GSO Mayor Yvonne Johnson wants to hold the line on city taxes for next year.Smart.
Today's News & Record:
Citing the tough financial times, Mayor Yvonne Johnson said she doesn’t want to increase taxes next year.
At the City Council meeting Tuesday night, Johnson asked the city manager to develop the 2009-10 budget with no additional taxes.
If the request is formally adopted by the City Council, this would be the second year in a row that the council did not increase taxes.
Last year, the City Council had to cut $7 million to approve a hold-the-line budget.
This year, the city will host meetings for residents to talk about what their budget priorities are for the coming year.
“We’re in this together,” Mayor Johnson said. “It is going to take all of us.”
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But keep in mind that this council and this mayor need to urgently urgently come up with some sort of local jobs stimulus plan for our city. Our economic development heads clearly are not getting the job done.
Case in point...while reading this past Sunday's News & Record's Life section, reporter Robert Lopez discussed his experience of his wife moving here and unable to seek employment following Lopez's joining the paper last year:
We in the newspaper industry certainly haven't been immune to the belt-tightening. I moved to Greensboro last February to take a job as a features reporter at the News & Record. I had previously worked for two years at a newspaper in Beaumont, Texas.My job here has treated me well, my paycheck having grown a little fatter when I made the move. But my wife, Lana, and I still took a financial hit, mainly because I'm the only breadwinner in the house -- well, apartment, as we're still trying to save for a down payment and waiting for the housing market to bottom out.
Lana joined me in Greensboro in March and has been looking for a job since. She's tried applying at schools, government offices, call centers, stores, restaurants and staffing agencies, the last of which I wouldn't recommend for anyone unless they enjoy jumping through hoops for a chance at a mediocre-paying job. She's received a few callbacks, but thus far no wages.
Greensboro cannot become an unwelcoming community where jobs are not plentiful and we shut the door on those wanting to move here and to make a better life. We already have a severe brain-drain problem.
Simple equation...we're losing our revenues because we have no more sustaining jobs to enhance those previously-plentiful revenues.
And I have yet to hear from anyone on council, or our mayor talk about jobs...to the level where something will have to be done, and fast.
E.C. :)
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1 comment:
No tax increase sounds good to the taxpayer, I know, I am one. But I'm also a businessman. We must all keep in mind that just as in our personal lives, the cost of everything has gone up that the city buys too. The price of metal for trucks and equipment, the price of paving materials, materials for infrastructure, etc... Therefore, no tax increase, as with last year also means budget cuts. In order to meet no tax increase there is eventually going to have to be an impact to level of service the resident receives. You are right, if we want to maintain our current level of service the focus should be on recruiting quality employers to stimulate the tax base.
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