Monday, May 24, 2010

County budget: what would you cut, spare?

With three weeks to go until Mecklenburg County commissioners are expected to vote on a 2010-11 budget, board members have a series of questions to sort out.

Among the biggest ones: 1) Should the county cut less from the libraries, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools or other services? 2) Are there any areas that should be cut deeper than the manager's recommendation?

Tell us what you think. The county has posted the recommended budget on its web site, including breaking down the document in easy-to-digest chunks.

Perhaps the best one is the "Budget Overview," which you can read by clicking here.

It has a line item list of county program and service areas, a breakdown of whether the county has any flexibility in providing that service and/or its funding level, the recommended funding for education and non-profit agencies, and details of what jobs could be cut in the budget.

Are there any expenses that deserve better scrutiny? We're hoping to take a look at your ideas and those proposed in March in the coming weeks.

Commissioners are scheduled to approve the budget June 15. In the coming weeks, they'll host a series of budget workshops and, on Thursday, a public hearing.

The hearing is set for 6 p.m. Thursday in the chamber of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center, 600 E. Fourth St. To speak at the hearing, call 704-336-2086 or click here. -- APRIL BETHEA

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

cut all school funding needed. I dont even like any of the CMS kids anyways they all are entitled.

Anonymous said...

How about cutting the taxi subsidy for DSS that totaled in the millions last year?

Anonymous said...

Cut the DSS people at the hospitals that tell the illegals they do not have to pay their bills. Cut the DSS taxis. Cut the DSS people that take new enrollments. Cut FOCUS schools to 125% of average of system per pupil spending. Retain libraries to the level of maintaining all branches but at reduced hours as is now but cut other programs and services. Retain buying new materials but at 50% reduction. I woudl rather save libraries and give higher cuts to DSS and CMS. It takes so little to preserve the libraries compared to how little benfit you get for extra dollars at DSS and CMS.

barkomomma said...

How about a garage sale?

Start with the arena, lite rail, Nice-Car hall....

Anonymous said...

Libraries are low-hanging fruit. Start there and elimiinate all of them

Anonymous said...

Not only does DSS spend hundreds of thousands on taxis, our on 'pete' at CMS spends a couple hundred thousand on taxis for students. In addition to a bloated school bus department with single digit ridership on some some buses they also spend hundred of thousands of dollars on taxis. Pete never mentions cutting that.. just teachers. Lets ask the State BOE to take over the running of CMS and take it away from our local BOE