Your Asheville City Council spends a lot of time crafting a budget. We take our time because there are so many factors to consider. We need to balance quality of service, prudent capital investment, economic/community development, etc. while we weigh those factors against available revenues. So beginning at our annual retreat, Council members made their preferences plain, and then we had the opportunity to advocate for those preferences in the hope of finding majority approval. We held a number of work sessions and discussions in Council meetings where the budget was examined, and all Council members had opportunity to work cooperatively. So I was disappointed last night when a great deal of the cooperative work that Council and staff did over the last several months was attacked by Mayor Bellamy. Had anyone on Council been aware of her positions, we would have had time to deliberately examine them. Until last night, Mayor Bellamy hadn’t described any of her ideas to the rest of Council regarding a tax increase or deferred capital investment she would like to see to increase employee salaries an additional three or four percent.

Asheville’s fiscal house has just begun to stabilize after years of declining revenue, and projections of continued recovery are not equivalent to money in the bank. Playing fast and loose with the property tax rate is a fast way to lose the confidence of the electorate.

It’s been over ten years since the last property tax rate increase, and I’m open to the discussion. That discussion would include time for public input and would not occur mere weeks before we are mandated to have a balanced FY2012-13 budget completed. In order to further raise employee pay without a property tax increase, we will have to either pull money away from long neglected capital needs, like sidewalk maintenance or replacing an aging fleet of inefficient vehicles. I am also open to these discussions, and we have had several months during which it would have been most appropriate to have them.

I suggested last night that we create a multi-year plan to get our employee salaries to the state average for cities of our size. That plan could be implemented beginning next year. Further, if projected sales tax revenue increases materialize, you’ll find me in favor of getting our employees’ pay to an even better place later in this fiscal year. With that, AC-T:

Mayor Terry Bellamy made a passionate plea to council to go along with a motion by Councilman Chris Pelly to raise property taxes by one cent per $100 value. That, Pelly said, would generate $1 million in revenues — enough for a total raise of 3 percent raise.
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The measure failed, though, by a 4-3 votes. Bellamy, Pelly and Councilman Cecil Bothwell voted in favor of the tax increase, while Council members Esther Manheimer, Marc Hunt, Jan Davis and Gordon Smith voted no.
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“If you want it, you’re going to have to pay for it,” [Bothwell] said. “A penny, penny and a half, two cents (tax increase), that’s not a huge burden on people. Don’t let anybody fool you on that.”

Those voting no emphasized that they support a bigger raise for public safety employees, too, but they want to approach it methodically, not with a spur of the moment tax hike.

“I do feel it would be unfair to folks to increase their property taxes when that item is not even on the agenda,” Manheimer said.

Your Asheville City Council reconvenes on Tuesday for the first time in a month and with our full complement for the first time in over two months. There’s a lot going on, and I’d like to hear from you. After the fold you’ll find the agenda, and you can click here to see the agenda will all supporting documentation.

The Consent Agenda usually has items A through G or I or J. This week we’re going to O.

We’re going to hear about the APD Evidence Room Management Plan. There will be five public hearings including the 2012-2013 budget and whether to ban future billboards in Asheville. We’ll also vote on outside agency grants. Big doin’s. Please leave your questions, suggestions, requests, and concerns in the comments.

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