The Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners was slated Tuesday night to discuss the governance structure of the public library system and pay levels for its executive administrators. Instead, the meeting turned into an ambush of the Library Board of Trustees. Commissioners, at times in heated exchanges, berated the trustees for not doing enough to inform […]
Before voting Tuesday night to approve a $10.9-million business investment grant for Siemens Energy Inc., Mecklenburg Commissioner Vilma Leake wanted to know how soon she could start landing jobs at the company for her friends. It turns out, not as soon as she thought. Leake, a Democrat, said she “took some young men out to […]
The Huntersville Town Board on Monday night approved two binding resolutions that request the State of North Carolina to intercede on behalf of citizens and take proactive action to prevent the implementation of the recently passed healthcare legislation. The resolutions, introduced by Republican Commissioner Charles Jeter, were approved by a 3-2 vote, with commissioners Ken […]
Or at least you’d think it was from reading the uptown paper of record, which breathlessly proclaimed Monday that “Smog levels may soar into Code Orange range this afternoon” and that “Something is in the air.” Yep, mostly hype and hysteria, along with a wicked dose of unusually high pollen. That’s the greenish-yellow gunk you […]
With Mecklenburg County struggling under crushing loads of debt and facing a massive budget shortfall, Republican commissioners are concerned that their Democrat colleagues may use the county’s threatened triple A bond rating as an excuse to hike property taxes. Similar to a homeowner’s good credit rating, the county’s premium bond rating allows it to borrow […]
While some Mecklenburg residents have been pitching in to raise money for the county’s beleaguered library system, donating nearly $250,000 over the last few weeks, a group of literary scofflaws has been headed down a decidedly different financial path. About 10 percent of folks who use the library owe roughly $176,000 in fines for overdue […]
The uptown paper of record catches up on a question that House Guest columnist Wayne Powers asked Commissioner Harold Cogdell last week, when Powers was guest hosting WBT’s The Pete Kaliner Show. To wit: would the county be willing to sell some of its assets to help plug a projected $95 million budget gap? Predictably, […]
Taking lots of people for lots of rides, actually, and at an eye-popping annual cost of about $5-million for taxicab trips alone. It’s taken local attorney and always-vigilant House Guest columnist Tom Ashcraft months to pry loose details on the copious amounts of loot the Mecklenburg County Department of Social Services doled out for transportation […]
Words have meaning, especially when you’re talking about libraries. So how about rewording an uptown paper of record poll, posted in response to news that the county is closing 12 libraries and cutting 148 jobs because of budget cuts. The poll predictably asks: Would you be willing to pay higher taxes to keep libraries open? […]
Mecklenburg County commissioners will have to wield a double-edge sword as they carve their way through the budget process. First they need to trim about $20 million in cuts from the current-year budget to bring it in line with tumbling revenues; then turn around and plan for hacking up to $95 million in targeted cuts […]
