The Board of Education learned Tuesday afternoon that Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools would need to fork over $6.3 million from its current-year budget to help close an estimated $20-million shortfall in the county’s current-year budget. And that was the good news, compared to what followed: Board members were told that County Manager Harry Jones would be pitching […]
The findings of a citizens’ Water Solutions Task Force released this week reveal that a lot of folk in Cornelius apparently enjoy long showers and really green lawns; that Charlotte’s utilities department has problems with defective meter readers; that the city has for years been raiding the utilities treasure chest to pay for capital projects […]
There’s been ambiguous talk popping up in media reports concerning possible moves by CMS to do something with its learning community outposts, those pricey offices scattered around the district that debuted as CMS’ answer to decentralization. By most counts the district offices have been a flop, costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars and doing […]
Charlotte and Mecklenburg County’s largess with your money gets special notice this week from the North Carolina Institute for Constitutional Law’s Corporate Welfare Weekly newsletter. The Queen City and the state took top honors in partnering to hand out about $80 million in promised incentives – read government-speak for bribes – to lure Siemens Energy […]
News from over the weekend has Jake Delhomme headed to Cleveland to live out his glory days. Best of luck to Jake; he’s going to need all he can get. I grew up close enough to the shadows of Cleveland’s old Municipal Stadium to see firsthand how unrelentingly brutal and demanding Browns fans can be. […]
Let the sun shine in? It’s a nice thought; but with our local government cloudy with a chance of rain is more likely, making the uptown paper of record’s headline that Commissioners Chairperson Jennifer Roberts endorses an open system of transparency all the more painfully ironic. This from the chairperson of a board that thumps its […]
Music was in the air last Saturday night during the Charlotte Folk Society’s Young Talent Showcase at the Great Aunt Stella Center. Photos by: Glen Simmons [nggallery id=13]
History came alive at last weekend’s 229th Anniversary Battle of Guilford Courthouse at the Guilford Courthouse National Military Park. Photos by: Glen Simmons [nggallery id=14]
The Charlotte City Council earlier this week approved nabbing $7.4 million from the city’s capital reserve account to help balance its current-year general fund budget, which city staff estimates is light about $8.5 million. Declining revenues – what policy wonks euphemistically call “economic deterioration” – are being blamed for the budget shortfall. City staff assured […]
Hey, it works in Amsterdam to turn some decent coin, why not Charlotte? Intriguing piece here from “Financial Armageddon” on how cash-strapped municipalities are ramping up collection of enforcement taxes to help fill empty coffers: For example, a federally funded ticketing blitz in the state of Virginia resulted in a total of 6996 traffic tickets […]
