It could be coming down the pike. Commissioners on Tuesday night agreed to discuss at their next meeting placing a quarter-cent sales tax referendum on November’s ballot. The idea was pitched by Commissioner George Dunlap, who said he wants any revenue raised through the new tax to be used to fund public libraries. The board […]
Faced with a budget crunch that is cutting into operations across the board, the Mecklenburg County Department of Social Services is scuttling its years-long practice of using taxicabs to provide transportation for senior citizens and Medicaid-eligible clients. Beginning next month, a majority of those DSS clients will be required to use Charlotte Area Transit System […]
It now appears that Mecklenburg County will have to plug at least a $4.1-million gap in its recently approved budget, courtesy of the state withholding lottery revenue from counties. The latest from a memo County Manager Harry Jones sent today to commissioners: Obviously, one of the major questions is the impact of reduced State appropriation […]
The red ink has barely dried on Mecklenburg County’s recently approved budget but commissioners might soon find themselves back at the chopping block looking for more places to cut, if a proposal being floated by state legislators comes to pass. In a shell game of grand proportions, the N.C. General Assembly is looking to withhold […]
What are the latest honey pots of political patronage worth these days in Mecklenburg County? No chump change, according to the most recent disclosure of compensation for members of various advisory boards, ranging from the high profile and controversial ABC Board to the more mundane zoning board of adjustments. Advocates of advisory boards contend they […]
In a classic case of the inmates running the asylum, an outspoken critic of enforcement of illegal immigration laws by local authorities has been picked by the Obama Administration to coordinate partnerships between federal and local officials dealing with the issue of illegal immigration. Harold Hurtt begins his new job next month as the director […]
In another round of begging for crumbs when they’ve historically grown accustomed to cake, the library system has landed an additional $730,000 to help restock a budget that was slashed nearly in half for the upcoming fiscal year. The newest loot comes from the small towns of Mecklenburg County, where officials agreed this week to […]
They’re not officially running as a slate, but they sure sounded on the same page. Republican candidates for the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners at a Thursday afternoon presser blasted the board’s current Democrat majority for fiscal irresponsibility that has left taxpayers tapped and derelict management that has led Mecklenburg into perilous straits. At-large candidates […]
Fresh off approving a budget that includes some $71 million in cuts and delivers pink slips for scores of county employees and schoolteachers, Mecklenburg County could find itself hit by another fiscal wallop: losing upwards of $17 million courtesy of a state money grab. The North Carolina Association of County Commissioners has fired off an […]
Mecklenburg commissioners approved a $1.35-billion budget that calls for about $75 million in cuts to programs and services and includes pink slips for nearly 300 county employees. That was Tuesday night. By Wednesday morning, many of those same commissioners were jet-setting to Boston for a three-day junket of fine dining, site seeing, and luxuriating in […]
