In the wake of the wrist-slap the city has received from the state of North Carolina for its incompetent budget practices, the city is now planning cuts so its financial reserves can be restored to the state’s benchmark level. The News and Record has the story.
In the past, city staff has recommended budget cuts for services that are popular with the general public to force the city council to back down when cuts are advocated, and to turn to tax hikes instead. However, in this instance, the city council has already raised taxes nearly 20 percent with the budget passed during June. Much of this additional money is to pay for city staff.
It will be interesting to see the specific cuts that will be recommended and/or adopted. Recall that the city generally does not fund the police department fully, and instead preferentially funds other city activities.
The city council will no doubt vote for tax hikes over meaningful cuts.
That is certainly the default mode, Fred. What a mess!