There were recently a few stories that cast a highlight on serious mistakes made by the city of Greensboro and Guilford County.
The state Local Government Commission has issued a warning to the city of Greensboro because it has not been meeting the state’s fund balance requirements. That commission determines when local units of government can assume debt by issuing bonds.
George Hartzman says that the city got itself into this bind by raising dramatically the overall compensation paid to city employees over the last 6 years.
The second item concerns a baby who died of fentanyl overdose. The father had attempted to intervene with the county’s Child Protective Services to remove the child from his mother’s home because he knew there were drug problems. But the county failed to act. This is Skip Alston’s direct responsibility.
Third, Hartzman reports that both the city and the county have underfunded their retirees’ health obligations by massive amounts.
Every one of these three items is extremely serious. But the three items combined suggest our local government leaders have been shirking their responsibilities. They have been focusing on building empires and funding their various progressive/ socialist agenda items. But they are not attending properly to their basic functions.
They spend money in a cavalier fashion to the extent that they get themselves in trouble with the state. But they can’t even protect a baby raised by a mother who abuses drugs. This is what local voters have elected– over and over again.
Both Greensboro and Guilford have been spending way too much on salaried employees and other on frivolous projects and I trust this report gets their attention which will results in cutbacks.
I hope so, Fred. Their default position is to raise taxes, so homeowners will have to wait to see what they do to us time and again.