It’s a sign of the times that the Greensboro City Council could vote to put $135 million in bonds on the ballot without discussion.

But at the Tuesday, April 19 meeting that is what happened.  After reading the agenda item, Mayor Nancy Vaughan noted that this was simply an update to reflect the new date for the referendum.

Of course, the City Council voted on March 15 to take the $135 million in bonds off the ballot without much discussion, so not discussing putting them back on the ballot seemed fitting.

The City Council agreed to place a referendum for $135 million in bonds on the ballot at the same time as the 2021 City Council general election in August 2021.

All of the changes since then have been the result of the City Council trying to hit a moving target, that target being the date of the City Council general election.

When the City Council passed the resolution setting the date for the bond referendum, the City Council general election was scheduled to be held either on April 26 or May 17.  But the NC Supreme Court postponed the primary from March 8 to May 17, with the City Council general election as the date of the runoff primary, either July 5 or July 26.  Evidently someone in Raleigh realized that holding runoff primaries and municipal general elections on July 5 would result in embarrassingly low voter turnout and the date was set for July 26.

What the City Council did last week was finally set the date for the bond referendum for July 26.

The resolution placed four bonds on the ballot and voters will be able to vote “Yes” or “No” on each bond.

The breakdown of the $135 million bond package is: $30 million in Housing Bonds, $70 million in Parks and Recreation Bonds, $14 million in Firefighting Facilities Bonds, $6 million in Law Enforcement Facility Bonds and $15 million in Transportation Bonds.

Greensboro voters traditionally pass Parks and Recreation Bonds.  However, this bond is somewhat different in that the City Council has said that $50 million of the $70 million bond is to be spent on combining the Windsor Recreation Center and the Vance-Chavis Library into one facility.