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Council Questions City Budget Plan: Proposed Tax Increase Has Members Asking About Spending

Posted on: Thursday, 18 May 2006, 12:04 CDT

By Greg Lacour, The Charlotte Observer, N.C.

May 18--Charlotte City Council members will likely have to spend more time talking about the city's 2006-07 budget than they'd planned.

A workshop Wednesday produced questions from council members about spending in City Manager Pam Syfert's budget proposal, but no firm suggestions on what to cut.

And at meeting's end, council members had more questions, leading Mayor Pat McCrory to suggest two more workshops instead of one before the council adopts a budget June 12.

Members have more reason than usual this year to question spending. The proposal contains an 11-percent increase in the property tax rate, from 42 cents per $100 to 46.5 cents.

The money raised by the proposed tax increase would pay mostly for road projects, street resurfacing and extra police. But most council questions centered on other items, including these:

-- The proposal contains an expense of $7.95 million -- up from $7.1 million this year -- to pay for health insurance for retired employees. About 61 percent are retired from the police and fire departments.

In addition, Syfert said, the city expects to pay $2.8 million to meet a state law that requires local governments to cover early retirees from law enforcement who don't yet qualify for Social Security.

Council member John Lassiter, a Republican, questioned whether the system encourages early retirement and ends up costing taxpayers. "I can't disagree with that," Syfert replied.

"How many people are retiring from the Police Department from the ages of 50 to 65 who we're having to replace with new officers?" Lassiter asked. (The earliest possible retirement age is 55.) "It's breaking the banks of local governments and driving out experienced people, which is the worst thing for law enforcement ... We've got to figure out how to fix it." Administrators said they'd look into it.

-- The proposal budgets $1.2 million for six separate after-school programs; the city would pay $409,000 of that, with the rest funded through federal block grants.

Syfert said she's discussed with Mecklenburg County the possibility of the county picking up the city's funding, with no resolution. "I will tell you, I don't think there's a lot of interest," she told council members. "Maybe the council just needs to say, 'We don't want to fund after-school anymore.' "

-- McCrory asked if the city could use the Charlotte-Mecklenburg police crime lab as a money-maker.

The department's crime lab is the only option in North Carolina to the state's crime lab in Raleigh, which is notorious for backlogs.

Departments in four Mecklenburg towns -- Pineville, Huntersville, Davidson and Cornelius -- contract with the city to use its crime lab at $173 per hour. The contracts have pulled in $22,489 so far this fiscal year.

"Can we expand that?" McCrory asked. Syfert said the city could examine marketing possibilities for the lab.

Greg Lacour: (704) 358-5067

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Charlotte Observer, N.C.

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Source: The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.)

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