The Greensboro City Council is deep into the budget process, with a work session on Thursday, June 9 and one on Tuesday, June 14.
The normal budget process for the City Council is to have the city manager present the proposed budget in May and, during the budget work sessions, the City Council makes minor tweaks amounting to a few hundred thousand dollars in the more than half million dollar budget.
However, 2022 is far from a normal budget year and the City Council is considering major adjustments to the budget presented by City Manager Tai Jaiyeoba, which includes the equivalent of an 11-cent tax increase.
Mayor Nancy Vaughan sent an email to the senior city staff and city councilmembers on Tuesday, June 14 outlining some of the concerns and questions she has about the proposed budget.
Vaughan states, “I have always said that my main concerns are employee compensation and housing. I think this budget falls short on both of those items.”
“We must show our commitment to employee compensation and the best plan for retaining our employees and making us competitive in the marketplace. I do not believe we are meeting those objectives.”
Vaughan included a number of possible reductions in spending that would free up money for employee compensation increases. One is reducing the $12 million in the proposed budget for debt service for the $135 million in bonds that are on the July 26 ballot to $6 million. Vaughan in a telephone interview noted that it was unusual to fund bonds before they passed and even if all $135 million in bonds passes, the bonds won’t be sold immediately.
Vaughan also suggested the City Council consider using American Rescue Plan (ARP) funds for maintenance currently budgeted at $5.4 million and to purchase take home cars for the Police Department, which would take those expenditures out of the 2022-2023 budget.
Vaughan questioned the reasoning behind adding eight new positions to the Police Department when the Police Department is well over 100 officers short of its full authorization.
Vaughan said, “They have a lot of work to make it where I could support this budget.”
Vaughan stumping for votes.
Well, make it work so that you can get re-elected. Afterwards, it will be no-feasance as usual.
If this was not an election year then we would be paying the full amount of the new tax base. In statements some setting council members have stated that they are going to try and cut taxes… that cut is from the revaluation amount NOT the present tax rate. It is time for change, time to elect council members that will conserve tax payers money and go through the budget to spend tax payer money in a reasonable manner. Three candidates will do that, Katie Rossabi (at large), Tony Wilkins (Dist 5) and Thurston Reeder ( Dist 4).
More political pandering from the Mandate Mayor.
You go girl! Ha ha!
The county has managed to set property tax values at a point in time where home buyers appeared to have lost all reasoning and just made the home buying process a frenzied public auction. Multiple articles have recently suggested that buyers in Raleigh, Charlotte, and Greensboro paid as much as 50% over the true value of a home. So, if that is true, and I suspect it is, property tax values are also grossly over-valued. The stock market is crashing, inflation is at record highs, food shortages are being predicted, and companies are starting to, or at least thinking about cutting expenses which means layoffs or pay cuts, and the lenders have fully exposed themselves again. In case you missed it, this looks a lot like 2008 and maybe worse. Tough times appear to be ahead and many people have just made a huge investment in the city and/or county by buying an overpriced home that they may not be able to sell and recover their investments in the short term. If the economy continues to crater, jobs are lost and incomes are reduced, many of these homes could well end up on the edge of foreclosure. That additional tax they are considering might well be what puts people over the edge.
The city and the county are both looking at their current tax rates and thinking about all the wonderful things they can do with all that “found money”. It would appear to me that they like any other big corporation should open their eyes and prepare as any other large employer must be doing at this time. Decide what is critical and what is not critical….and dare I say it….what might be best just to cut out of the budget.
Hello Nancy-propose a true take home car program. Have the police department figure out how many vehicles they are short and buy those vehicle. A five year car plan to get everyone a take home car and a two year plan to get compensation for starting officers to what everyone else makes now is ludicrous. The vacancies are only increasing.
So now I see she voted to cut the $1 million from the police department.