask [for a $50 million funding increase for CMS].”
That is a truly amazing statement. And if it adequately reflects the attitude of a majority of Char-Meck elected officials, as I fear it does, we are well and truly doomed.
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