Local Tea Party Organization Encourages Turnout at Public Hearing
Common Americans United to Inspire OUR Nation (CAUTION) announced today that the organization is actively encouraging its members and fellow citizens to participate in the May 29, 2012 Public Hearing on the Preliminary FY2013 Operating Budget and FY2013-2017 Capital Investment Plan. The plan as proposed by the City Manager includes an 8.2% property tax increase as well as increases in water rates, solid waste disposal fees, and public transportation ticket cost.
CAUTION President Dennis Peterson voiced his opposition to the proposal, “Charlotte is already the highest taxed municipality in North Carolina. Adding to that burden, especially in this economic climate, and after an already flawed revaluation process, will simply not yield the positive economic results the manager expects from this budget.”
Peterson continued, “As we can learn from recent history, expenditures for the NASCAR Hall of Fame, US National Whitewater Center, and the CATS Blue Line have failed to meet expectations in revenue and economic development impact. The same lack of impact is to be expected from further expenditures on a streetcar line or amateur sports complex. The proposal has no guarantee of successfully restoring economic prosperity to troubled sections of the city, but is guaranteed to raise taxes for all residents and continue to negatively impact Charlotte’s competitiveness.”
CAUTION is calling on all concerned citizens to join together in opposition to the proposed budget. In addition to calling the Clerk’s office at 704-336-2248 to sign up to speak at Tuesday night’s hearing at the Government Center, the group also encourages calls and emails to be made to the Council Members expressing concerns over the matter. Council contact information can be found HERE.
The vote on the budget is scheduled for June 11.
“It’s” should be “its”.
The Charlotte Knights are not “amateur” baseball; they are a minor league professional team.
The CIP calls for converting Bojangles Arena into an amateur sports complex.
The construction of an Uptown baseball stadium is separate from the City Manager’s CIP proposal.
Corrected the typo…I always do that with “it’s” for some reason…
Dennis beat me to the explanation of the Bojangles upfit.
My biggest question there is why does the city need to own venues like this in the first place? If it is viable, just sell it off to a private investor.
For information on the City Manager’s CIP proposal – you can read the details here: http://charmeck.org/city/charlotte/Budget/Pages/CapitalBudget.aspx
The CRVA and City are also going to start hiding the NASCAR HOF numbers inside the greater CRVA numbers…..you will never again get to see how much of your tax dollars are getting flushed down the drain at the HOF…..instead, it will all be covered up.
But I don’t necessarily blame the CRVA – they have been established by state statute, essentially have to report to no one (and as seen by events of the Tim Newman tenure, that kind of thing leads to rogue agencies), and there’s nothing any of us can do about it.
So, City Council, don’t settle for an 8 cent tax increase…..really pound it to us…..jack us for a 25 cent increase so we can get the people in South Charlotte, Ballantyne, Myers Park, South Park REALLY riled up so we can break away from what is on the fast path to become “Detroit on the Catawba”.
Come on Democrats……do it big or don’t do it at all!!!!
As long as the tax rates are lower than Boston, New York, or L.A. they will continue to jack them up as we aren’t paying enough for being the denizens of a ‘World Class’ City.
http://charmeck.org/mecklenburg/county/CountyManagersOffice/OMB/Budget/Pages/2013FiscalYearBudget.aspx
For a copy of the budget. Incidentally a straw vote is scheduled for tommorrow…
INteresting that they want to spend 3 million on “enforced collections” of Property taxes.
AND – almost 9 million to “business development” – who are these people? Can anyone find out before tonight?
BUSINESS INVESTMENT GRANTS (EDO) 4,024,719 116.3%
CHARLOTTE REGIONAL PARTNERSHIP (EDO) 199,034 33.5%
DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENTS (EDO) 3,968,040 -7.9%
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (EDO) 136,303 6.6%
MWSBE (EDO) 117,054 4.9%
ACC FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS (EDO) 0 250,000 100.0%
Total: 6,555,898 8,695,150 32.6%
Thanks to all those members of CAUTION who spoke out against the proposed property tax increase last night. Many, many valid points were made in opposition, although it’s doubtful anyone on the dais will take heed. Oral arguments in a case rarely persuade judges to one side or the other because their minds have usually already been made up based on earlier briefs or motions. Maybe the minds of the City Council members were left unchanged by the reasoned arguments in opposition, but hopefully someone in the audience, or someone watching at home, had second thoughts about their support for this massive $1.97 Billion dollar budget.
Also, I returned home in time to hear the Mayor make some extremely misleading comments about the speakers in opposition. He failed to actually address the legitimate concerns raised, instead he diverted attention by claiming that we shouldn’t be opposed to improving infrastructure to maintain our AAA bond rating. I didn’t hear every single person speak last night, but I think it’s safe to say not one single person who spoke in opposition was speaking out against legitimate spending to improve roads, bridges, telecommunication lines, street signs, sewer/water, etc. I personally referenced two random items being funded to the tune of over $300K – $282K for the Police Activities League, and $50K for the Charlotte Regional Partnership’s Film Commission. I would love for the Mayor to explain to me how either of these items are related to “infrastructure improvements.”